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.
Featured Resources
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Keynote Presentation with Dina Gilio-Whitaker
- California State University, San Marcos (CA)
- University of Hawaii System Office (HI)
Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos and an independent educator in American Indian environmental policy and other issues. …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Virginia Heat Watch: A Commonwealth-Wide Collaboration for Heat Mapping
- University of Lynchburg (VA)
- Randolph College (VA)
Randolph College and University of Lynchburg are both signatories to the Carbon Commitment and the Resilience Commitment, and have been collaborating on community resilience efforts since 2018. We are also …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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When Green Funds Collaborate with Community-Based Learning Courses: Lessons from the Field
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
Community-based learning (CBL) courses engage students in an applied learning process in direct service of a campus community. Green funds offer money for student-initiated projects that improve the sustainability of …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Amplifying Our Voices: Aligning Food Procurement Standards in a New Era
- Real Food Challenge (MA)
Anchors in Action (AiA) alliance is a national cross-sector partnership among Center for Good Food Purchasing, Health Care Without Harm, and Real Food Challenge. Together these groups represent hospitals, school …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Sustainability Dashboards: From Hopes & Dreams to Reality & Maintenance
- University of Pittsburgh (PA)
- University of Oregon (OR)
University-wide Sustainability Dashboards can emphasize and juxtapose the various aspects of sustainability, while increasing institutional transparency. Organizing and presenting institutional performance data helps quantify universities' progress as sustainability leaders while …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Community College Networking Session
- Johnson County Community College (KS)
This networking session will allow community college sustainability practitioners to share successes/frustrations as well as have a chance to provide feedback on how AASHE serves its community college members.
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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"Who's the Contact Person for That?": Creating Sustainability Hubs for More Effective Connection
- Binghamton University (NY)
The strengths of academic institutions are often related to research, curricula, and pedagogy. While these are critical areas to highlight, there are often several additional innovative initiatives and activities occurring …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Should We Be Concerned About Almost True Climate Solution Strategies and Policies?
- University of California, Irvine (CA)
Advocates often oversimplify policy ideas or proposed climate solutions, to make them digestible by those new to an issue or proposed remedy. However, problems develop when more understanding, evidence, and …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Stay Rad, Post Grad!
- Post-Landfill Action Network (NH)
Are you graduating? Are you panicking? Or maybe you know exactly what you want to do, but it's just a matter of making it happen. Join the PLAN staff (with …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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BIPOCs in Sustainability Networking
- AASHE (MA)
This networking and discussion session will ideate around best practices and strategies sustainability professionals can use to center BIPOC voices. We aim to provide a safe space while giving voice …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Benchmarking Higher Education Zero Waste Programs
- Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) (MI)
Sometimes building a zero-waste program can feel like you are on an island. But according to recent research conducted by RRS that looked at over 300 universities and colleges across …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Building Resilient, Long Lasting Student Led Movements
- University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)
Often times university student movements come and go due to graduating leaders and loss of knowledge. These groups are full of fire and passion and at points drift into nothing …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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SDGs Cities Challenge
- University of Texas at Arlington (TX)
- University of Melbourne (Victoria)
- ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability
The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that local and subnational governments are key stakeholders to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By aligning local sustainability actions and …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Creating Alumni Connections Through a Sustainability Course
- Connecticut College (CT)
Once per year, the Office of Sustainability offers a 2-credit course called SUS 293: Applied Sustainability. The course is designed for interns in the Office and other students interested in …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Virtually Vital-Going Green, Globally
- Dallas College (TX)
The members of the Cedar Valley Student Green Club used creativity to utilize a virtual platform to pioneer a variety of firsts for our campus at a time when many …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Sustainably Revisioning the Future: Insights to Build Upon from the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Texas A&M University-Commerce (TX)
- University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique global opportunity to reset longstanding practices. The societal, economic, and environmental challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic have reached every facet of life …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Climate Action Simulation (With en-Roads): A Group Role-Playing Game
- University of Massachusetts Lowell (MA)
- University of Minnesota System Office (MN)
In a lightning fast and immersive method that the presenters have perfected in numerous online trainings, participants will learn how to facilitate a group role-playing simulation (which functions as a …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Filling the Education Gap for Agenda 2030: SDG Academy Educational Tools and Partners
- United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (NY)
This discussion will cover filling the gap in higher education systems for Agenda 2030. The mission of the SDG Academy is to create and curate the best educational content on …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Learning How to Move Corporations on Climate and Racial Justice
- Ceres (MA)
- Intentional Endowments Network (MA)
- As You Sow (CA)
SEC Commissioner Allison Lee recently shared with the corporate community that "A study from 2018 .. showed that 71 of the top 100 revenue generators globally were corporations while only …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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COVID, Climate Action Plans and Resiliency in Davis, California: Leveraging a Town-Gown Relationship
