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
Sustainability in International Development: Student-Driven Organizations as a Sector Necessity
- Montana State University (MT)
The international development sector is one that carries with it the perception that complex academic specializations are prerequisite for involvement. In many cases, "expertise" becomes confounded with academic and field ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Just Tap It: Reducing Bottled Water Consumption through Curricular / Co-Curricular Partnerships
- Muhlenberg College (PA)
We present a case study of a student-driven initiative to promote sustainability on a small liberal arts campus by reducing bottled water sales. In Spring 2008, students in "Environmental Communication ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Biophilia: Connecting campus and community places to nature
- NAC Architecture (WA)
Originally crafted by German social psychologist Erich Fromm around 1965, the term Biophilia means "love of life or living systems."" The philosophy of Biophilia pairs well with the current flurry ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Participating in a Learning Community for Solutions to Climate Change
- Global Council Science and the Environment (DC)
Participating in a Learning Community for Solutions to Climate Change
CAMEL
Climate, Adaptation, Mitigation, E-Learning
Goals:
CAMEL is a FREE, COMPREHENSIVE, INTERDISCIPLINARY, ONLINE RESOURCE for educators to enable them to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus, Curriculum and Community - An international perspective: How students are delivering sustainability in UK higher education
- National Union of Students
The National Union of Students (NUS) runs a successful programme of environmental initiatives that are proactively tackling sustainability issues at university campuses throughout the UK.
Inspired by our member students ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Using Social Media Effectively to Drive Campus Sustainability
- National Wildlife Federation (VA)
As green jobs advocate Van Jones has said - reach into your pocket and pull out your smart phone - you have more advanced technology in your hand than the first astronauts ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Why Your Campus Needs a Distributed Network of Sustainability Advocates
- New York University (NY)
Improving the environmental performance of higher education institutions is not only a question of infrastructural development through decisions made in the upper echelons of university administration; it is also intimately ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Messaging the Medium: Video Marketing and the Sustainable Campus
- New York University (NY)
Sustainability outreach and engagement is crucial not only for cleaner air and healthier lifestyles, but also for the image of the university as a leader in the green economy. Communication ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Fracking with Higher Education: Student Activism and Mobilization in the National and Local Context
- New York University (NY)
What does the modern student movement look like on today's college campuses? How do they mobilize, communicate, and orchestrate their action? What are their tactics? Sit-ins? Boycotts? Petitions? Facebook ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustaining Student Energy: The transition to tomorrow's student leaders
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
Most have seen the motivated student(s) come through and accomplish more than may have been thought possible. The energy they bring is enormous but it seems as though they ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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No Impact Jack: A "Green Room"" Certification Process"
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
This new residence life program will be launched in the fall of 2011, and it will be a twist on the idea of encouraging students to complete an online Sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Busting at the seams: Northern Arizona University's 2011 Earth Week
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
There is one day on the calendar that begs for Environmental and Sustainability messaging and outreach, Earth Day. The Student Environmental Caucus at Northern Arizona University has taken on the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student-Powered Sustainability, Successes and Challenges of Our First Year
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
Student members of The Green Fund reflect upon the issues and challenges that arose during their first year as a committee and present details of their plans for the future ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Conservation Nationals: Lessons Learned by Competing to Reduce Dormitory Water and Electricity Use
- Oberlin College (OH)
During fall of 2010, 120,000 students at 39 colleges and universities participated in the "Campus Conservation Nationals" (CCN), a three week competition to reduce electricity and water use in ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Starting a Sustainability committee for a national professional organization: Lessons learned from NACA.
