Sustainability

Bristol Community College is a signatory to the American College and University President’s Climate Committee and such is actively committed to sustainability throughout all areas of the college.

John J. Sbrega Health and Science Building

The new John J. Sbrega Health and Science Building at the Bristol Community College Fall River Campus has garnered praise from the scientific community and region from its groundbreaking to its ribbon-cutting.

Read up on the science of the zero net energy building here.

3.2 MW Solar Parking Canopy

Bristol Community College and its partners unveiled New England’s largest solar parking canopy in August of 2015, a 3.2 megawatt solar array covering 800-parking spaces on five acres of the College’s Fall River Campus.

Learn more about this innovative structure.

Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

Bristol Community College has a total of 11 electric vehicle (EV) Level 2 charging stations located under the solar canopies. The EV charging stations each have two ports and offer charging for up to 22 electric vehicles. Ten charging stations are located at the south end of parking lots 8 and 9 and one charging station is located at the north end of solar canopy 7.

Bristol partnered with National Grid, and RISE Engineering to receive incentives for the infrastructure and equipment. The college was also fortunate to receive a $50,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection under the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive and Public Access Charging Programs.

All charging ports are free to use. The 10 EV stations at Lots 8 and 9 require users to have a ChargePoint account. Electric vehicle users can register for a Charge Point account, free of charge at https://na.chargepoint.com/signup/profile.

Water Bottle Filling Stations

Bristol has installed sustainable bottle fill stations at all campuses.  The sensor activation allows for touchless operations, providing a clean fill for all uses. The bottle fill station reduces plastic bottle waste in the environment. Most units even include a “Green Counter” which informs users of the number of bottles saved from waste.

 

Recycling Efforts Campus Wide

Recyclable materials are collected throughout all buildings on campus by way of strategically placed containers. Custodial staff then collect all recyclables from within buildings and along with the Grounds staff, bring these materials to the appropriate containers in the storage yard. These materials are then picked up on a regularly scheduled basis and processed by a local waste services company for processing.

Recycling is something that all Facilities staff members take very seriously, many man hours are dedicated to facilitate this work.

• Cans, Bottles, and Plastics are stored in 30 Yard container with an on call pickup.
• Paper is recycled using 90 gallon totes that are picked up by a curbside truck 2-3 times per month.
• Cardboard is placed in a 10 yard container that is emptied once a week
• All lawn and leaf debris produced by the Grounds department is composted. This organically rich material is then used by the Grounds department as a soil amendment for various landscape projects around campus.
• All hazardous waste produced by the College, (fluorescent tubes, ballast, batteries, computer hardware etc.), is handled through various vendors under state contract.
• Cooking oil from both the culinary arts program and our food services contractor is collected and recycled thru a partnership with Newport Biodiesel.
• Students in environmental courses collect vegetable waste and coffee grounds from our food service providers and deliver this material into compost bins which removes the waste from our trash stream and recycles it into compost.

• All scrap metals, (old furniture, cabinets, etc.) is collected and recycled thru a partnership with Mid City Scrap Iron.

More Sustainability Information

Greenhouse Gas Reporting - You can learn about Bristol greenhouse gas reporting here.