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

Polytechnique Montreal - PolyCarbone climate activist group

  • Polytechnique Montréal (QC)

The PolyCarbone program was founded by a group of Engineering graduate students at Polytechnique Montreal. Since 2017, PolyCarbone has helped the Polytechnique Montreal community fight climate change by organizing a ...

  • Posted Sept. 29, 2020
  • Photographs
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Scaling the Ladder: Engagement Programs as Tools for Sustainability

  • McGill University (QC)
  • AASHE (PA)

There is often tension between the focus on individual behavioral action and systemic change in sustainability circles. How do we encourage the small steps that engage community members on a ...

  • Posted Sept. 17, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Arrive as Intern, Depart Further on the Path to Sustainabilista

  • Auburn University (AL)
  • AASHE (PA)

Change will not happen because we care about or understand sustainability issues. Change will happen because we are equipped and empowered to act on what we care and know about ...

  • Posted Aug. 20, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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#MakeClimateaClass: Resources for Online Education on Climate Solutions and Justice

  • Bard College (NY)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) (PA)

Solve Climate by 2030 is mobilizing US educators of any discipline to engage their students in dialog about ambitious stabilizing the climate over the next decade. This project offers a ...

  • Posted Aug. 13, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Restoring College Sports Amid COVID-19: Leveraging Climate Action

  • The Ohio State University (OH)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)
  • University of Miami (FL)
  • Wake Forest University (NC)
  • AASHE (PA)

As college sports programs plan their recovery from Covid-19 impacts, leveraging existing campus assets and fan preferences opens up sports sustainability operations that generate revenues, cost savings, and significant campus ...

  • Posted Aug. 4, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Reaching Your Collaborators: Communicating for Connection & Education

  • College & University Recycling Coalition (DC)

Welcome to the CURC 2020 Webinar Series!

Trying to implement a campus-wide waste initiative with limited time, influence and staff is a barrier we've all faced. How do we ...

  • Posted Aug. 4, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Reframing the Climate Conversation: Telling the Story to Bring About Productive Climate Action

  • Ramapo College of New Jersey (NJ)
  • New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJ)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) (PA)

This webinar is is brought to you by the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS), the FrameWorks Institute and the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation ...

  • Posted July 30, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Sustainability Advocates Guide

  • University of New Hampshire (NH)

This guide details how to create and implement a vibrant peer-to-peer volunteer program. Learn from University of New Hampshire sustainability interns best practices for building your volunteer base.

  • Posted July 17, 2020
  • Outreach Materials
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The Intersection of Safety and Sustainability

  • University of Georgia (GA)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) (PA)

Co-hosted with the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) – a network of higher education associations with a commitment to advancing sustainability within their constituencies and the entire system of higher ...

  • Posted June 25, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Exploration of Creation Care and Sustainability Among Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) Members

  • Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (DC)
  • Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) (PA)

This exploration highlights Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) members who are creatively contributing to the common good and building a just, thriving world for all via environmental stewardship ...

  • Posted June 23, 2020
  • Publications
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Connecting Food Security, Community, and Sustainability

  • AASHE (PA)
  • Daytona College (FL)

At a time when college costs continue to climb considerably faster than general inflation and more students are facing food insecurity, tying food security to sustainability can show students the ...

  • Posted June 12, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Understanding Food Waste at Johnson County Community College: A Multi-Method Approach

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

Food waste and food insecurity are vastly different, yet inextricably linked, social, economic, and environmental problems which afflict societies throughout the world. This study contributes to the literature on individual ...


Chartwells Higher Education Curates Sustainable, Plant-Based Pop-Up Stations for Vegan Options

  • Northeastern University (MA)
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County (MD)
  • University of North Florida (FL)
  • Chartwells Higher Education (NY)

Chartwells Higher Education is continuing their ongoing commitment to sustainability with the introduction of new plant-based options on campus. Vegan Awareness Month, which is in November, provided the perfect opportunity ...


Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the University Curriculum

  • University of Edinburgh

The Department of Social Responsibility and Sustainability established a curriculum review pilot project to identify teaching related to the Sustainable Development Goals in the Business School’s curriculum.

During this ...


Community College Sustainability Guidebook Webinar

  • University of Hawaii Kapiolani Community College (HI)
  • Global Council Science and the Environment (DC)
  • Sustainability Curriculum Consortium (MD)

This webinar will describe the particular challenges and opportunities of teaching sustainability at community colleges. SCC advisory board member Krista Hiser will present a sneak preview of the forthcoming Community ...

  • Posted May 28, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Living Earth Festival 2018: MA‘O Organic Farms

  • University of Hawaii Leeward Community College (HI)
  • University of Hawaii - West Oahu (HI)

This video, taken at the Living Earth Festival in 2018, highlights efforts by MA'O Organic Farms in Waianae, Hawaii to uplift the local community through employment opportunities and local ...

