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

University of Minnesota, Morris student leads implementation of the Student Engagement Leadership Forum on Sustainability (SELFsustain) across the University of Minnesota-system

  • University of Minnesota, Crookston (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Morris (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Rochester (MN)

The University of Minnesota (U of M) is leading the way in cultivating student-driven sustainability leadership across Minnesota -- from the prairies to Lake Superior. For five years, U of M ...


University of La Verne Sustainability Challenge 2016

  • University of La Verne (CA)

University of La Verne organized a Sustainability Challenge with the theme of electricity conservation in Spring of 2016 to promote sustainability for the campus community at large.


Encouraging a Culture of Laboratory Sustainability: A Case Study from the University of Texas at Austin

  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)

Labs comprise about 20% of the floor area at the University of Texas at Austin but account for an estimated 30% of the campus energy consumption. Furthermore, they generate large ...


Raise Your Voice: Environmental Justice at Capilano

  • Capilano University (BC)

The idea for this event was to have an open idea sharing and focusing event regarding sustainability and environmental justice on campus. It was a chance to bring students together ...


A Model for Creating a Campus Sustainability Plan

  • California State University, Northridge (CA)

There are ample excellent reasons why all workplaces should create a sustainability plan, including most importantly the health of the planet. Climate change threatens the biosphere, ocean, atmosphere, our water ...


Sustainable Carolina Farm and Garden Hydroponics

  • University of South Carolina (SC)

Sustainable Carolina is a student run organization within the University of South Carolina, working to better our campus by making it more sustainable. We work with students, staff, professors, and ...


Sustainability Peer Educator Program - Simon Fraser University

  • Simon Fraser University (BC)

Program Vision: Students are confident, informed, and active sustainability leaders who have the skills and experience to advance sustainability at and beyond SFU.

The Sustainability Peer Education program empowers students ...


Sustainable Fleet at Yale University

  • Yale University (CT)

At Yale University, transportation is vital to the University's operation. Fleet Management is a department that has gone to tremendous lengths to provide exceptional transit services for the entire ...


Promotion vs. Education in Choosing "Real Food"

  • University of Utah (UT)
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
  • Real Food Challenge (MA)

The global agro-industrial system contributes to an abundance of human and ecological health problems from social injustices and public health issues to global warming and ecological degradation. In response to ...


SLU Energy Madness

  • Saint Louis University (MO)

SLU Energy Madness was a multi-month event involving all residence halls on SLU’s campus. While all residence halls were included, in order to participate each residence hall needed at ...


Developing and Validating the Just Sustainability Inventory

  • University of Georgia (GA)

Assessment and evaluation of programs are core components of ethical professional practice for student affairs administrators in higher education. This paper reports on the author’s dissertation research designing and ...


From in-vessel campus composting to sustainable urban farming: connecting science with education and community service

  • Kean University (NJ)

Kean University runs a food scrap composting program with a custom-designed in-vessel composter capable of composting up to 1000 pounds of food scraps per day. It diverts food scraps from ...


Stash It, Don’t Trash It Move-Out Reuse Initiative

  • College of Saint Benedict (MN)

As the semester nears its end, students from all over campus pitch their unwanted items to the curb. These items range from unopened soup cans to couches and mini fridges ...


Greeks Go Green: Promoting Student Sustainability via Social Media

  • University of Puget Sound (WA)

Greeks Go Green is an annual Instagram competition between our Greek houses where they post pictures of themselves performing sustainable actions throughout campus. The sustainable actions can be anything from ...


Grizz's Garage: Dorm Item Resale

  • University of Puget Sound (WA)

During Spring Move-Out, students donate their unwanted but still usable dorm items, such as shower caddies, rugs, and hangers, and then the items are re-sold to first-year students during Fall ...


The Sustainability Map

  • Maastricht University

Maastricht is a small city, a transit city, a city in which many things happen and yet everything stays the same – and Maastricht is home to many students who come ...


