Campus Engagement
Introduction
Engaging in sustainability issues through co-curricular activities allows students to deepen and apply their understandings of sustainability principles. Institution-sponsored co-curricular sustainability offerings, often coordinated by student affairs offices, help integrate sustainability into the campus culture and set a positive tone for the institution. Faculty and staff members’ daily decisions impact an institution’s sustainability performance. Equipping faculty and staff with the tools, knowledge, and motivation to adopt behavior changes that promote sustainability is an essential activity of a sustainable campus.
Featured Resources
New Resources
Less & Better Meat in University Dining Services
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)
- Real Food Challenge (MA)
- Farm Forward (OR)
- Friends of the Earth (DC)
Reducing the quantity and improving the quality of the meat we eat can help mitigate climate change, improve our health, set a higher standard for the treatment of animals and ...
- Posted Dec. 1, 2017
- Conference Presentations
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Engaging Tech-Savvy Students in Curricular and Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs for Social and Environmental Change
- Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
- HTS Enterprise, LLC (GA)
Sustainability education can meaningfully build and enhance relationships with diverse stakeholders while engaging students in learning that promotes social and environmental change. Leaders from Georgia Tech will share their experiences ...
- Posted Dec. 1, 2017
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainability in Residential Life
- Concordia College (NY)
- New York University (NY)
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (IN)
Looking to build campus connections? Consider working with your institution's Residence Life Department! This session will highlight four different case studies of engagement with Residence Life, a department that ...
- Posted Dec. 1, 2017
- Conference Presentations
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Organizing for Sustainability: How Student Sustainability Groups Make a Difference
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
- The Ohio State University (OH)
- Trinity University (TX)
- University of Arizona (AZ)
- University of Northern Iowa (IA)
From clubs to official classes, internships to independent volunteering, students are often the primary drivers of campus sustainability efforts. Yet student organizations can also face real challenges, including group continuity ...
- Posted Dec. 1, 2017
- Conference Presentations
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A Journey to Real Food: Growing an Intersectional Food Movement through Student Involvement and Empowerment
- Fort Lewis College (CO)
- Gonzaga University (WA)
Empowered communities yield brilliant minds. Empowered, well fed communities allow for meaningful growth in all areas. The intersectional nature of sustainable food, thought, and community driven enterprises brought the Real ...
- Posted Dec. 1, 2017
- Conference Presentations
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Beyond the Right Thing to Do: The Value of Sustainability in Higher Education
- AASHE (MA)
This document is intended to help higher education sustainability practitioners more powerfully articulate the value of sustainability to higher education leaders as well as the general public. As different points ...
- Posted Nov. 28, 2017
- Publications
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Making College Affordable: Providing Low-Income Students With the Knowledge and Resources Needed to Pay for CollegeState Flagships
College can seem out of reach for many low-income students. Too often they believe college is unaffordable and unattainable. It is no surprise then that students from the bottom socioeconomic ...
- Posted Nov. 16, 2017
- Publications
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Is students’ energy literacy related to their university’s position in a sustainability ranking?
- University of Plymouth (Devon)
University rankings are increasingly important internationally, and in the UK include a sustainability ‘Green League’. However, there is little evidence about experiences of studying in ‘sustainable universities’. We report an ...
- Posted Nov. 7, 2017
- Publications
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Learning Our Way Toward Resilience
- Island Press (DC)
- Post Carbon Institute (OR)
This is an excerpt of Chapter 14 from The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval. Resilience education is about building our individual and community capacities to ...
- Posted Nov. 1, 2017
- Publications
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Engaging Stakeholders in Education for Sustainable Development at University Level
This book discusses the role of ESD stakeholders at university level, involving civil society and the private sector and public sectors (including local, national and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it ...
- Posted Nov. 1, 2017
- Publications
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Higher Education’s Anchor Mission: Measuring Place-Based Engagement
- University of Missouri-St. Louis (MO)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (VA)
- Drexel University (PA)
- Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark Campus (NJ)
- SUNY Buffalo State (NY)
- Cleveland State University (OH)
The report examines how an ongoing—and expanding—effort to track the impact of colleges and universities on the financial and social well-being of their surrounding neighborhoods is helping these ...
- Posted Oct. 25, 2017
- Publications
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Bates College Students Install Solar
- Bates College (ME)
Working with local solar installer Revision Energy, Bates College students work on the roof of our Shortridge Research Facility to install enough solar panels to cover 100% of the building ...
