Green Mountain College Enacts Bottled Water Ban

POULTNEY, VT — On August 15, Green Mountain College (GMC) will ban the sale of bottled water on its Poultney campus. Like many campus sustainability initiatives, the ban comes largely as a result of a student-led project.

Andrea Roebuck '14 consulted with the college’s sustainability coordinator Aaron Witham about the most effective way to go about banning the sale of bottled water. Roebuck’s concerns were economic (bottled water is more expensive than tap water) and environmental (only about 14 percent of plastic bottles make it into the recycling bin, and producing plastic bottles takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, according to the Earth Policy Institute).

Witham said Roebuck and other students were also concerned about the commodification of water, which is becoming an ever more precious resource.

“The more we buy and sell bottled water, the more we engage in a culture of treating water as a commodity, incentivizing businesses to extract it from the ground in one community and selling it elsewhere, with little benefit to the people or ecosystem in the community from which the water was extracted,” he says.

Roebuck met with campus stakeholders such as Chartwells, the college’s food service provider, other outside vendors and the college administration. She planned an event in the college’s Withey Student Center last November to raise awareness about the negative impacts of bottled water. The event included a blind taste test featuring bottled water and tap water. Students actually expressed a slight preference for the taste of tap water. Finally, she garnered 163 signatures in support of the ban. Over 25 percent of the residential student body signed the document.

Under Roebuck’s leadership, Chartwells agreed to stop selling bottled water in the dining hall. PepsiCo, which has an existing beverage contract with GMC, agreed to remove bottled water from its soda machines on campus and replace the product with healthier alternatives to regular soda, such as tea and seltzer water.

“With education as the primary focus of our business activity, Chartwells is committed to fostering and promoting sustainable business principles to the Green Mountain College community,” says Dave Ondria, director of dining at GMC. “Participating in the ban on bottled water is just one of the ways Chartwells has chosen to promote responsible and sustainable practices within our dining service.”

Featured

  • StarRez Releases 2025 State of Student Housing Report

    Student housing software solutions provider StarRez recently released its second State of the Student Housing Industry Report, according to a news release. The report is based on the results of survey data from more than 400 higher education institutions around the world, both StarRez clients and not.

  • AP Construction Breaks Ground on Two Projects for Austin ISD

    Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) recently announced that it has broken ground on two renovation projects for the Austin Independent School District, according to a news release. The work at McCallum and Anderson High Schools totals 97,350 square feet and is scheduled for completion in January 2027.

  • New Kent State Academic Building Earns LEED Silver Certification

    Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, recently announced that its newest academic building, Crawford Hall, has earned a LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a news release. The facility was recognized for its innovative design, water conservation technologies, energy-efficient systems, and sustainable construction materials, among other features.

  • Anderson Brulé Architects Rebrands as ABA Studios

    Anderson Brulé Architects, based in San Jose, Calif., recently announced that it is celebrating 40 years of service by rebranding under a new name, according to a news release. The architectural, interior design, and planning firm will now be known as ABA Studios to refresh its identity underneath a new generation of leadership.

Digital Edition