ReuseNU
Designing for Sustainable Habits at Northeastern University
ReuseNU is a design research initiative aimed at promoting more sustainable lifestyles among students at Northeastern University. Grounded in the urgent need to reduce irresponsible consumption and waste, our project examined behavioral patterns around ethical material use and waste management.
We found that while students are aware of sustainability issues, there’s a significant gap between what they know and how they act. Our solution: a system of reusable container stations, digital signage, and an incentive-based rewards program that aligns with student habits while nudging them toward more sustainable behaviors.
Click here to read the full pictorial paper for the project.
duration
Nov–Dec 2023
course
Research Methods for Design
areas
UX Research
collaborators
Yi-Ting Chen
Dharini Kamdar
Shashwat Navandar
The Starting Point
This project began as a design research investigation into Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, we explored Target 12.8 — how to promote universal understanding of sustainable lifestyles. Our aim was to examine how these global goals could translate into local, everyday behaviors—starting with students at Northeastern.
Why It Matters
High-income countries like the U.S. have a material footprint 10x larger than low-income nations.
At this pace, we’ll need three Earths by 2050 to sustain current lifestyles. This urgency makes college campuses critical spaces to shift mindsets and habits early.
Why Focus on Students?
Universities don’t just educate — they shape future decision-makers.
Northeastern has strong sustainability initiatives, but many students still act in ways that contradict them. We saw an opportunity to close that gap between intentions and actions.
In early discussions, we shared firsthand experiences of unsustainable habits across campus, like the sheer number of vendors handing out single-use utensils and bins being misused and overfilled.
Research Question
What factors in Northeastern students’ lives affect their knowledge and behaviors toward ethical consumption and waste management?
02 Research
Understanding the Problem
Defining research objectives, scope, target audience, and timeline
Conducting a literature review on sustainable consumption and behavior
Synthesizing existing insights to inform our methods
Ethnographic observations at Curry Market, I.V. Dining Hall, and other high-traffic areas
30+ student surveys with open and closed responses
4 in-depth interviews with sustainability stakeholders across campus
Observational Insights
Through campus observations at Curry Market, I.V. Dining Hall, and other high-traffic areas, we identified key patterns of irresponsible consumption and waste management.
Heavy reliance on single-use items, despite available reusables
Overflowing and misused waste bins, with frequent contamination
Sustainability signage often overlooked or unclear
Compositing efforts frequently undermined
Interviews
We interviewed 4 sustainability leaders at Northeastern, including the Director of the Climate Justice and Sustainability Hub, a climate justice fellow, and student leaders from sustainability initiatives. These conversations helped us understand the broader systems in place and the on-the-ground challenges of encouraging sustainable behaviors.
We learned about existing programs like composting initiatives, educational campaigns, and curriculum changes, as well as common barriers like convenience, unclear processes, and low student engagement. Each expert gave us valuable insight into how change happens—or doesn’t—at both institutional and student levels.
Student Surveys
We gathered responses from 30 Northeastern students (split across graduate and undergraduate, domestic and international) via email, social media, and posters. Most respondents were between 21–23 years old, with the majority living off-campus.
The survey gave us a snapshot of students’ sustainability habits, challenges, and values. Many reported efforts like mindful consumption and creative reuse, but also noted barriers such as limited information, financial constraints, and confusion around recycling and composting. Participation in campus sustainability events was generally low, though students shared suggestions for improving accessibility and outreach.
We also explored the psychological barriers behind inaction using the Dragons of Inaction framework. This helped us uncover the internal conflicts, perceptions, and motivations that often prevent students from following through on their sustainable intentions. The survey responses revealed clear patterns that deepened our understanding of why awareness doesn’t always lead to behavior change.
03 Analysis & Interpretation
Making Sense of the Data
We conducted a collaborative affinity diagramming session to synthesize insights from our interviews, surveys, and observations. Each team member contributed sticky notes summarizing key findings, which we then grouped into five core themes: student behaviors and attitudes, awareness and education, bin usage and contamination, organizational challenges, and current sustainability efforts. This process helped us visualize patterns, uncover connections between issues, and identify key opportunity areas for intervention.
Personas
To better understand our audience, we created 3 user personas based on patterns from our interviews, surveys, and observations. Each persona captures a distinct student perspective, complete with goals, behaviors, and pain points. Our aim was to reflect the diversity of the Northeastern student population in a way that felt both relatable and actionable.
Sahil is an international student who cares about the environment but struggles with confusion around differing sustainability practices between his home country and the U.S. He wants to live more sustainably but faces challenges due to limited awareness and competing priorities.
Sarah is a domestic undergraduate actively involved in campus sustainability initiatives. She’s passionate about environmental issues and aims to foster a culture of waste reduction and climate responsibility at Northeastern. She represents the highly engaged, sustainability-minded student.
Alex is a domestic student from Massachusetts who values convenience over sustainability. He’s not fully aware of the impact of his habits, like improper waste disposal, and represents a large group of students who are disengaged from environmental efforts.
Alex's Experience Journey
We created an experience journey map for Alex, our convenience-driven persona, to better understand the daily behaviors of a student not motivated by sustainability. Mapping his routine from morning to night helped us identify key moments of waste, habits driven by ease, and areas where sustainable alternatives could be introduced. While it was easy to outline his actions, understanding his mindset was more difficult, but that lack of awareness revealed meaningful insights about broader student behavior and design opportunities.