- Posted Oct. 20, 2017
- Photographs
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W&M Park Rx
- College of William & Mary (VA)
Madelyn Phillips, a Student Park Ambassador for the Campus Park Rx program at William & Mary, prescribes time outside to her fellow students with the goal of improving mental and ...
- Posted Oct. 20, 2017
- Photographs
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Fresh Press Paper Making
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (IL)
Two students prepare paper at the University of Illinois' Fresh Press Fiber Program.
- Posted Oct. 18, 2017
- Photographs
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UVM Eco-Reps educate peers about composting
- University of Vermont (VT)
All University of Vermont undergraduates now take at least one sustainability course, and 20 Eco-Reps extend that educational experience by teaching their peers sustainable behaviors as part of daily life ...
- Posted Oct. 14, 2017
- Photographs
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Macalester College highlighted in AASHE's 2017 Sustainable Campus Index!
- Macalester College (MN)
Caption: Kira Liu '17, left, and Emily Sylvestre '16, right, winterizing the bee hives with Pollinate Minnesota staff at Macalester College's Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area. The photo ...
- Posted Oct. 14, 2017
- Photographs
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JMU’s Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series Promotes Transformative Teaching and Learning in Research and Practice
- James Madison University (VA)
The Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series has brought together leading scholars, educators, and practitioners from around the world to address the crucial problems facing modern society.
- Posted Oct. 14, 2017
- Photographs
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Concordia Sustainability Action Fund and the Faculty of Arts & Science Sustainable Curriculum Project
- Concordia University (QC)
Sustainability Curriculum Co-Creation Teaching & Learning Festival
- Posted Oct. 14, 2017
- Photographs
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SOU Students Celebrating Arbor Day
- Southern Oregon University (OR)
SOU students and the community came together to celebrate Arbor Day and Bee Campus USA by planting 6,000 native plants for pollinators throughout campus.
- Posted Oct. 14, 2017
- Photographs
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Healthy Herd Team Facilitators
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)
The Healthy Herd Wellness Group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a staff-developed and managed program that goes well above and beyond a typical wellness initiative. The award-winning program incorporates nutrition ...
- Posted Oct. 12, 2017
- Photographs
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Stanford Be Cardinal Green photo
- Stanford University (CA)
Launched in April 2017 the My Cardinal Green individual action program at Stanford University provides an online engagement tool and incentive program to encourage conservation among the Stanford community.
- Posted Oct. 12, 2017
- Photographs
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Stanford 2017 Lab Swap Meet
- Stanford University (CA)
Stanford hosts a biannual lab swap meet that invites lab users to donate items no longer needed for their own research and find items of use donated by others.
- Posted Oct. 12, 2017
- Photographs
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Leadership in Environmental Stewardship E-badge at Central Community College, NE
- Central Community College (NE)
Speech faculty Brent Adrian showing students the campus bee hives.
- Posted Oct. 11, 2017
- Photographs
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Niagara College Sustainability Engagement
- Niagara College Canada (ON)
The following images depict various events and initiatives that take place at Niagara College that can be used towards students' Co-Curricular Records, and the LEAD Sustainability stream. These events include ...
- Posted Oct. 11, 2017
- Photographs
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NAU - Sustainable Campus Index - Bookstore Bag Pictures
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
Northern Arizona University’s Bookstore (operated by Follett) is the latest concessionaire to stop handing out plastic bags for retail operations, opting instead for a more environmentally friendly paper bag ...
- Posted Oct. 11, 2017
- Photographs
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Sustainability Scholar 2016 - University of Alberta
- University of Alberta (AB)
The Sustainability Scholars program provides University of Alberta graduate students opportunities to work on applied research projects with the City of Edmonton, campus units and other institutions. Successful projects provide ...
- Posted Oct. 10, 2017
- Photographs
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Sustainability Scholar 2015 - University of Alberta
- University of Alberta (AB)
Research Report - Executive Summary
The Sustainability Scholars program provides University of Alberta graduate students opportunities to work on applied research projects with the City of Edmonton, campus units and other ...
- Posted Oct. 10, 2017
- Photographs
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Cornell University Ithaca Campus: Energy Direct Billing
- Cornell University (NY)
A new Energy Direct Billing budget model went into effect at Cornell University in 2014, making each college/unit on campus responsible for its own utility bill. This model provides ...
