UMass Amherst Achieves Gold Certification in Green Grounds Initiative
UMass Amherst recently earned Gold level certification from the Re:wild Your Campus (RYC) Green Grounds program for its grounds-maintenance practices. The certification recognizes colleges and universities where at least 90% of managed areas are maintained without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. At UMass, that translates to over 1,000 acres managed by the Facilities Management Department.
“This certification speaks to our commitment to sustainability,” says Pam Monn, associate director of grounds, special projects and events, who credits her crew of 34 full-time landscape management staff who are responsible for everything from lawn maintenance and snow removal to caring for trees, shrubs and flowers.
The landscape management team also includes students who have worked on an array of projects, such as mapping, tree care, planting-bed maintenance and general landscaping. “They bring a fresh perspective and new interests. They ask great questions and challenge us to improve,” Monn says.
Recent campus sustainability efforts include increasing the number of native species and pollinator-friendly plants on campus, embracing the use of alternatives to toxic chemicals for fertilization and pest management, promoting soil health and transitioning from gas-powered to electric maintenance equipment when feasible.
“At the microlevel, it’s aesthetics – enjoying and experiencing the campus landscape, but at the other end of that also is remembering our mission of education and research,” Monn says of the university’s approach grounds maintenance.
She points to efforts to enhance the biodiversity of campus by adding new plant and tree species and working with the multiple university stakeholders to refine landscaping practices. Those partners include the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and its Turfgrass Science Program, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Plant and Soil Sciences Program and the UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program. Monn says such efforts are buoyed by the fact that many on the facilities management team are UMass graduates who draw on faculty expertise to improve their processes.
To attain RYC Gold Certification, colleges and universities must demonstrate that they are actively working to increase the presence of native plants on campus, reducing water use through landscape management and replacing synthetic lawn and pest treatments with organic alternatives. There are four levels of certification: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
The RYC certification program grew out of conversations with industry experts, groundskeepers, students and sustainability professionals. It goes beyond reducing pesticides to incentivizing regenerative land-care practices that will increase biodiversity, conserve water, improve soil health and take campus sustainability efforts to the next level.