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.

4175 resources

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 (PA)

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
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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
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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)

Greening the Heart of Postsecondary Education

  • Royal Roads University (BC)
  • AASHE (PA)

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 (PA)
  • 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
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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
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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
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What are the key elements of a sustainable university?

Nowadays, the principles of sustainable development are becoming increasingly important and universities are acting as agents in promoting these principles within society. In the future, universities will inevitably play crucial ...

  • Posted June 22, 2017
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Sustainability Leadership Programs: Emerging Goals, Methods & Best Practices

Colleges and universities are rushing to respond to an increasingly urgent challenge: developing the next generation of sustainability leaders. Although diverse in program design, teaching methodologies, assumptions, and skills taught ...

  • Posted June 20, 2017
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Qualifications for Contributing to Sustainable Development A Survey of Environmental Sciences Graduates

A survey of Environmental Sciences graduates from ETH Zurich was conducted to gain insights into their sustainability-oriented activities. 567 participants provided 672 concrete best-practice examples of their professional contributions to ...

  • Posted June 20, 2017
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Spreading the Eco-Message: Using Proactive Coping to Aid Eco-Rep Behavior Change Programming

  • George Mason University (VA)
  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Making pro-environmental behavior changes can be difficult, particularly when these changes challenge daily routines and comfortable lifestyles. We designed and implemented an eco-representative intervention program to help students reduce their ...

  • Posted June 20, 2017
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Influences on Student Intention and Behavior Toward Environmental Sustainability

As organizations place greater emphasis on environmental objectives, business educators must produce the next set of leaders who can champion corporate environmental sustainability initiatives. However, environmental sustainability represents a polarizing ...

  • Posted June 19, 2017
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Energy conservation attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors in science laboratories

  • Michigan State University (MI)

Energy use per square foot from science research labs is disproportionately higher than that of other rooms in buildings on campuses across the nation. This is partly due to labs ...

  • Posted June 19, 2017
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Analyzing Barriers to Energy Conservation in Residences and Offices: The Rewire Program at the University of Toronto

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
  • Yale University (CT)
  • University of Toronto (ON)

Conducting a barriers analysis is an important first step when designing proenvironmental behavior change interventions. Yet, detailed information on common barriers to energy conservation campaigns remains unavailable. Using a pair ...


Personal authenticity and political subjectivity in student deliberation in environmental and sustainability education

This study problematizes what is meant when one talks about classroom activities concerning environmental and sustainability issues as being authentic or not. It reports excerpts from three classroom discussions which ...


The relationship between university students’ environmental identity, decision-making process, and behavior

Environmental education scholars have argued for the need to focus on identity as a more predictive factor than attitude of individuals’ environmental behavior. We examine individuals’ decision-making as a mediating ...


Earthday at Universidad de Monterrey

  • Universidad de Monterrey

Put a Price on It: Bringing Higher Education into the Carbon Pricing Dialog

  • Swarthmore College (PA)
  • AASHE (PA)

This webinar explores the role of institutions of higher education in the emerging national carbon pricing dialog. Institutions of higher education have an immense capacity to educate a broad audience ...

  • Posted May 25, 2017
  • Videos & Webinars
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NYU Celebrates Earth Month

  • New York University (NY)

UCI celebrates Bike Month

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)

GVSU Bike Safety Course for National Bike Month

  • Grand Valley State University (MI)
  • League of American Bicyclists (DC)

This lunch and learn serves as a 45 minute introduction to safe and knowledgeable bicycling. The discussion is led by instructors certified by the League of American Bicyclists (LCIs) and ...


Sustainability on the Other Side of the Stacks An embedded librarian in the Sustainability Office

Sustainability on the Other Side of the Stacks: An embedded librarian in the Sustainability Office By Amy Brunvand, American Libraries, The Scoop [blog], May 22, 2017 (online, part of a ...


Full Service Organics

  • St. John's University, New York (NY)

In the Full Service Organics documentary video, St. john's University, New York (SJU) has documented its efforts of student engagement in fighting hunger and waste, and making compost from ...

  • Posted May 22, 2017
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Swarthmore Carbon Charge Program

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Swarthmore’s Carbon Charge seeks to systematically incorporate the unfelt global impacts of our emissions into our decision-making, both individually and as a college.

The scope of the work necessary ...


University of California, Irvine's Pump2Plug Electric Vehicle Adoption Program

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)

The UCI Pump2Plug Electric Vehicle (EV) Adoption Program is widely recognized as the first university incentive programs for EV adoption through the replacement of gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles. With ...