- University of California, Davis (CA)
- City of Davis (CA)
UC Davis and City of Davis sustainability staff will share how the city and campus have repeatedly leveraged our college town-gown relationship for mutual benefit and support, and helped us …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Building a Climate Movement Within a Field
- Temple University (PA)
This session will report on the founding and growth of Philosophers for Sustainability, an international organization of philosophers working to promote sustainability within and outside philosophy. Our projects include a …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Engaging with Community Partners to Advance Sustainability Learning -- A New Affinity Group
- Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
Integrating Service-Learning/Community Engagement (SLCE) into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) offers opportunities to enhance student learning outcomes and competencies across diverse disciplines. Research has demonstrated that service-learning can deepen knowledge …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Keynote Presentation with Heather McGhee
- Portland Community College (OR)
- AASHE (MA)
Heather McGhee designs and promotes solutions to inequality in America. She is the author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021). …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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University-Community Collaboration for Climate Justice Across Disciplines
- University of St. Thomas (MN)
Communities locally and globally are re-imagining systems to restore interconnected human and environmental well-being. University-community collaborative partnerships can be a crucial part of this effort. This presentation explores how university-community …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Sustainability & Environmental Career Exploration Series
- Tulane University (LA)
This presentation will share a new approach to career exploration developed for the spring of 2021 by the Tulane Office of Sustainability. The series brought together a number of existing …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Take Advantage of 179D Government Program for Energy/Savings in Public Campuses
- Efficiency Energy LLC (CO)
Federal legislation passed in 2021 a permanent tax benefit called 179D that reimburses for a portion of the square footage when one builds in energy efficiency. Your campus should take …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Reducing Campus Waste: Ten Years of a Campus FreeStore
- Bemidji State University (MN)
Mother earth is crying out for help, and we are the only ones that have the power to do make things better; for this reason the Sustainability office at Bemidji …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Keynote Presentation with Dr. Michael J. Sorrell
- Paul Quinn College (TX)
- University of Texas at Arlington (TX)
Named one of America’s 10 Most Innovative College Presidents, Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is pioneering the “New Urban College Model” as the President of Paul Quinn College. With a rallying …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Regeneration & Reclamation in Environmental Justice Projects by Contemporary Artists and Educators
- Colorado State University, Pueblo (CO)
- George Washington University (DC)
- Parsons (IL)
- ViVA Virtual Visiting Artists (OH)
For many years, internationally renowned award-winning contemporary artists around the country have been leaders of community-based social practice projects that feature creative approaches to urban renewal and communal agriculture, native …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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University Air Travel and GHG Mitigation: An Analysis of Higher Education Climate Policies
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)
This presentation will detail and discuss research that examined the climate policies of 46 public doctoral institutions to understand how they address university air travel greenhouse gas mitigation. This research …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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How Earth Month Strengthens Student Engagement & Campus-Community Ties
- San Jose State University (CA)
In this session, our inter-departmental campus team will share SJSU's unique Earth Day history and tell the story of how we organized a unique Earth Month series of workshops and …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Keynote Presentation with Dr. Tracey Osborne, Dr. Stephen Sterling and Dr. Madhavi Venkatesan
- Northeastern University (MA)
- Western Washington University (WA)
- University of California, Merced (CA)
- University of Plymouth (Devon)
This keynote presentation will reflect on the shifts in educational policy and practice necessary to create a sustainable future.
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Contraception and Consumption in the Age of Extinction
- Center for Biological Diversity (AZ)
Over the past 50 years, as human populations have doubled, wildlife populations have plummeted by half. Humanity's dependence on fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, persecution of wildlife, massive habitat destruction …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Climate Resilience through Community Resilience: Lessons from Appalachian Kentucky
- University of Kentucky (KY)
Flooding in Appalachian Kentucky during the spring of 2021 laid bare the now established threat of climate change to a region often left out of conversations about climate resilience. While …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Let Your Actions Speak: How to Connect Individual Change to Systems Change
- EcoChallenge.org (OR)
To create and enact the solutions necessary for a sustainable future, we need our students - regardless of major - to develop both a sense of and a skill set …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Governing Change: Academic-Operational Cultures of Sustainability Governance at 10 Universities Around the World
- University of Toronto (ON)
In recent years, universities around the world have sought to integrate and embed sustainability into their four primary domains of activity: education, research, campus operations, and community engagement. This session …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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U.S. & Canadian "Climate Havens" - Networking & Preparedness Around Where It Will Suck Less
- University at Buffalo (NY)
- University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WI)
Water is Life. The Great Lakes Region, the U.S. and Canada, are becoming known as future "Climate Havens" of this century. Cities and universities are beginning to take notice of …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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The Future is Being Resilient to Climate Emergencies
- Rice University (TX)
- Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (MA)
Resiliency to climate emergencies is necessary to respond to extreme weather events that are occurring more frequently as the climate changes. A climate emergency does not always mean there will …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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From Vision to Action: Lessons in Implementing Sustainability Plans
