Public Engagement

Introduction

Engagement in community problem-solving is fundamental to sustainability. By engaging with community members and organizations in the governmental, non-profit and for-profit sectors, institutions can help solve sustainability challenges. Community engagement can help students develop leadership skills while deepening their understandings of practical, real-world problems and the process of creating solutions.

2946 resources

Examining environmental fan engagement initiatives through values and norms with intercollegiate sport fans

  • North Carolina State University (NC)
  • Seattle University (WA)

The United Nations has asserted that sport organizations and/or allied sponsors can influence fans to engage in more sustainable behaviors intentions at sporting events and at home; however, more ...

  • Posted June 13, 2019
  • Publications
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Anchor Collaboratives: Building Bridges With Place-Based Partnerships and Anchor Institutions

  • Democracy Collaborative (DC)

The Democracy Collaborative’s new report Anchor Collaboratives: Building Bridges with Place-Based Partnerships and Anchor Institutions discusses the role of anchor institutions and collaboratives in leveraging the power of their ...


Measuring universities’ contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals

  • Times Higher Education

An undertaking of the Times Group, the Times Higher Education initiative is the first global attempt to document evidence of higher education sustainability impact and launch the world’s first ...

  • Posted May 22, 2019
  • Videos & Webinars
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The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale

  • Yale University (CT)

The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale is an international multireligious project. With its conferences, publications, and website, it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in ...

  • Posted May 22, 2019
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Institute for Sustainable Communities

  • Texas A&M University (TX)

The Texas A&M Institute for Sustainable Communities serves as a focal point of interdisciplinary sustainable community research, engagement, and high-impact service learning. The Institute is the go-to place for Texas ...

  • Posted May 22, 2019
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Healthy Cities Certificate

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Creating cities to promote public health is an interdisciplinary endeavor. The Graduate Certificate in Healthy Cities provides University of Michigan graduate students with the language, skills, and competencies needed to ...

  • Posted May 22, 2019
  • Academic Programs
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Diversifying the U.S. Climate Movement: Four Interviews

  • Antioch University, New England (NH)

Climate change is having devastating impacts in the United States, and people of color are disproportionately harmed. In this study, I interviewed four experts on diversity, equity, and inclusion in ...


From the Classroom to the COP: Equipping Emory Students to Become Climate Policy Leaders

  • Emory University (GA)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took effect in 1994, and its main objective is to lessen the impact of human interference that threatens the Earth’s ...


Campus Sustainability Achievement

  • California State University Maritime Academy (CA)

California State University Maritime Academy (Cal Maritime) participated in the Arbor Day Foundation program, managed by a non-profit conservation and education organization founded in 1972, and applied for the Tree ...


Hope and Empowerment: Navigating Grief, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Through Train-the-Trainer Workshops

  • Portland Community College (OR)
  • Portland State University (OR)
  • Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network (GPSEN) (OR)

In these times of accelerating change, environmental crises, and social injustices, we are bombarded with negative news that can numb and overwhelm the spirit. How can we build hope and ...


Connecting Artists and Sustainability with the Arts of the Earth Festival at Bemidji State University

  • Bemidji State University (MN)

The Arts of the Earth Festival is a fun event to "Celebrate Art, Honor Mother Earth, and Inspire Community". This year's festival was held on Saturday, April 27th and ...


Leveraging student leadership to build campus capacity for Sustainable Development Goals implementation: a case study on the University of Calgary’s Sustainable Development Goals Alliance.

  • University of Calgary (AB)

The Sustainable Development Goals Alliance (SDGA) is a student-led organization at the University of Calgary which seeks to improve campus and community collaboration towards the implementation of the seventeen Sustainable ...


Coalition building to create university-wide change

  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Camden Campus (NJ)
  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)
  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark Campus (NJ)

Two years ago, we formed the Rutgers Sustainability Coalition, a student-led group of representatives from about 20 student organizations working together to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We ...


University of California’s Cool Campus Challenge

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

In 2019 the University of California launched the Cool Campus Challenge, an online competition between all ten campuses to engage students, faculty, and staff in the UC Carbon Neutrality initiative ...


A Six Mile-Long Living Laboratory: Publishable Student Research to Foster Sustainability and Resilience in Austin’s Waller Creek

  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)

Over the past decade, a comprehensive approach to research in Waller Creek—the urban stream that bisects The University of Texas at Austin—was developed by faculty in the College ...


Resilience Planning

  • Boston University (MA)
  • Cornell University (NY)
  • Smith College (MA)

This work initiates an inventory of good practices and introduces a theoretical framework for the assessment of resilience planning in order to guide and support institutions of higher education in ...


