Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 66.43
Liaison Greg Maginn
Submission Date June 30, 2023

STARS v2.2

The Ohio State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Tom Reeves
Director of Energy Management & Enivronmental Sustainability
Student Life
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Dump and Run

A brief description of the campaign:
Dump & Run is an annual program that focuses on educating students about the ease and practicality of donating items for reuse diverting them from the landfill. The overall developmental goal of the program is to create habits in students to pause prior to throwing something away and ask themselves if there is an alternative use of the item to someone else. The program itself is in two phases: 1) Education, marketing and collect items (Spring) and 2) Public sale and charitable donations (Fall). Ohio State educates and encourages participation in the program by all students through presentations made during Spring to residence hall councils and other student organizations.
Additionally, Dump & Run provides an opportunity for student organizations to earn funds by providing volunteer labor. Finally, there is a significant outreach component to the surrounding community in items donated, participation in the sale and the donation of post-sale items and cash earned by the sale to local charities.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
14.6 tons of materials have been diverted on average in the past 3 years. Students participating in the first phase of the program (education, marketing and collection) learn facts about Reduce, Reuse and Recycling and developing the mental habit of thinking prior to sending an item to the landfill as well as life habit of donating items that can be reused. Students participating in the second phase of the program (public sale and charitable donations) are able to directly benefit from purchasing items at a steep discount and likewise develop the habit of donating items to others. Finally the program is open to the public and is a positive outreach to our community as well.

Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
RecycleMania

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
RecycleMania is a national competition in which universities compete against each other to increase recycling and promote its awareness. At Ohio State, recycling education and awareness on campus takes place through marketing, outreach and programs directed to both students and university employees. In 2018, Ohio State utilized several media outlets to inform faculty and staff of Ohio State’s participation in RecycleMania and how each individual could help by being informed about what can be recycled and what should be placed in the trash.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Through the efforts put forth to educate staff, faculty and students, Ohio State placed fourth in the nation by diverting over 1,300,000 pounds of materials from the landfill during the 8-week competition. Additionally, Ohio State participated in the Gameday Basketball diversion rate category, informing thousands of fans about recycling and ultimately achieving an 85% diversion rate for that event, placing the university sixth overall in that category.

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.