- Posted Oct. 10, 2017
- Photographs
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Smith College Study Group on Climate Change
- Smith College (MA)
Here are several photos that we were utilized in the Report of the Smith College Study Group on Climate Change to illustrate campus work and initiatives in sustainability, including the ...
- Posted Oct. 10, 2017
- Photographs
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Loyola Chicago's Water Conservation Carnival
- Loyola University Chicago (IL)
As part of a water conservation grant, Loyola hosted a Water Conservation Carnival featuring the 97 year-old face of water conservation, Sr. Jean Schmidt. As part of the project, water ...
- Posted Oct. 9, 2017
- Photographs
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Core Concepts for Teaching Sustainability: Using “Tips” to Deepen Learning across the Disciplines, Grade Levels and Cultures
- Colorado State University (CO)
- AASHE (MA)
Sustainability is one of those big, complex concepts that defy easy definition or simple responses yet demand attention to our collective well-being. Some Native Americans would judge the worth of ...
- Posted Sept. 28, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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#EKULocal Festival
- Eastern Kentucky University (KY)
On September 7th, 2017, the Office of Sustainability at Eastern Kentucky University hosted its second annual #EKULocal Festival. The festival featured live music, fun activites, fresh produce, and a variety ...
- Posted Sept. 28, 2017
- Photographs
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Campus and Community Involvement in Move-Out Programs
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
- Wilfrid Laurier University (ON)
- AASHE (MA)
Classes end and our students vacate the rooms in their residence halls, cleaning up so that other students may become the new occupants. In the process, students discard lots of ...
- Posted Sept. 22, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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AASHE Award Winner Webinar – Generating and Maintaining Hope and Agency through Sustainability Education
- Colorado Mountain College (CO)
- AASHE (MA)
Indigenous educator Gregory Cajete articulates the motivations and questions that drive the presenter’s research. For Cajete, effective education entails ‘finding heart,’ an active process within and beyond the person ...
- Posted Sept. 14, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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University community responses to on-campus resource recycling
- Massey University
In order to gain a better understanding of the attitudes and behaviour of a campus community toward a university concourse-based recycling scheme, a survey of 1400 students and staff, at ...
- Posted Sept. 5, 2017
- Publications
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Embedding sustainability in higher education through interaction with lecturers: Case studies from three European technical universities
- Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
- Technische Universiteit Delft
- Chalmers University of Technology
In this paper, three universities compare their work on the integration of sustainable development into their educational programmes. The purpose is to show examples of how this can be done ...
- Posted Sept. 5, 2017
- Publications
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Preparing for Campus Sustainability Month 2017
- Arizona State University (AZ)
- Chemeketa Community College (OR)
- University of Nebraska at Omaha (NE)
- AASHE (MA)
October is Campus Sustainability Month! Watch this webinar to gain ideas and inspiration for how you can leverage CSM to engage and inspire incoming students and other campus stakeholders to ...
- Posted Aug. 31, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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The Alt-Right on Campus: What Students Need to Know
Taken from the Aug. 10, 2017 press release (linked at the bottom):
An old and familiar poison is being spread on college campuses these days: the idea that America should ...
- Posted Aug. 31, 2017
- Publications
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Fear Appeals and College Students’ Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Toward Global Warming
This study used Witte's extended parallel process model to examine the relationships between the use of fear appeals and college students’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward global warming. A ...
- Posted Aug. 28, 2017
- Publications
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Comparing different measures of affective attributes relating to sustainability
- University of Otago (Otago)
- Otago Polytechnic (Otago)
A survey was developed to benchmark the affective sustainability characteristics of an incoming cohort of students in a Polytechnic in New Zealand, with the intention to monitor changes in these ...
- Posted Aug. 28, 2017
- Publications
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Impact of a Wilderness Orientation Program on College Student's Life Effectiveness
Wilderness based outdoor orientation programs have been offered at colleges and universities to incoming freshmen since the 1930s. Although these programs appear to impact students in a positive way (e ...
- Posted Aug. 18, 2017
- Publications
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Paper Reduction at the University of Washington
- University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
- University of Washington, Bothell (WA)
- University of Washington, Tacoma (WA)
The University of Washington is committed to reducing paper consumption at the university and using paper made from recycled content when necessary. Learn more about why that's important with ...