Campus sustainability in the US: Environmental management and social change since 1970

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
  • Smith College (MA)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

This work establishes the first comprehensive analysis of campus sustainability's development in the U.S. since the early 1970s.

In the US, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have occupied a ...


Cross-Campus and Community Collaborative Bikeshare

  • Champlain College (VT)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

Champlain College and UVM played an integral role in advancing the timeline of bringing bikeshare to Chittenden County. With almost 75% of active Greenride members being affiliates of UVM and ...


A New Zero Waste Goal for Division 1 Football Games

  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)

Lauren Lichterman, the Operations and Sustainability Coordinator for Intercollegiate Athletics at The University of Texas at Austin, is not one to stop and rest on her laurels. She used a ...


University Student Sustainability Conference

  • Universidad de Chile (Region Metropolitana)

The CEUS Congress (for its acronym in Spanish) is a space for convergence of young leaders from all over the country, where discussions are held on the different topics of ...


The Ripple Effect: Community Cultivated, Regionally Replicated

  • University of Louisiana at Lafayette (LA)

Last fall, the U.S. Global Change Research Program released “Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States” from the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). It emphasizes that ...


Diversifying the U.S. Climate Movement

  • Antioch University, New England (NH)

People of color are poised to reach 50% of the United States population by 2046, yet they continue to be underrepresented in environmental organizations. This report summarizes the barriers for ...


STARS Aligned: Higher Education and the SDGs

  • Bard College (NY)
  • AASHE (PA)

Given the unique position of higher education institutions (HEIs) in society, not only can these institutions model sustainable practices but they can be agents of change themselves in the societal ...


Resilient Cities Initiative: South Campus Neighborhood Project - Neighborhood Improvement Study

  • California State University, Chico (CA)

The South Campus Neighborhood Project is a neighborhood improvement planning effort coordinated by the Resilient Cities Initiative at California State University, Chico and the Public Works-Engineering Division at the City ...


Mainstreaming Biodiversity on Campus - Niagara College's BioBlitz Program

  • Niagara College Canada (ON)

The Niagara College BioBlitz program is part of a continuous focus at Niagara College on experiential learning and providing the opportunity to students and the community to use the campus ...


Students of Color Environmental Conference

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

The first ever Students of Color Environmental Conference (SCECon) was intended to bring together students of color from across California to connect and build with local environmental justice activists. This ...


This Way to Climate Action at Chico State

  • California State University, Chico (CA)

Students at CSU, Chico used the Cal-Adapt climate tools to forecast the future climate for the City of Chico, Butte County, and CSU, Chico, and project the climate impacts to ...


Fill Plates, Not Landfills: Implementing the Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program

  • University of California, Merced (CA)

The Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program is a collaboration between the University of California, Merced (UC Merced) and the Merced County Food Bank to reduce food waste ...


Climate Change Escape Room

  • Harvard University (MA)

In April 2019, the Resource Efficiency Program (REP) constructed and staffed a climate change themed escape room. Each minute in the room equated to four years of climate change impacting ...


BCIT’s Sustainable Infrastructure Project wins Envision Gold

  • British Columbia Institute of Technology (BC)

The North Campus Infrastructure Project (NCIP) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, British Columbia, is an ambitious and forward-thinking initiative that leverages the opportunity of infrastructure ...


Associations Between Higher Education Sustainability and Alumni Giving

  • Harvard University (MA)

Remaking higher education campuses to meet climate commitments will have real and significant costs, yet many campuses are financially constrained. For most institutions, alumni giving is a significant, yet declining ...


Mobilizing transdisciplinary collaborations: collective reflections on decentering academia in knowledge production

  • California State University, Long Beach (CA)
  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • Massey University
  • The Nature Conservancy (VA)

Global sustainability challenges and their impact on society have been well-documented in recent years, such as more intense extreme weather events, environmental degradation, as well as ecosystem and biodiversity loss ...


Founder, Students on Sustainability

  • University of Calgary (AB)

I founded Students on Sustainability, a student society at the University of Calgary that educates grade school students on sustainability topics linked to climate change, and supports student action projects ...


University of Pittsburgh Student Office of Sustainability

  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)

The student office of sustainability was created in 2015, before the university of Pittsbugh had a campus wide sustainability office, which opened in 2018. Not only was the student office ...


Suffolk County Community College's Earth Day Events

  • Suffolk County Community College (NY)

Suffolk County Community College, hosted a week long earth day celebration. Activities ranged from a beach clean up at our local state park, to an earth day yoga class, to ...


