| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 76.02 |
| Liaison | Megan Litke |
| Submission Date | Sept. 17, 2024 |
American University
EN-3: Staff Engagement and Training
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
6.00 / 8.00 |
Anna
Parse Johnson Sustainability Manager Sustainability |
3.1 Staff sustainability network or engagement program
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the sustainability-focused staff networks and engagement programs:
The Green Office program is a network of offices and departments that self-report to the Office of Sustainability on their sustainable policies and practices. Offices complete a checklist that awards points based on sustainable actions taken by the office, schedule a presentation from the Office of Sustainability, and earn a certificate based on the number of actions, policies, and practices in place.
https://www.american.edu/about/sustainability/get-involved/green-office.cfm
Does the institution have at least one staff network or engagement program focused on a topic other than sustainability that is advancing ecological integrity and/or racial equity and social justice?:
Narrative or website URL providing an overview of the staff networks and engagement programs that are advancing ecological integrity and/or racial equity and social justice:
The Climate, Health, Equity, and World Systems learning community is a group of faculty and staff who meet monthly to discuss readings related to the connections between climate, health, and equity. The group also discusses specific actions to take at work and in daily life to work toward resolving issues of climate, healthy, and equity. The group is co-led by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant, the Wellness Manager, and the Sustainability Manager.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
3.2 Sustainability-focused staff training
Description of and/or website URL for at least one of the institution’s sustainability-focused staff training opportunities:
The Office of Sustainability offers a training for staff to host green events at AU through AU's performance management software. The training focuses on why green events are important and how to host them at AU, including tips for working with AU's caterers and waste management system.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
3.3 Percentage of employees that participate in sustainability activities
Percentage of employees that participate in sustainability activities:
Approach used to determine the percentage of employees that participate in the institution’s sustainability activities:
Narrative outlining how employee participation in the institution’s sustainability activities was determined:
The Office of Sustainability tracked names and emails of employees engaged via the Green Office Program, the Sustainabili-Tea event series, and groups like Climate, Health, Equity, and World Systems learning group and the Single-Use Plastics Working Group. The list of engagements was checked for duplicates, ensuring each employee counted is unique.
Green Office: 333
Sustainabili-Tea: 22
Councils and groups: 91
The Office of Sustainability also estimated employees engaged by participation in programs like the Green Teaching program, for which names are not available due to data privacy, and attendance at events which did not track attendance by documenting names and emails of attendees. To ensure estimates do not include repeat attendees, the Office of Sustainability conservatively reports 50 percent of estimated engagement for each of these types of engagement.
Green Teaching Program: 86
Presentations and trainings: 100
Transportation Fair: 50
Sustainability Basketball Game: 150
Tours: 15
Earth Day Sustainability Fair: 35
Total employees engaged through direct tracking and conservative estimate: 1,207/2,952 total employees, or 40.9 percent
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
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.