- Old Dominion University (VA)
In 2006, the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) joined the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) in an effort to address sustainability issues in higher education. After two years ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Banning Bottled Water on Your Campus is Not Impossible
- Pacific Lutheran University (WA)
This panel would consist of three representatives from very different universities across the US and Canada, all of whom have banned the sale of bottled water at their institution. This ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable State: A Platform for Academic Transformation
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
Sustainable State is a new educational model designed to provide both an online and face-to-face platform for interdisciplinary exchange and academic collaboration, centered around transformational sustainability education. The mechanics of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Changing Behaviors on Campus through Green Team and Office Certification Programs
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
Universities and corporations across the United States are establishing "green teams" in order to engage their employees in weaving sustainability into operations and services. These teams are groups of employees ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Getting 'em right out of the chute: Incorporating sustainability into the first-year seminar
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
Many colleges and universities require some kind of first-year seminar of all incoming students. Some mandate that a particular syllabus be followed in all such courses, while others may offer ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Plant to Plate: A model for student-run urban gardens
- Plant To Plate
Plant to Plate was born during the Fall of 2009, when two undergraduate students recognized a need for a hands-on means to educate students on local food systems and sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Engagement in EcoDistrict Development (SEED): cultivating sustainable development through education and engagement
- Portland State University (OR)
Too often, as our communities work to identify and meet ambitious sustainability goals, opportunities for community-based inquiry and scholarship are overlooked or the potential for collaboration and community engagement goes ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching to transform: Proven and practical ways to design sustainability courses that inspire
- Portland State University (OR)
This workshop will lead faculty and other sustainability educators through the practical steps of using the Burns Model of Sustainability Pedagogy (Burns, 2009; Burns, 2010) to design or re-design courses ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Service-learning opportunities in sustainable construction, infrastructure and transportation development
- Presidio Graduate School (CA)
Students working to further the sustainability imperative on campuses are uniquely positioned to leverage their knowledge and expertise to drive sustainability outcomes in the delivery of transportation infrastructure projects both ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Showcasing Sustainability: Engaging the University & Community in a Successful Public Event
- Princeton University (NJ)
In the fall of 2010, the Office of Sustainability at Princeton University produced its second successful Sustainability Open House. The event highlighted numerous sustainability initiatives underway on campus and in ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Trashformation: Creating Sustainable, Collaborative Campus Communities Through Interactive Art and Education
- RuckusRoots, Inc. (CA)
This presentation describes an innovative co-curricular event that engages students in a collaborative, creative process focused on sustainability. Trashformation is an interactive and educational art experience in which students collaborate ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Applying Interdisciplinarity and Visual Communication Design to a Vision of Urban Sustainability
- San Francisco State University (CA)
"Interdisciplinarity is not the calm of an easy security; it begins effectively when the solidarity of the old disciplines breaks down-perhaps even violently, via the jolts of fashion-in the interests ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Breaking The Circle Of One: Am I The Only One On This Campus Who Believes In Sustainability?
- Seneca Polytechnic (ON)
As our educational institutions continue to grow and demands on our resources (both physical and non-physical) increase, it can feel like sustainability takes a back seat to what is perceived ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Sustainability and student engagement: how to institutionalize and grow student engagement in the campus sustainability movement; and why we must.
- Simon Fraser University (BC)
Achieving campus sustainability is a complicated objective, and it involves major shifts in the traditional framework within which these institutions are set. One of the most important factors in achieving ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Eco-Reps: Do They Get Results?
- Skidmore College (NY)
Eco-Rep programs have become popular on many college campuses in recent years. In such a program, student "Eco-Reps"" live in a dormitory or other college residential setting with their fellow ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Opportunities for Engagement While Conducting a GHG Inventory: Learning More Than Just Carbon Calculations
- Slippery Rock University (PA)
In this paper we will discuss some of the unexpected lessons learned and opportunities leveraged during the GHG data gathering and analysis process. The processes of performing GHG inventories and ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Save the Date: A Guide to Planning Green Awareness Events
- Southern Methodist University (TX)
Planning an event is little bit like getting a new puppy: you get really attached to it, you lose sleep at night, and sometimes, you have clean up messes. There ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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E-Rep Program: Building a More Sustainable Campus, One Residence Hall at a Time
- Southern Methodist University (TX)
Are you having trouble educating your students on sustainability? Studies have shown the best way to engage a student is peer to peer education. At Southern Methodist University, we use ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Ecology and The Nature of College
- St. Olaf College (MN)
