Campus Services

In 1992, Vanderbilt University formally established the Vanderbilt University recycling program which has evolved and grown through the active involvement and participation of its student body, staff and faculty. In 2015, Vanderbilt recycled 8.7 million pounds of material, an increase of 13 percent over the year before and just over triple the volume since 2010.

The Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO) operates the university recycling program. We provide recycling services to campus academic and administrative buildings and manage recycling initiatives for large events such as student move-out, student move-in, Commencement, and athletics events. Vanderbilt accepts five major items through the main campus recycling program: paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, and glass. Non-traditional recycling is also available at specific locations across campus and includes ink/toner cartridges, batteries, light bulbs, scrap metal, etc. Locations of recycling centers for residential housing can be found here. To learn more about Vanderbilt’s recycling program, visit SustainVU Recycling Program.

With such a large community, Vanderbilt has the potential to generate large quantities of waste on a daily basis. In an effort to reduce the institution’s impact on the environment, Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to find ways to reuse, reduce waste and recycle.

• Reducing your consumption of resources and products, whether it is using a reusable coffee mug instead of a disposable one or printing double-sided copies to save paper, also reduces the amount of waste you produce.
• Reusing items that you might normally dispose is also a means of reducing waste generated.  Look for ways to repurpose items or for places to donate unwanted products so that others can reuse them.  Products that cannot be reused should be recycled whenever possible.
• Recycling involves taking used materials and making them into new products.  This process prevents the use of raw materials and reduces energy consumption and water and air pollution involved with the production and transportation of new items.  Recyclable materials include traditional items such as paper, aluminum, plastic, glass, and cardboard, as well as nontraditional items such as computers, electronics, toner cartridges, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs and much more!  Materials from campus that will be recycled are collected by recycling vendors and taken to a recycling center were they may be sorted, cleaned, and processed into new materials.

The storeroom strives to meet and, whenever possible, exceed customer service expectations. The storeroom maintains a catalog of 4,600 parts in stock, has the ability to find and purchase parts from anywhere in the world, and provides all the parts and supplies for the skilled trades staff that maintain Vanderbilt’s buildings. Stock level accuracy and inventory integrity is monitored via monthly cycle counts to minimize errors and emphasize the importance of using our systems and other business tools to track activity.

The Key Shop maintains all door hardware and locks as well as door signage for Vanderbilt University. Requested key pickup occurs at the Peabody Maintenance Building on Mondays Wednesdays & Fridays 9:00 am - 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm. 

The shop can provide the following services:

• Door, desk and cabinet lock installation and maintenance
• Panic hardware
• Door closers
• Automatic operators
• Access control systems
• Duplication of keys (with proper authorization)
• Re-keying of buildings, departments, and individual locks
• Building signage
• Exterior and parking lot signs
• Signs for special events

When a craftsman does work for you, they will leave a Service Notice to indicate they completed the work.

The moving crew handles the moving of items for most faculty and staff at the University as well as collection of surplus items to be delivered to the Surplus Program. They also handle set-up of chairs, tables, tents, etc. for special events such as The Party and Commencement. The Moving Crew is a fee-for-service operation, so there will be a charge for their services. 

The Pest Control team is certified to handle most pest control problems. All team members are certified by the State of Tennessee Department of Agriculture, either in structural pest control (i.e., general pest and rodent control), bird control, and/or wood destroying organisms.

Vanderbilt University practices Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which means that chemical applications are not the first line of defense to control insects and rodents. Instead, we use a combination of mechanical, sanitation, and exclusion methods to alter habitat and remove environmental conditions that would propagate a pest population. Only after these remedies are exhausted are pesticides or other chemicals used.