  • Posted May 28, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Inside The New School's University Center: Students Foster Sustainable Behavior

  • The New School (NY)

A class of students from Parsons The New School for Design's School of Art, Media, and Technology spent a fall semester working on projects that build upon the sustainability ...

  • Posted May 28, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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UC Berkeley Move Out Programming 2020 - Safety During COVID-19

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

The UC Berkeley 2020 Student Move Out Coalition, in partnership with the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley's Government & Community Relations office, compiled and created resources allowing for ...

  • Posted May 28, 2020
  • Outreach Materials
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Doing Good While Doing Your Job – Moving Toward a Circular Economy (during this time of Coronavirus)

  • Stony Brook University (NY)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (DC)
  • Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (MA)
  • Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Brought to you by the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) and its members – a network of higher education associations with a commitment to advancing sustainability within their constituencies and ...

  • Posted May 28, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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No budget? No mandate? No problem! Sustainability from the Inside-out

  • San Mateo County Community College District Office (CA)
  • AASHE (PA)

Establishing a sustainability program is new, exciting and often arduous. Sustainability professionals, especially in higher ed, however, have proven resilient, resourceful and audacious despite lacking resources and organizational buy-in. At ...

  • Posted May 21, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Student's Club Revolutionized the Meaning of Green at a Community College!

  • Dallas College (TX)

There was a mayor change at Cedar Valley College’s (CVC) Sustainability Office this academic year. All the Sustainability Awareness events were developed and delivered by the Student’s Green ...


Greenspace Sustainability Design Town Halls and Make-A-Thon: A model for empowering campus communities to lead the design of sustainable spaces and places

  • University of Central Florida (FL)

A team of students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) (Orlando, Florida) led a partnership between UCF Student Government, the UCF Office of Sustainability Initiatives, and UCF Landscaping and ...


Determinants of pro-environmental behavior: A comparison of university students and staff from diverse faculties at a Swiss University

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • ETH Zurich (Zurich)
  • École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

In the context of an initiative to become a carbon neutral campus, an online survey (N = 1864) of students, scientists, and administrative and technical staff of the Swiss Federal Institute ...


Does higher education prepare students to bridge divides in today’s democracy?

  • Western Washington University (WA)

Recent political events serve as a reminder that American society comprises groups with divergent visions for the future and mutually incompatible ideas of how to achieve those futures. Despite this ...


(Dis)agreement over what? The challenge of quantifying environmental worldviews

  • University of Southern California (CA)

Ever since environmentalism emerged as a social movement, researchers have been trying to quantify the attitudes underlying environmental concern. From the 1970s through the early 2000s, the practice of measuring ...


Interdependencies of Culture and Functions of Sustainability Governance at Higher Education Institutions

  • University of Vechta
  • Freie Universität Berlin

Sustainable development practices in higher education institutions are diverse, with regard not only to the types of challenges that have to be addressed, but also to the forms of sustainability ...


The Role of Universities in Sustainability-Oriented Competencies Development: Insights from an Empirical Study on Polish Universities

  • Cracow University of Economics/Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie (UEK) (Kraków)

The growing importance of sustainable development constitutes a challenging trend for education. Universities create study programs and organize extracurricular activities in order to prepare future generations of professionals as well ...


Evaluating the implications of Stakeholder's role towards sustainability of higher education

  • Montpellier Business School (Montpellier)
  • OP Jindal Global University (Haryana)
  • Symbiosis International University (Maharashtra)

This paper aims to evaluate the relationship between academic optimism and sustainability of higher education. The intervening role of extra role behavior and internal branding is also examined. The data ...


Authentic leadership towards sustainability in higher education – an integrated green model

  • Montpellier Business School (Montpellier)
  • OP Jindal Global University (Haryana)
  • Symbiosis International University (Maharashtra)
  • Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh)

Purpose Sustainability in higher education has drawn the attention of various scholars. However, to date, very few studies have examined the human side of green employee behaviour towards sustainability. Thus ...


Students’ perceptions of HEI regarding environmental sustainability – a comparative analysis

  • Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra (Coimbra)

Purpose This paper aims to compare the environmental sustainability practices at the campus operations between two Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) at different stages of the implementation of an Eco-School ...


Herbicide-Free LMU

  • Loyola Marymount University (CA)
  • Re:wild Your Campus (TX)

The project represented in this case study is Herbicide-Free LMU, a campaign I started at LMU under Herbicide-Free Campus. With a slow beginning as the sole campaign leader, I worked ...


Committing UC Berkeley to the Strongest Plastic Ban in the Country

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)
  • CALPIRG Students (CA)

CALPIRG Students, a student-run public interest nonprofit, ran and won their campaign to commit UC Berkeley to eliminate all non-essential single-use plastic by 2030. This is the strongest plastic ban ...