- Posted Aug. 17, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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Fix It Friday promotional flyer
- Illinois State University (IL)
- Posted Aug. 15, 2017
- Photographs
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Greening the Heart of Postsecondary Education
- Royal Roads University (BC)
- AASHE (MA)
What does “greening the heart of education” look like at the postsecondary level? What are the big questions we must pose — and answer — if colleges and universities are to contribute ...
- Posted Aug. 3, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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Sustainable Business Courseware
- Point B (WA)
AASHE has partnered with Sustainable Business Consulting to provide plug-and-play online sustainable business courseware to help members accelerate the integration of sustainability into their curriculum. The content is consistent with ...
- Posted Aug. 2, 2017
- Course Materials
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The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions
Current anthropogenic climate change is the result of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere, which records the aggregation of billions of individual decisions. Here we consider a broad range of ...
- Posted July 13, 2017
- Publications
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Not Business as Usual: Fostering Civic Engagement on Climate Change
- AASHE (MA)
- U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development
- Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) (PA)
- Citizens' Climate Lobby (CA)
Scientists are in consensus that the world needs to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and this cannot be accomplished by ...
- Posted July 13, 2017
- Videos & Webinars
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Green Awakenings Report 2011: Identifying the assets and barriers to creation care on Christian campuses
- Baylor University (TX)
- Eastern University (PA)
- Renewal: Students Caring for Creation (MI)
- Gordon College (MA)
- Calvin University (MI)
- Abilene Christian University (TX)
- Messiah University (PA)
Renewal’s 2011 Green Awakenings: Digging Deeper explores the conditions that lead to the success or failure of creation care initiatives on Christian campuses. As Renewal has witnessed more engagement ...
- Posted June 26, 2017
- Publications
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Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Effectiveness of Community-Based Social Marketing on Energy Conservation for Sustainable University Campuses
- Emory University (GA)
- Kansas State University (KS)
The paper presents a community-based social marketing (CBSM) study that was conducted at Kansas State University (KSU) to determine potential strategies to decrease energy consumption on college campuses. The study ...
- Posted June 22, 2017
- Publications
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.
All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.
EN 1: Student Educators Program
- Percent of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program
- Description of the student educators program (1st program)
- Description of the student educators program (2nd program)
- Brief description of the student educators program (3rd program)
- Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per students served
- Website URL - Student sustainability educators programs
EN 2: Student Orientation
- Percent of entering students that have an opportunity to participate in sustainability-inclusive orientation activities and programming
- Description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation
- Website URL - Information about sustainability in student orientation
EN 3: Student Life
- Description of the active student groups focused on sustainability
- Description of student gardens, farms, CSAs, fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects
- Description of the student-run enterprises
- Description of student sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives
- Description of sustainability-focused conferences, speaker series, symposia, or similar events for students
- Description of sustainability-focused cultural arts events, installations, or performances
- Description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles
- Description of sustainability-focused themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences
- Description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills
- Description of sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution
- Description of graduation pledge(s)
- Description of other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives
EN 4: Student Life
- Website URL - Central sustainability website
- Description of sustainability newsletter or social media platform(s)
- Description of the signage that highlights campus sustainability features
- Description of the sustainability walking map or tour
- Description of the guide for green living and/or incorporating sustainability into the residential experience
- Description of other comprehensive sustainability outreach materials and publications
EN 5: Student Life
- Description of the first sustainability outreach campaign
- Description of the second sustainability outreach campaign
- Description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns
EN 6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
- Description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted
- Copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture (upload)
- Copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture (description)
- Website URL - Assessment of sustainability culture
EN 7: Employee Educators Program
- Percent of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program
- Description of the employee educators program (1st program)
- Description of the employee educators program (2nd program)
- Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employees served
- Website URL - Employee sustainability educators programs
EN 8: Employee Orientation
- Percent of new employees that have an opportunity to participate in sustainability-inclusive orientation activities and programming
- Description of how sustainability is included prominently in new employee orientation
- Website URL - Information about sustainability in employee orientation
EN 9: Staff Professional Development & Training
- Estimated percentage of regular, non-academic staff that participates annually in sustainability professional development and training
- Description of any internal sustainability professional development and training opportunities
- Description of any external professional development and training opportunities in sustainability that are supported by the institution
- Estimated percentage of staff for which sustainability is included in performance reviews
- Description of how sustainability is included in staff performance reviews
- Website URL - Information about staff professional development and training in sustainability
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.