“This program is an effort to continue encouraging student engagement and exploration in sustainability research, on campus and beyond,” Campus Sustainability Director Jennifer Battle said in a statement.

This is the program’s second year, said Campus Sustainability Administrative Assistant Lisa Desprez.

“Last year, we funded 16 projects for about $70,000,” Desprez said. “We also helped the MSU chapter of the U.S. Green Buildings Council go to their annual conference.”

The fund is open to supervised-individual students, registered student organizations and MSU academic units. The Office of Campus Sustainability keeps up with the projects by requiring presentations, she said.

“There’s a variety of projects, some completed, some still ongoing,” Desprez said. “We’ve funded a more sustainable pathway for stormwater and a project for going green on game days, for example.

One project that received funds last spring was a composting effort from fisheries and wildlife sophomore Liz Brajevich.

“We get prep waste from Brody cafeteria — fruit and vegetable scraps and coffee grounds,” Brajevich explained. “Then we feed the scraps to worms in the Bailey Hoophouse. We’ve got 10,000 red wiggler worms that break down waste for compost.”

So far, more than 600 pounds of food waste has been composted, and the project still is going strong, Brajevich said. She also has used some of her funding for promotional materials to raise student awareness about the project.

“We’ve only used about half the funds, and we eventually hope the project will be economically self-sufficient,” she said. “We can hopefully sell worm castings as fertilizer to continue to support the project.”

Horticulture graduate research assistant James Coletta helped use funding to develop a walkable campus tour with interpretive signs providing information about the different ways MSU works to improve water quality for the Red Cedar River.

“The signs have information that’s accessible to a wide audience, as to educate students, the surrounding community and visitors to campus,” Coletta said in an email.

The end product will be an online map, brochures and signage at seven locations on campus. The brochures and websites are completed, and the signs are in their final edits. Once completed, they’ll be printed and installed by the end of October, Coletta said.

The Office of Campus Sustainability only has received two applications for this academic year.