editor’s note: this is the second piece in our weeklong series, the stories of alaska: sustainability and resilience on a grand scale, from our storyfest 2018 winners, who traveled to alaska with lindblad expeditions and alaska airlines this summer. click though to alex’s story below, where you can watch a video documenting the resilience he discovered in the 49th state, and read his blog about his 8-day experience aboard the national geographic sea lion.

in february 2018, the george washington university’s office of sustainability and campaign gw embarked upon a new, risk-taking endeavor to expand access to composting and sustainable food waste across its foggy bottom campus. what emerged was the first university-sponsored composting initiative to date, bringing together nearly a hundred students and volunteers and highlighting the essential need for responsible and environmentally-conscious food waste collection. the compost that is collected in kogan plaza is then taken to the prince george’s county organics compost facility where it undergoes large scale treatment and processing in order to ultimately produce compost that is then shipped all across the state of maryland and beyond.