Stanford University Hoover Tower. Completed in 1941, the 50th year of Stanford University's anniversary, the tower was inspired by the cathedral tower in Salamanca, Spain

The California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) recently recognized Stanford University with three best practice awards.

One award was given to Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) for its Green Cleaning initiative. According to Sustainable Stanford reporting, the cleaning program uses a chemical-free, ozone-based solution created by infusing cold tap water with electricity. That cleaning system is currently used in 32 campus residences.

The My Cardinal Green program was also recognized with an award at the CHESC event, as well as the Sustainable IT program, which offers virtualization and relocation options for energy-intensive servers that can consume up to 41 percent of a building’s electricity usage.

In addition, the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) recently honored the My Cardinal Green program with a 2018 Sustainable Campus Excellence Award. Presented at the ISCN annual conference in Stockholm, Sweden, the award recognized My Cardinal Green in the Campus Planning and Management Systems category for its efforts to motivate and measure campus engagement in sustainability.

The initiatives are part of Sustainable Stanford, which is a university-wide effort to reduce the university’s environmental impact, preserve resources and show sustainability in action.

The Office of Sustainability and Business Services, in the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management, connects campus departments and organizations and works with them to steer sustainability-specific initiatives and serves as the hub of Sustainable Stanford programming.

Business office services to support sustainability programming is offered with a focus across seven areas: infrastructural planning support; assessments, evaluations, and reporting; business systems; conservation programs; communications, training, and education; collaborative governance; and organizational effectiveness.

Click here to read more about these programs.