- University of Illinois Chicago (IL)
The role of a sustainability professional spans the spectrum from educator, planner, fund raiser, project manager, program designer, plan implementer, to progress reporter. Methods for partnering for and achieving success …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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How the Free Store Can Change the Face of Sustainability
- University of Southern Maine (ME)
The Office of Sustainability at USM has a group called the Eco-rep. The USM Eco-reps have gone on to create the Free Store, which collects donations to give out to …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Athletics, Activism & Action: Partnering to Creatively Communicate Sustainability
- University of Kentucky (KY)
Communication can be difficult on a Campus. Utilizing partnerships on campus, UK Recycling, Sustainability and Energy Research created a new way to engage campus - WholeSum- a blog that encourages …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Regional STARS: Challenges and Opportunities
- Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
- Indiana University South Bend (IN)
- Indiana University Southeast (IN)
Do you work at a regional campus whose main campus has a STARS designation? Does your regional campus intend to pursue a STARS designation of its own? Should you? Hear …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Tri-Sector Consulting Projects: Experiential Learning for Societal Impact
- Kent State University (OH)
For the last decade, companies and business schools alike have struggled with how best to incorporate shared value perspectives into their business and curricular plans. How do we align corporate …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Expanding Sustainability: Using Food Procurement to Help Poultry Workers (through a new consortium)
- Georgetown University (DC)
- University of California, Office of the President (CA)
- University of Michigan (MI)
Many colleges and universities are working on sustainable procurement goals, but how many of us have looked at social sustainability and the impact of our procurement on workers? During the …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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The Future is Collaborative: Outcomes From a Network of Sustainability Professionals in Virginia
- James Madison University (VA)
- Radford University (VA)
With an average of just 1.5 - 2.1 paid non-student sustainability staff positions at institutions of higher education, access to a broader network of sustainability professionals with common goals and …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Lessons Learned from a Homegrown STARS Support Group with Peer Institutions
- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (WI)
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WI)
- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (WI)
Staring fixedly at new STARS credits? Not sure where to start? Need to assign the daunting task of completing STARS to a student but can't provide all of the support …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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The Future is Co-Created: EfS Through Relationship Building in the Delaware Valley
- University of Pennsylvania (PA)
- West Chester University of Pennsylvania (PA)
- PHENND (PA)
This session will introduce the new PHENND Sustainability network. Starting as a community of practitioners interested in finding partners for real-world Education for Sustainability (EfS), PHENND Sustainability has grown into …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Building the Future We Desire: Crossing Boundaries & Challenging Historical Ideas of Sustainability
- University of Minnesota, Crookston (MN)
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
The Student Engagement Leadership Forum on Sustainability (SELFsustain) is a five-campus collaborative retreat that rotates between campuses. In April 2021, UM-Crookston hosted a provocative online series on indigenous identity, community …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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The People's Fridge: Redistributing Surplus Food and Reducing Food Insecurity
- University of California, Merced (CA)
The People's Fridge is a plant-based community fridge in Merced County with the dual aims of redistributing surplus food and reducing food insecurity. The pandemic further increased food insecurity in …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Keynote Presentation with Dr. Ian Haney López
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
- University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)
Dr. Haney López’s keynote address will explain how the climate movement cannot succeed unless race, class and gender solidarity are at the heart of everything we do. Dr. Ian Haney …
- Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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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
- Description of a formal community partnership to advance sustainability (first partnership)
- Description of a formal community partnership to advance sustainability (second partnership)
- Description of a formal community partnership to advance sustainability (third partnership)
- Website URL - Community partnerships to advance sustainability
EN 11: Inter-campus Collaboration
- The national or international sustainability network(s)
- The regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s)
- Description of sustainability conference(s) and presentation(s)
- Description of sustainability resource center or awards program and submission(s)
- Description of sustainability board or committee appointment(s)
- Description of sustainability-related mentoring relationship and activities
- Description of sustainability-related peer review activities
- Website URL - Sustainability-related inter-campus collaborations
EN 12: Continuing Education
- Percentage of continuing education courses that are sustainability course offerings
- Inventory of continuing education sustainability course offerings (upload)
- Inventory of continuing education sustainability course offerings (description)
- Description of sustainability-related continuing education certificate program(s)
- Website URL - Continuing education courses and programs in sustainability
EN 13: Community Service
- Percentage of students engaged in community service
- Number of annual community service hours contributed per student
- Description of program(s) to support employee volunteering
- Website URL- Community service programs
EN 14: Participation in Public Policy
- Description of sustainability public policy advocacy at the municipal/local level
- Description of sustainability public policy advocacy at the state/provincial/regional level
- Description of sustainability public policy advocacy at the national level
- Description of sustainability public policy advocacy at the international level
- Website URL - Sustainability advocacy efforts
EN 15: Trademark Licensing
- Description of the independent trademark monitoring and verification organization
- The labor rights code of conduct for licensees (upload)
- The labor rights code of conduct for licensees (description)
- Website URL - Trademark licensing initiatives
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.