Amherst College
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

The Green Office Program encourages sustainable practices in offices across the Amherst campus. The program launched as a pilot during the 2017-2018 academic year, with 5 offices participating. All offices and academic departments on campus are now invited to participate, and those that are already part of the program are contacted at the beginning of each academic year about what steps need to be taken to maintain their Green Office certification. A representative from each new participating office must fill out a checklist of sustainable practices covering energy saving behaviors, printing, purchasing, and waste reduction, as well any practices used by the office that may not already be on the checklist developed by the Office of Environmental Sustainability. This checklist is translated into a point total for the office. Instead of creating award levels, each office receives recognition for their initial participation in the program, and must improve by a certain number of points each year in order to continue participating. This improvement is the responsibility of the office as a whole, and the representative from that office is responsible for working both with the Office of Environmental Sustainability and their peers to continue improving the sustainability score of the office.

Each participating office has one staff member primarily responsible for communicating with the Office of Environmental Sustainability, making sure that the checklist is completed, and implementing any necessary changes to maintain the offices participation in the Green Office program. These staff members either volunteer by reaching out directly to the OES, or by agreeing to be the primary contact for a Student Advocate. Student Advocates are students who are either majors in an academic department, or student employees in other campus departments who are interested in participating in the program. Employee educators are responsible for educating their peers about sustainable practices in the context of their day-to-day operations.

Each employee educator is trained follow the Green Office Program checklist by meeting with the Sustainability Coordinator or a trained Student Advocate about behavior improvements over the course of the semester.

The Green Office program falls under the budget of the Office of Sustainability, which covers the training provided by the Sustainability Coordinator and funding for one Green Office Intern every year. The intern helps make improvements to the program and serves as a main point of contact for offices and Student Advocates.