Housing Sustainability Assistants - Compost Pilot

  • Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

Carnegie Mellon University’s Housing Sustainability Assistants team supported a 4-week composting pilot within on-campus housing to ensure successful composting implementation in the future. The student team was tasked with ...


Herbicide-Free Campus: UCSB

  • Re:wild Your Campus (TX)

This project sought to reduce synthetic herbicide use on the UC Santa Barbara Campus. There were three main aspects of this project: meeting with groundskeepers, passing resolutions in the student ...


Sustainable Food and Dining: Swat2Go 2019-2020 Final Report

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

The Swat2Go reusable container pilot program was developed to avoid and reduce waste through the implementation of this reusable container pilot program. Over the course of the last year, this ...


St. Lawrence University Green Café Farm To Table Course

  • St. Lawrence University (NY)

St. Lawrence University's student-run Green café class is a collaborative and multi-stakeholder venture with Dining Services, Seed to Table (student food justice club), undergraduates from across disciplines, and three ...


Expanding Sustainability: University of California, Santa Cruz’s Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program featuring the “Intersections Between Diversity & Environment” course

  • University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)

The UC Santa Cruz Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program (DICP) educates staff, faculty, and graduate students to undertake in-depth examinations of how we, through recognizing and understanding of our differences ...


Final Project Report: Crum Woods

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Purpose of the Project: To increase student, faculty, staff, and community member engagement and safety in Crum Woods, as well as continue to implement the 10-year Crum Woods Restoration and ...


Swarthmore President's Sustainability Research Fellowship - Increasing Opportunities for Involvement with the Office of Sustainability

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Purpose: To increase engagement with sustainability on campus by thinking about ways to improve existing internships, imagining new ways for students and student groups to get involved, and utilizing our ...


Engaging campus and beyond: The Aldo Leopold Distinguished Lecture Series

  • University of Northern Iowa (IA)

The Aldo Leopold Distinguished Lecture Series (ALDLS) was established in 2018 with the goal of engaging the University of Northern Iowa community, providing opportunities throughout the academic year to interact ...


STARS: A Student Reports for Duty

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Project Name: STARS Name: Jasmine Xie Project Mentors: Carr Everbach, Brenna Leary Project Board Members, Faculty Advisor, and Sustainability Sage: Jason Martin, Andy Feick, Pattie Kim-Keefer, Sibelan Forrester, Heather Hassel-Finnegan ...


Palo Alto College Community Garden

  • Palo Alto College (TX)

The Palo Alto Community Garden opened in October of 2019 as a space to grow food, cultivate community, and improve food security for the greater Palo Alto Community.


The Free Store: A centre for re-use & recycling at the University of Ottawa

  • University of Ottawa (ON)

The University of Ottawa’s Residences had a problem with waste. Large dumpsters would fill with valuable and reusable items every spring and fall when students moved out. These items ...


Building Trust and Community: The Transformative Experience of the Green Revolving Fund at Agnes Scott College

  • Agnes Scott College (GA)
  • Sustainable Endowments Institute (MA)
  • Second Nature (MA)
  • City of Decatur (GA)

Agnes Scott College initiated the college’s Green Revolving Fund (GRF) in 2011 as a practical solution to a common challenge shared by colleges and universities that have committed to ...


COVID-19 & Sustainability Discussion: Recap & Reflection

  • Emory University (GA)
  • Portland Community College (OR)
  • Swarthmore College (PA)
  • The New School (NY)
  • University of Missouri (MO)
  • AASHE (PA)

During the month of April, AASHE will be leading a discussion series for our community to engage with one another to talk through opportunities and challenges related to COVID-19 and ...

  • Posted May 18, 2020
  • Videos & Webinars
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Sustaining a Student-Led Environmental Movement at San Diego State University: Leveraging Collaboration to Create an Environmentally Sustainable Endowment

  • San Diego State University (CA)

As the global economy grows, environmental activists increasingly work towards more environmentally sustainable investing practices, especially at higher education institutions. As Sustainability Commissioner (2019-2020) at San Diego State University (“SDSU ...


Reducing Smith College’s Dining GHG emissions: An analysis of beef and milk substitutions

  • Smith College (MA)

The life cycle of food is responsible for over a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through production, processing, distribution, and waste. The environmental impact of food varies by ...


Solar Microgrid Investment in the US: Financial Modelling Challenges for a University Based Project

  • California State University, San Marcos (CA)

Unlike economies that are still experiencing growth, established markets like the United States have a difficult time generating returns with large upside potential for investors. If an exceptional return is ...


Questionnaire survey on consciousness and behavior of students to achieve SDGs in Kyoto University

  • Kyoto University

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets regarding the economic, social and environmental objectives to achieve global sustainable development by 2030, have received considerable attention not ...


Pitt Hydroponics

  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)

Pitt Hydroponics is a student group that is dedicated to the education of Pitt students in hydroponic practices, the outreach to local communities, and the research and creation of small-scale ...

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