04 Ideation & Feedback
There’s a lot from this research phase I can’t share publicly, both to protect participant privacy and honor the sensitivity of their stories. But if you’re curious, I’d be more than happy to walk you through the process and insights in more detail.
Insights to Ideas
Based on patterns we uncovered, like the need for clearer feedback, more convenient options, and stronger motivation, we brainstormed and grouped ideas by theme: awareness, accessibility, and incentives. This led to ideas like a real-time sustainability display, discounts for using reusables, a Husky Card–linked tracking system, and a borrow-and-return program for containers — all designed to address the specific barriers we saw in our research.
Structuring the Solution
After generating a range of ideas, we began narrowing in on a single, cohesive direction. We realized that the most promising concepts could come together as a service built around three key phases: action, reward, and awareness. This framework allowed us to connect student behavior with tangible incentives and visible impact, aligning directly with the barriers and motivators we identified in our research. Our early sketches helped map out how this system could function in everyday campus life.
To bring our concept to life, we created a high-fidelity brochure that introduced the service as a student-facing rewards program. Designed as both an explainer and a call to action, the brochure outlined the core flow—take action, earn rewards, see your impact—in a clear, engaging format.
With the message “Ready to be part of the change?” it invited students to participate by using reusable containers, earning Husky Points, and redeeming them for low-waste rewards. A public leaderboard added a layer of visibility and motivation, helping to turn everyday choices into a shared, campus-wide effort.
Gathering Feedback
We shared our sketches, flow, and brochure with 7 Northeastern students, 3 undergrads and 4 grad students, to get feedback on clarity, appeal, and usability. Overall, the response was positive, with students appreciating the sustainability focus and reward system. A few key takeaways stood out:
Inconvenience of using and returning containers was a concern
Questions came up around sanitization and how returns would be tracked
One student suggested making reusables mandatory, but we explained our phased approach
Suggestions included clearer instructions, a more unified ReuseNU brand, and points for returning containers, not just using them
Most students said they’d be open to participating, and the feedback helped shape small but meaningful refinements to our final concept.
05 Proposed Solution
Introducing ReuseNU:
We didn’t want to just design a feature — we wanted to build a system that makes sustainable choices feel easy, rewarding, and collective. ReuseNU is a behavioral intervention that helps students build better habits without overhauling their routines. It's grounded in three key values that shaped every part of our solution from the flow of interactions to the tone of messaging.
These pillars focus on lowering the barrier to action, offering meaningful motivation, and making individual impact feel visible and shared:
Meet Students Where They’re At
We didn’t expect students to change everything overnight. Instead, we focused on low-barrier actions that slot into daily routines, like scanning a Husky Card or dropping off a container after class. The system rewards effort, not perfection.
Make It Feel Worth It
We know that motivation comes in many forms. By integrating gamified elements like points, badges, and tangible rewards, we aimed to create positive reinforcement that makes sustainable choices feel both rewarding and repeatable.
Show That It Matters
Sustainability efforts often feel invisible. Through campus-wide signage, progress dashboards, and storytelling, we designed for shared accountability and collective pride. The goal was to turn isolated actions into something students could feel part of.
1
Tracking Everyday Choices
When buying food on campus, students scan their Husky Card and select the type of container they’re using. Scanning happens at a kiosk, with an employee, or during an online order
Choose between:
Personal reusable container (+15 points)
Borrowed container (+5 points for use, +5 more for return)
Single-use container (0 points)
2
Rewarding Positive Choices
To keep things motivating, students earn points for choosing reusables, and can trade those points in for useful stuff.
Points are tracked in the Student Hub
Students can level up by earning badges for consistent habits
Rewards might include:
Reusable containers, bags, and utensils
Free food
Rewards are spaced out to encourage real change, not just quick wins. It’s designed to feel good and do good, without pushing overconsumption.
3
Returning Reusables
One of the biggest barriers to reusables is convenience. So we made returning borrowed containers and utensils easy.
Drop-off stations placed where students actually go
Returning a borrowed items completes the reward cycle
Reduces the friction that usually keeps people from participating
The goal is to make borrowing just as easy as tossing something out, but better for the planet.
4
Visualizing Impact
We wanted sustainability to feel collective, not just personal. So digital signage around campus makes progress visible.
Live stats on single-use vs. reusable use
A public leaderboard showing student impact
Info on how to join or improve your habits
Visuals that reinforce the idea that small actions matter
It turns reuse into something visible, social, and worth being proud of.
06 Reflection & Next Steps
ReuseNU pushed me to think beyond one-off features and taught me how to synthesize complex data, translate insights into action, and design systems that meet people where they are, not where we want them to be. It pushed me to balance behavioral theory with real-world constraints, and to think systemically about how design can shift everyday habits at scale.
Along the way, I strengthened my abilities in:
1
Translating Research
Synthesized qualitative and quantitative data into targeted design opportunities.
2
System Design Thinking
Built a solution that aligns with both user motivation and institutional goals.
3
Iterative Prototyping
Refined our intervention through real-world testing and continuous feedback.
4
Designing for Collective Impact
Encouraged individual habit shifts and shared responsibility
5
Storytelling Across Mediums
Created artifacts spanning digital, print, and physical touchpoints to communicate vision.
Next Steps
Pilot ReuseNU with Northeastern’s sustainability team to test implementation
Refine logistics around drop-off stations, scanning flow, and reward structure
Measure adoption and iterate based on student behavior and feedback
Scale system across campus dining and other high-waste zones
Explore long-term integration with existing programs like OZZI, the Husky Card system, and the NU Student Hub