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
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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The Resource Recovery Pilot: A Recycling Rehab
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
Although the recycling rates have been slowly increasing over the past few years, we are not satisfied with the current rate and began to look for new ways to jump-start ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Community organizing for energy conservation: The Power Police
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
The Power Police is a project of the Energy Efficiency Student Alliance (EESA) and Energy Management. The Power Police install powerstrips, timers, and light switch stickers in consenting offices during ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability Education: The Importance of Spirituality and Values
- University of New Hampshire (NH)
The ongoing global ecological crisis is truly a spiritual crisis, a crisis of our morality and ethics. Due to the anthropocentric perspective that has long been prevalent in human societies ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Communicating Sustainability to On-Campus Stakeholders at the University of New Hampshire
- University of New Hampshire (NH)
Since 2005 the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and its endowed sustainability program have revamped and expanded efforts to communicate about the university's sustainability leadership and initiatives. In 2009-2010 ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Sustainability and Institutional Change: The Role of Public Interest Research Groups in Canada
- University of Northern British Columbia (BC)
In the forty years that sustainability has become part of the environmental literature, the role of education has been an important issue. Numerous international declarations have identified institutions of higher ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Green Funds: Expanding the Students' Role in Shaping More Sustainable Universities
- University of Pittsburgh (PA)
Universities must consider all facets of the institution in their quest to promote and incorporate sustainability. Co-curricular programs, such as Green Funds, can complement sustainability education in the academic curriculum ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Passion vs. Reality: Productive Student Engagement in Campus Sustainability
- University of Texas at Austin (TX)
While students are generally recognized as critical to the success of campus sustainability endeavors - many student groups are prime movers, in fact - their rapid turnover and apparent distractability can be ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Communicating and Collaborating: The Sustainability Directory
- University of Texas at Austin (TX)
As envisioned by The University of Texas at Austin's Campus Sustainability Policy, the university endeavors to further link together and leverage its sustainability efforts for greater success and innovation ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Green Roofs: Environmental, Academic, and Engaging
- University of the District of Columbia (DC)
Besides green roofs' many environmental benefits - stormwater management, reduced urban heat island effect, habitat creation, building insulation - the academic and learning value that green roofs can have is an often ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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UVA's Sustainability Advocacy Program
- University of Virginia (VA)
The Sustainability Advocacy program's purpose is to reach all incoming students about sustainability during their first year. By reaching them early we hope that they can learn how to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Allocating a Student Green Fund - First year experience
- University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (WI)
This informational presentation will provide an overview and go into detail about our first year of experience with our University's student green fund. The presentation will cover the structure ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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De-Polarizing the Politics: Framing Sustainability in Traditional American Values
- University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)
"Sustainability"" is an emotionally charged trigger word and concept for many people, especially in such strained socio-economic and politically polarized times. It is often assumed to be a smoke screen ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Can UCompost?: Research and development of a residential composting program for college campuses
- Ursinus College (PA)
Food waste can be a significant component of the waste stream at colleges and universities and could entirely avoid disposal in landfills with proper composting systems in place. Several colleges ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Move Out: Creation of a campus-wide infrastructure designed to curb waste through reuse and responsible processing
- Ursinus College (PA)
Effective waste reduction and management are primary challenges towards achieving sustainability. Colleges and universities across the country grapple with such issues at the end of each academic year, as large ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Power of Networking, The Importance of Advocacy
- Utah State University (UT)
Sustainability is a concept that needs more awareness through advocacy and networking. Sustainability is not a passing fancy, but a powerful movement that is progressive and growing bolder every day ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Recreation Center Facility Sustainability- A look at marketing messages
- Washington State University, Pullman (WA)
The Washington State University Student Recreation Center (SRC) is committed to sustainability. They created a sustainability statement, sustainable benchmarks, and changed habits but they have not stopped there. The SRC ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Grappling with the Fallacy of Sustainability Education
- West Chester University of Pennsylvania (PA)
Sustainability education is rapidly becoming mainstream in higher education, yet this "success" is undercut by a fallacy -- that sustainability is a normal challenge that can be addressed using familiar tools ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Campus Beet: A Student-Led Sustainable Café Initiative
- Western Michigan University (MI)
Riding a surge of support for fresh, delicious, sustainable food on campus, The Campus Beet is an example of true cross-campus collaboration. Starting as the vision of a single student ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Bridging the divide: empowering student leaders to promote sustainability through academics and student life
- Western Colorado University (CO)
In Spring 2011, Western created student Sustainability Coordinator positions on campus. The Western student sustainability coordinator program is designed to increase sustainability awareness and inspire behavior change through peer-to-peer leadership ...
- 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.