To prepare for the ecological revolution of the 21st century, American college students need to know more than the traditional disciplines can teach them. They need to understand the moral ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Electronics, Emerging Adulthood and the Environment
- St. Olaf College (MN)
Following up on The Nature of College, this presentation explores the connections between college students' electronic "connectedness" and their commitment to sustainability. In recent years, there's an increasingly interesting ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students Take the Lead for Innovative Sustainability Programs at America's most Northern University
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (AK)
The students of University of Alaska Fairbanks, in 2009 voted a $20 dollar sustainability fee, which is matched by the Chancellor and anticipated to raise $5,000,000 over its ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Public Empowerment & Campus Sustainability - Meaningfully engaging your campus community
- University of Alberta (AB)
Creating space for students, staff and faculty to collaborate is a powerful means of building a sustainable campus. The Deliberation on Campus Sustainability (DoCS) was a multi-phased, 5-month project that ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Making the Campus Part of the Community: Sustainable Student Involvement
- University of Arkansas (AR)
Universities provide many opportunities for students to get involved in research, clubs, and social events on campus. Administrators spend hours on end developing ways to attract students to events in ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Involvement in Campus LEED Certification Projects
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
Successfully engaging students in campus-wide LEED efforts is a challenge that many universities face. While enthusiasm is overwhelming, the inexperience,high turnover rates, and difficulties organizing students (from a staff ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student-Fee Supported Campus Green Funds
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
This session will provide a background on student-fee supported campus green funds, then dive into methods for running a campus campaign, followed by examples for how to run a campus ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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UCLA Action Research Teams: Model for Collaborative Campus Sustainability Research
- University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
The UCLA Action Research Team (ART) program is part of the student-led Education for Sustainable Living Program, run on several UC campuses across California under the umbrella group the California ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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UC, Santa Cruz: Sustainabilty Project Clearinghouse 1.0
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
The web-based Sustainability Project Clearinghouse 1.0 was created to track completed, ongoing, and proposed high quality sustainability projects that have been vetted by UCSC faculty and staff. The creation ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Building Capacity: Attracting and Retaining a Network of Sustainability Project Mentors
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
IDEASS (Impact Designs: Engineering and Sustainability through Student Service) is an upper-division university program that supports collaborative service-learning projects. IDEASS students learn not only about the technical, humanistic and societal ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Curriculum Design: Balancing Academic Rigor with Successful Student Project Implementation
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
Educational initiatives in sustainability often promote student activism through service-learning projects or internships. The educational merit of practical opportunities for students to apply their academic learning to contemporary challenges concerning ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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From Presidents' Climate Commitment to the Real Food Challenge: Bringing Sustainable Food to Your Campus
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
Struggling to develop a sustainable food procurement policy at your school? Looking to engage students in sustainability measures on campus?
By uniting students across the country, the Real Food Challenge ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students Recognizing Excellence in Campus Food Service: the Real Food Calculator and Awards
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
College food gets a bad rap. But there's also a lot to celebrate.
The Real Food Awards honor the people who produce, prepare, organize around, and coordinate campus food ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating and Sustaining a Campus Bike Share Program
- University of Chicago (IL)
Bicycle share programs are an emerging trend on campuses nationwide. They have multiple benefits including building community, decreasing waste and pollution, improving landscapes, encouraging healthy living, and reducing greenhouse gas ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Adopting the "Swamp": Creating a Sense of Ownership through a Litter Prevention and Maintenance Program
- University of Florida (FL)
The University of Florida campus provides a beautiful collegiate atmosphere for students, staff and faculty to study and learn. Amidst the over 900 buildings housed on campus are numerous ecologically ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Crafting a 4-legged Stool: The Role of Adaptive Learning in Sustainability Programs
- University of Florida (FL)
Most programs of sustainability education ground themselves upon the well-known three-legged stool, focusing on the interrelated issues of environment health, economic welfare, and social equity. We argue that this structure ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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From Trash to Transportation to Teaching
- University of Kentucky (KY)
The Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library is a highly successful, diverse and innovative bicycle sharing program. The mission of the program is to promote the bicycle as a cheaper, cleaner, healthier ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating Sustainable Urban Infrastructure One Seed at a Time
- University of Louisville (KY)
Rationale: Many students and universities are interested in the integration of sustainable systems but don't have a means to empower students, faculty and the wider community to take an ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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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.