Reviewing University Community Gardens for Sustainability: taking stock, comparisons with urban community gardens and mapping research opportunities

  • Keele University

Community gardens (CGs) in university settings are faced with challenges associated with a transient and inexperienced population of student gardeners, but they also have the potential to have a lasting ...


‘Student Switch Off!’: how do university students respond to a corporate-sponsored pro-environmental social marketing campaign?

  • University of York
  • University of Birmingham
  • Queen Mary University of London

Sponsorship in pro-environmental social marketing campaigns has received limited academic attention within a higher education (HEI) context. This study examines how multi-level variables, i.e. individual (general environmental attitudes), organisational ...


Sustainability Demonstration House Project

  • Michigan Technological University (MI)

The goal of the Sustainability Demonstration House (SDH) project is to retrofit the former president’s residence, built in 1953, titled the Kettle-Gundlach Building, into a sustainability demonstration house. The ...


Central Community College Earth Month 2019

  • Central Community College (NE)

Central Community College hosted Earth Month events across 4 of its college locations throughout the month of April. Events included expos with local organizations and student projects, a highway cleanup ...


University of Vermont Earth Week

  • University of Vermont (VT)

University of Vermont Eco-Reps hosted their annual Earth Week from April 22-26. The theme of the week was POI: Points of Intervention. PLAN: Post Landfill Action Network came to UVM ...


University of Vermont Points of Intervention Fair

  • University of Vermont (VT)

The theme surrounding the University of Vermont's Earth Week was Points of Intervention (POI). Post Landfill Action Network (PLAN) added UVM to their stops of college on their POI ...


The Dallas County Community College District Booth Won an Award at EarthX!

  • Dallas County Community College District System Office (TX)
  • Dallas College (TX)

In Dallas TX, we have the biggest annual celebration of Earth Day! At Fair Park EarthX hosted a three day celebration with more than 135,000 attendees, 679 exhibitors and ...


Keynote Speaker: Corrina Gould - Living on Ohlone Land

  • California State University, East Bay (CA)

Corrina Gould is the spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone. She was born and raised in Oakland, CA, the territory of Huichuin. She is an activist that has ...


Cal Poly Earth Week Festival

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)

Cal Poly Earth Week, hosted by Cal Poly Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability Department in collaboration with Green Campus and many other campus and community entities! See discussion section and schedule ...


PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies

  • Montclair State University (NJ)

The PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies supports transdisciplinary research and community projects that grow more resilient communities worldwide. From climate change research in New Jersey, to energy studies in Vietnam ...

  • Posted May 5, 2019
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Purpose-Driven Partnerships That Transform People and Places: Cal State LA’s Anchor Mission

  • California State University, Los Angeles (CA)

California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) has committed to becoming Los Angeles’ premier educational anchor institution, forging meaningful partnerships that contribute to the overall well-being of the region ...

  • Posted April 30, 2019
  • Publications
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Considering the Anchor Mission Strategy within the Competing “Regimes” of Higher Education Community Engagement

  • Marquette University (WI)
  • Democracy Collaborative (DC)

The concept of the anchor institution, and its subsequent mission, was first considered in the mid-1990s, a time during which the dominant academic culture of higher education was driven by ...

  • Posted April 30, 2019
  • Publications
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Building Capacity as Anchor Institutions: Infrastructure, Structure, and Strategy

  • Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) (IN)

As campuses embrace their role as anchor institutions, considerations should be given to the role of infrastructure, structure, and strategy. This article differentiates between infrastructure and organizational structure then identifies ...

  • Posted April 30, 2019
  • Publications
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Aligning Equity, Engagement, and Social Innovation in Anchor Initiatives

  • University of San Diego (CA)

Drawing on cultural studies and the practice of engaged learning and scholarship, this paper proposes a cultural approach to institutional transformation, which we argue necessarily follows anchor partnerships. The authors ...

  • Posted April 30, 2019
  • Publications
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Developing the Student Anchor Engagement Framework

  • Drexel University (PA)

Modern urban and metropolitan universities are increasingly obliged to recognize their role as anchor institutions. These same institutions of higher education (IHEs) also have a responsibility to educate students to ...

  • Posted April 30, 2019
  • Publications
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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 10: Community Partnerships

EN 11: Inter-campus Collaboration

EN 12: Continuing Education

EN 13: Community Service

EN 14: Participation in Public Policy

EN 15: Trademark Licensing

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

Public Engagement Partners