New Hand Dryers for a Sustainable Campus

Hand Dryers for a Sustainable Campus

Installing the Dyson Airblade V during the renovation of a campus building and relocation of the admission center allowed Boston University to greatly reduce landfill waste and further their mission of sustainability.

Chartered in 1869, Boston University (BU) is one of the nation’s largest private urban research universities. With over 33,000 students, nearly 10,000 staff and 17 schools and colleges offering 250 fields of study, BU ranks in the top 50 of U.S. News & World Report ’s annual ranking of the nation’s top universities.

Boston University’s aim is to drive change on campus and integrate sustainability into existing education, research and operations programs to reduce energy consumption and decrease waste across its two campuses. With the Facilities Management & Planning department, the initiative aims to improve the sustainability of existing campus buildings, renovations and new construction.

To improve a prospective student’s experience with a larger, more technologically advanced space, BU decided to renovate an existing campus building and relocate its admission center there. To support their mission of sustainability at the Leventhal Center, the university decided to try the Dyson Airblade V hand dryer in four of the admission center restrooms.

In the four restrooms with Airblade™ technology, paper towels were not installed as a hand drying option, therefore reducing the waste that’s generated from paper towels. Assuming that an estimated 70,000 annual visitors to the Leventhal Center use the Dyson Airblade hand dryer instead of paper towels, over 140,000 paper towels would be saved from going into a landfill annually.

www.dysonairblade.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator

    From Concrete Warehouse to Innovation Hub: Accelerating Sustainability at Stanford

    The transformation of a once windowless, concrete publishing warehouse into a sun-drenched center for global innovation began with a single, fundamental challenge: how to turn an industrial storage shell into a space built for human connection.

  • CU-Lock Haven Receives $1.75M Gift for New Entrepreneurship, Media Center

    Commonwealth University-Lock Haven in Lock Haven, Penn., recently received a $1.75-million donation from entrepreneur and alumnus Nicholas Subich ’17, according to a university news release. The funds will go toward establishing the Nicholas Subich Center for Entrepreneurship and Media, a technology-driven hub for innovation and experiential learning.

  • Academy of Classical Education Breaks Ground in Louisiana

    Charter Schools USA (CSUSA) recently announced the groundbreaking of a new public charter school in Covington, La., according to a news release. The Academy of Classical Education at Covington will enroll students in grades K–8 and is scheduled for completion in August 2026, just in time for the new school year.

  • Arlington High School

    Arlington High School

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. Arlington High School has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of New Construction.