Sustainability Marketplace
The Sustainability Marketplace seeks to unify the various business endeavors managed by the Center for Sustainability and unify them in two campus locations. The Thrift Store/Used Bookstore, Food Pantry, Gear Garage, and Crimson Compost all operate out of Centennial Towers while the Bike Shop lives in Nagel Hall. Each of these acts as a ‘market’ with the goal of serving the DU community (and at times the greater Denver community) while embodying the same three core values: equity, accessibility, and affordability. By focusing on these three values, we are naturally able to promote all three pillars of sustainability - social, environmental, and economic.
Each market is designed to make items that are typically expensive available and easily accessible to everyone in the DU community. By doing this, we hope to improve equity at DU and ensure that anyone can make a choice that improves sustainability and quality of life.
DU Food Pantry
The DU Food Pantry is a free resource available to students, faculty, and staff who are experiencing food insecurity either as a singular event or as a chronic condition. The program is a supplementary food pantry to support those in need. The food pantry is currently closed as it is being moved to a more accessible location within the Community Commons. We will be launching our mobile food pantry soon, so keep an eye out for that initiative. If you would like more information about food pantry options in the Denver Metro area, please send us an email!
Learn more about how to use or donate to the Food Pantry.
DU Thrift Store
The Thrift Store is DU's first full-time market in which to purchase gently-used items that were donated by students and staff. The Center for Sustainability has been hosting pop-up Thrift Stores since 2018, but in 2021 we celebrated the grand opening of our brick-and-mortar location in Centennial Halls. This store seeks to provide low-cost clothes, kitchenware, decor, and other items essential to life in a residence hall to anyone in the DU community. Everything in the store was collected through the Moveout Donation Drive, which ensures that common items that students need at school are kept out of the landfill and easily placed in the hands of new people who need the items. The store rotates its inventory regularly, so come by to take a look, grab something new (to you)!
DU Bike Shop
The DU Bike Shop offers low-cost and free maintenance, diagnostics, and repairs on bikes for anyone in the DU community. Most of our services are free, and when you need a replacement part, you just pay what we paid for those parts. This model saves DU students and community members thousands of dollars every year, which means that keeping you on two wheels is more affordable than ever. Our highly-trained mechanics offer most basic services, from replacing a flat tube to full-tunes. We are located in the basement of Nagel Hall, with hours being updated every quarter. Come by and check us out!
Crimson Compost
Even while trying to improve our environmental impact on campus, the DU Center for Sustainability hopes to improve sustainability metrics for the City of Denver as well. The Crimson Compost program seeks to give access to commercial composting services that many students - particularly ones who live in apartment buildings - are not able to get from city. Students can sign up for monthly or annual subscriptions that give them access to a centrally-located compost dumpster. Their membership gives them a composting bucket, some compostable waste liners, and other welcome materials that will show them how to use the service and what they are allowed to compost with us.
Learn more and sign up today!
DU Gear Garage
The DU Gear Garage seeks to make recreating in the Rocky Mountains more accessible to students who may not have come to DU with a full closet of outdoor gear. We offer low-cost rentals of everything you'll need for your next backpacking, camping, or day-hiking adventure. From tents and sleeping bags to yard games and first-aid kits, we will have what you need to get to know the incredible landscape in our back yard.