University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point Designated as the 40th Fair Trade University in the U.S.

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, part of a national initiative by Fair Trade Campaigns to engage college/university students in issues of global poverty, officially received designation as ...


Natural Herbicides Project

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
  • Engineers for a Sustainable World (CO)

The Natural Herbicides Project focuses on addressing the issue of the usage of chemical herbicides with detrimental health and environmental impacts on- and off-campus. Our team developed an effective natural ...


Penstemon 2.0

  • Santa Clara University (CA)

From the outset, our goal has been to foster a culture of sustainability at the University by focusing on our curriculum as an interdisciplinary community of scholars. SCU has used ...


Art as the Catalyst for Critical Sustainability Conversations

  • University at Albany (NY)

The University at Albany is proud to submit an application that illustrates our use of art as the catalyst for critical sustainability conversations. This was accomplished via two main projects ...


Students Contribute Record-Breaking $6 Million to Student Green Energy Fund

  • University of South Florida (Tampa) (FL)

The purpose of the Student Green Energy Fund is to provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to present formal proposals to a governing Fund Council with the goal ...


Report of the Smith College Study Group on Climate Change

  • Smith College (MA)

In this report, the Study Group on Climate Change (SGCC) presents its recommendations for climate action by Smith College. By implementing these recommendations, the college will coherently integrate climate action ...


Branding our Waste: Creating College-Specific Recycling Signage through Collaboration

  • Red River College Polytechnic (MB)

In an ongoing effort to improve the effectiveness of our waste and recycling programs, Red River College set about redesigning our hallway waste and recycling signage (Pitch In signs) in ...


Sustainability Weekend Conference, Carnegie Mellon University

  • Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

‘Sustainability Weekend’ is a student-initiative held on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh, PA, with the goal to promote inter-disciplinary conversations to raise awareness about the many sustainability issues surrounding ...


Cascadia Campus Climate Conversation (C4)

  • Cascadia College (WA)

-On October 25th, 2016, the senior cohort of the Bachelors of Applied Science in Sustainable Practices (BASSP) program at Cascadia College, Bothell, WA, held the first campus dialogue to discuss ...


How Middlebury College Achieved Carbon Neutrality

  • Middlebury College (VT)

This past winter, Middlebury College achieved an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality that had been officially set in 2007. When it became clear that the College’s initial of goal ...


Students Spark Solar

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)

A group of ten students focused in various areas of study from across the University of Minnesota Duluth campus came together to form the Solar University Network Delegation and advance ...


SFU’s 20-Year Sustainability Vision and Goals Case Study Submission

  • Simon Fraser University (BC)

On the 50th Anniversary of the institution, SFU launched an ambitious engagement process to map out and envision what a “sustainable SFU” would look like in 20 years. The yearlong ...


COAST – a groundbreaking alternative transportation program at the University of Houston

  • University of Houston (TX)

COAST- Coogs on Alternative Sustainable Transportation, a new alternative transportation incentive program developed by the University of Houston’s Parking and Transportation Services department, is revolutionizing the way people commute ...


Sustainable Biodiversity on the Georgia Southern Campus

  • Georgia Southern University (GA)

Our project recorded the biodiversity of vertebrates on the 700 acre rural campus of Georgia Southern University. Faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students were involved in collecting the data. Students ...


Transforming Campus Food Service with Anytime Dining

  • University of Maryland, College Park (MD)

The Department of Dining Services at University of Maryland (UMD) set a goal to change the student culture and experience on campus through the Anytime Dining residential dining program. The ...


The New Eco-Rep Model: Unifying Campus Audiences in Co-Curricular Sustainability Programming

  • Dickinson College (PA)

Dickinson College has innovatively reformed its Eco-Rep model into a combined student and employee peer-to-peer sustainability education program that creates co-curricular learning experiences aimed at unifying campus stakeholders while increasing ...


McGill University's Sustainability Projects Fund

  • McGill University (QC)

The Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) is a crown jewel of McGill University’s sustainability efforts and a best-practice model for universities. The SPF’s main goal is to build a ...


McGill Students Lobby to Create Climate Officer Position

  • McGill University (QC)

In Spring 2016, Management PhD student Amir Nosrat, and other colleagues at the Post-Graduate Students' Society of McGill University, came up with the idea to create a Climate Officer position ...

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

EN 2: Student Orientation

EN 3: Student Life

EN 4: Student Life

EN 5: Student Life

EN 6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

EN 7: Employee Educators Program

EN 8: Employee Orientation

EN 9: Staff Professional Development & Training

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

Campus Engagement Partners