UC Cool Campus Challenge

  • University of California, Office of the President (CA)

In the fall of 2015, the Cool Campus Challenge (CCC) engaged nearly 20,000 staff, students and faculty at the University of California (UC) in an online pledge campaign aimed ...


For the Planet Leadership Series: Building Sustainability Leadership in Higher Education

  • University of North Texas (TX)

The “For the Planet Leadership Series” is a five-week professional development course planned, researched, and taught by Senior Alyssa Wolverton at the University of North Texas. Her goal was to ...


The Green Action Fund at Kansas State University

  • Kansas State University (KS)

The Green Action Fund (GAF) at Kansas State University was initiated in 2013 as a joint project of the Office of Sustainability and the Student Governing Association (SGA). The GAF ...


Student Design Fund

  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)

The Student Design/Research Project Fund is a new and innovative sustainability project from the University of Tennessee. It created a pool of money to where applicants can apply for ...


One-Class-One-Project: Using service learning to engage students in sustainability

  • Florida Gulf Coast University (FL)

The University Colloquium is the sustainability capstone to the Florida Gulf Coast University experiences that utilizes service learning as a tool to engage students in experiential learning within the community ...


Boston University Zero Waste Commencement

  • Aramark (PA)

Boston University is a private research institution located in Boston, Massachusetts with approximately 33,000 undergradate and graduate students. During Commencement week, Boston University Dining Services/Aramark serves more than ...


Reusable water bottle for incoming freshmen

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Reusable water bottles are being provided to all incoming freshmen at the University of Michigan as a Planet Blue Sustainability initiative. The project was piloted for 3 years and is ...


UC Irvine Styrofoam Recycling Pilot Program

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)

As UC Irvine strives to become a Zero Waste campus by 2020, the Facilities Management Sustainability Team of student workers has become more innovative in the ways to divert materials ...


Smokey's Pantry: A FISH Hospitality Pantry

  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)

Erica Davis, a senior at the University of Tennessee, spearheaded a food recovery project called Smokey’s Pantry. This project provided groceries recovered from various sources and distributed them to ...


Finding Heart: Generating and Maintaining Hope and Agency through Sustainability Education

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

In his landmark book Native Science (2000), indigenous educator Gregory Cajete eloquently articulates the motivations and questions that drive this study. For Cajete, effective education of our time entails “finding ...


The Real Food Challenge at Lehigh University

  • Lehigh University (PA)

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) is a national student run campaign to encourage campuses to increase the ratio of food purchased from “conventional” to “real food”. At Lehigh, the Office ...


Building Sustainability: A holistic application of sustainable practices in UVA buildings

  • University of Virginia (VA)

Building Sustainability is a comprehensive model to building optimization that utilizes various programs based on the needs of each building. Utilizing the strengths of the Office for Sustainability’s retro-commissioning ...


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 ...


Renewable Energy at Harvey Mudd: The Design, Construction and Life Cycle Analysis of a Solar-Powered ParaSOL

  • Harvey Mudd College (CA)

Colleges across the country are beginning to integrate renewable technologies on their campuses. Privately and publicly funded projects have brought large solar arrays to parking lots and rooftops, but have ...


Leading by Collaboration: Institutional composting on a non-residential campus

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

JCCC's composting initiatives have changed operational practices and enriched campus culture in many ways. Those directly involved in our composting work are passionate about reducing food waste, handling it ...


The Sustainable Bookstore: Giving New Life to Discarded University Library Books

  • Appalachian State University (NC)

When the Appalachian State University library culled its stacks, close to 80,000 books were slated to be recycled. Many of these books, some dating back to the late 1800s ...


Student Sustainability Sculptures Contest

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

Beginning in 2011, Johnson County Community College art faculty member Mark Cowardin assigned his Sculpture II students a project requiring the design, proposal, planning, and installation of a public art ...


