A group of Florida State University employees has earned a 2023 TaxWatch Government Productivity Award for implementing a program that sees its office produce zero waste.
The six-member team earned the recognition in large part for their work based in the Sliger Building, which houses FSU’s Data Center Services and the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center.
TaxWatch bestows its annual awards on state agencies, employees and workgroups that find ways to improve services, increase efficiencies and save Florida taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Ten groups across Florida earned awards this year.
FSU’s group bills itself as “The Sustainable Green Team.” Members acknowledged by TaxWatch are Daynah Blake and Will Hill of the RIDER Center, Amy Finley and Kev Sullivan of the Center for Information Management and Educational Services, Dina Vyortkina of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences and team leader Mitch Gans of the Research Computing Center in FSU’s Information Technology Services.
Gans said he is thrilled with the win — the team’s second consecutive such honor from TaxWatch — and that credit is shared across campus.
“This began with us looking to recycle plastic, six-pack can rings about three years ago,” he said, noting the early response was encouraging. “We got excited and started telling our friends, our family and our colleagues across campus. Then we started looking for other problems we might be able to solve.”
That effort has ballooned to include Styrofoam, toothbrushes, cardboard, plastics, even linoleum. The Sustainable Green Team counts numerous offices across FSU’s campus and in the community among its partners diverting waste from landfills.
“People started bringing their waste to us to the point that not only did we become zero waste, but we dispose of more than we produce,” Gans said. “Nothing is going to the dumpster.”
FSU Chief Information Officer Jonathan Fozard praised the team’s win and the collaborative effort that fueled it.
“It’s inspiring how groups and individuals have come together,” he said. “The team started both small in size and in collections and now the Sliger Data Center is a zero-waste center. They’re leading their peers in the effort for FSU to go green.”
The Sustainable Green Team next plans to diversify the materials it collects to include a campus-wide effort to recycle all printer toner materials.