Zero Waste Pilot Audit

Zero Waste Pilot Audit Final (click PDF)

Spring 2013

Team members: Katie Bailey, Anessa Caalim, George Hajjar, Caitlin Moniz, Adrian To

Under the leadership of the student-founders for the Zero Waste Athletics Campaign, Matt Boegner and Ashley Badesch, our group developed metrics for pilot audit, researched methods of waste audits, analyzed the pilot event’s performance, and translated our information into a useful report that will promote the expansion of the campaign to other venues and events. We observed the first larger-scale pilot audit hosted by Zero Waste Athletics (the Globetrotters basketball game), as well as visited Black Bear Composting to learn about the post-event trash and composting process. Overall, our group believes that the pilot audit at John Paul Jones Arena was a major success, but there is room for improvement. The Zero Waste Athletics Campaign is definitely ready to be implemented in larger-scale events on Grounds, with improvements, based on analyses of similar precedents and reflection on the pilot audit.

In summary, the Zero Waste Athletics Campaign aims to make the University a leader in sustainable practices by reducing the environmental impact of UVA athletic events. Pilot audits are conducted to experiment, on a small-scale, the effectiveness of a school’s campaign in reducing waste before determining a large-scale approach at waste reduction.