Report on the Study Group on Climate Change Participatory Workshop

  • Smith College (MA)

New England’s climate is projected to experience signifiant changes in the near future, including warmer temperatures, varied precipitation and extended periods of drought, with more extreme rainfall and snowfall ...


The Transition to Resilience: A Comparative Case Study of Two Communities

  • Berea College (KY)
  • Oberlin College (OH)
  • University of Kentucky (KY)

This dissertation examines the question of how communities understand their risk related to global economic and environmental problems and how communities respond to those risks. Specifically, using comparative case study ...


Gaucho Certified Farmers Market

  • University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)

In the Fall of 2014, myself and a group of 5 other faculty members founded the first ever successful farmers market on the UC Santa Barbara campus.

The project was ...


USF “Share-A-Bull” Bicycle-Share Program

  • University of South Florida (Tampa) (FL)

Deployed a smart bike-sharing program with 100 GPS enabled bikes, multiple bicycle parking stations, and a mobile phone app to facilitate locating, reserving and returning bikes. With this program, USF ...


SRU Earth Days 2016

  • Slippery Rock University (PA)

“Earth Days 2016” was Slippery Rock University’s annual Earth Day celebration involving fun and educational events aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge regarding sustainability, climate change, and preserving resources ...


UIC Heritage Garden

  • University of Illinois Chicago (IL)

The Heritage Garden at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a hands-on learning project with an internship program where students work with faculty, staff, and community members to ...


Creating Tree Ambassadors: Fostering a campus culture of sustainbility through urban trees

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

Urban trees contribute substantially to ecological, economic, and social sustainability, but are often overlooked both as a method to achieve greater sustainability and as a vehicle for engagement in sustainability ...


IT’S YOUR NATURE: The Art of Sustainability

  • University of Dayton (OH)

IT'S YOUR NATURE: The Art of Sustainability was a year-long initiative using the arts to connect our campus with new ways of thinking about the environment and sustainability. Utilizing ...


UMass New2U Reuse Collection and Tag Sale

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

New2U is a student-led program that is in its 3rd year of operation. New2U collects unwanted items from across campus each spring during move-out and resells these collected item each ...


Community Garden 2.0 – transcending silos on campus and in the community

  • Northern Kentucky University (KY)

Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has joined forces with local stakeholders to create a network of community gardens on campus and within the surrounding community. The network is comprised of fifty ...


Sustainability Champions: Role Models in Sustainability Graduate Education

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

Sustainability champions are iconic men and women who have shaped the scholarly understanding of sustainability by considering broad, alternative, and visionary solutions to sustainability problems. For instance, sustainability champions such ...


Organizational Change and Organizational Learning for Promoting Higher Education for Sustainable Development

  • Dalhousie University (NS)

The scholarship of higher education for sustainable development has been criticised for its reliance on case studies and lack of theoretical rigour. This chapter provides a brief overview of several ...


Warriors Don’t Waste: Improving the Waste Stream at Eastern Connecticut State University.

  • Eastern Connecticut State University (CT)

In early 2015 Eastern’s Green Campus Committee started to tackle the major initiative of improving the campus waste stream. In taking on this project the committee knew that there ...


Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities: Stories of Change

  • United Nations Environment Programme

This document includes over 25 chapters on sustainability in African universities.


Sustainability by Participation

  • Central Connecticut State University (CT)

Central Connecticut State University wss an early signee to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. CCSU has been working to make the issue more visible to our campus ...


Tufts University Earth Fest Celebration

  • Tufts University (MA)

The Tufts community came out to celebrate our planet on Earth Day with Tufts Sustainability Collective (TSC) and the Tufts Eco Reps! A clothing swap, food, prizes, music and a ...


How We Came to Inhabit These Spaces: Reflections on the Role of Place in Our Individual and Collective Journeys as Emerging Sustainability Scholars

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the experience of four doctoral students engaged in a collective project of place exploration at a mid sized Canadian university. Under the methodological ...

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