| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 67.18 |
| Liaison | Weston Dripps |
| Submission Date | Aug. 19, 2024 |
Amherst College
EN-9: Inter-Campus Collaboration
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 3.00 |
Weston
Dripps Director of Sustainability Sustainability |
Does the institution participate in one or more sustainability-focused networks for educational institutions?:
Description of the institution’s participation in sustainability-focused networks for educational institutions:
The Office of Sustainability at Amherst is an active member of the Western Massachusetts Berkoneers Group, the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium (NECSC), AASHE, and Mass Recycles.
Berkoneers Group
The Berkoneers consortium is composed of sustainability staff from institutions across Western Massachusetts including Amherst College, Williams College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire College. The group has a standing monthly meeting and an annual one day in person retreat at which they discuss campus sustainability challenges and issues and share best practices. The Amherst Sustainability Office organizes and coordinates the monthly gatherings.
Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium (NECSC)
The Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium (NECSC) was established in October 2004 to support sustainability officers in advancing education about and demonstration of sustainable systems on university campuses across the northeast region. The group hosts an annual conference. Wes Dripps, Amherst’s Director of Sustainability, helped coordinate and manage the session content for the NECSC 2023 and 2024 Conferences.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
Amherst is an institutional member of AASHE and Wes Dripps, Amherst’s Director of Sustainability, serves on AASHE’s Advisory Council.
Mass Recycles
Mass recycles is a pragmatic, statewide non-profit coalition dedicated to improving sustainable materials management, recycling, and organics reduction and diversion in Massachusetts. Amherst College is a member of this consortium.
Has the institution formally shared its sustainability experiences and lessons learned with other institutions during the previous three years?:
Narrative outlining how the institution formally shares its sustainability experiences and lessons learned with other institutions:
The Amherst Sustainability Staff regularly present at conferences, present on webinars, and submit case studies. Some recent examples include:
Recent Conferences
At the 2023 NECSC Conference at UMass Dartmouth:
Session Title: Green Engagement Programs
Panelists: Jen Kleindienst, Wesleyan University and Wes Dripps, Amherst College
Session Description: As we work to develop cultures of sustainability across our campuses, we often develop different targeted engagement programs aimed at promoting sustainable behaviors and practices among the various campus stakeholders. In this session we will highlight some of the common sustainability engagement programs being rolled out across campuses including Green Office, Green Labs, Green Athletics, and Green Events programs. We look forward to hearing from attendees about their experiences / best practices / struggles with launching, managing, and running these programs.
Session Title: Student Sustainability Career Pathways and Programs
Facilitator: Wes Dripps, Amherst College
Session Description: The sustainability sector is one of the fastest growing career fields. Colleges and universities are developing programs and pathways for students to explore the wide range of sustainability career options. This session will focus on highlighting and sharing what some of these career exploration programs / pathways entail.
Session Title: Regional Carbon Offsets
Facilitator: Wes Dripps, Amherst College
Session Description: A look at what institutions are doing to pursue regional carbon offsets on their roads to carbon neutrality.
Webinars
In January 2023 Wes Dripps was one of the featured speakers for a national webinar on EcoReps programs hosted by the Sustainability Communicators Network. Dr. Ann Ward (Tufts University) and Kelly Harer (Elon University) were the other featured panelists.
Case Study
Amherst submitted a zero waste case study for the National Wildlife Federation’ Race to Zero Waste Database.
Does the institution have a sustainability-focused articulation/transfer agreement that provides students who are studying sustainability at one institution with a formal pathway to another institution?:
Description of institution’s sustainability-focused articulation/transfer agreements:
Has at least one individual with formal sustainability responsibilities at the institution served as a mentor or been mentored by a colleague with sustainability responsibilities at another institution during the previous three years?:
Description of the institution’s sustainability mentoring activities:
Wes Dripps met regularly with Ragu Ragavan when he was at Mount Holyoke College in his role as the sustainability director to discuss shared best practices on developing faculty, staff, and student sustainability programming. He also talked a number of times with Sarah Fourtner as she began her role as sustainability director at Macalester College this past year.
Has at least one individual affiliated with the institution has served in a leadership role for an inter-campus sustainability network, conference, or community of practice during the previous three years?:
Description of the institution’s leadership roles in inter-campus collaboration:
Wes Dripps, Director of Sustainability at Amherst, coordinates the Western Mass Berkoneers monthly sustainability gatherings. He was also on the conference planning committee for the 2023 and 2024 NECSC conferences in which he coordinated and helped plan the content and speakers for the different conference sessions. Wes also serves on the AASHE Advisory Council and annually participates as a judge for the AASHE awards. Wes is also an active member and regular contributor on numerous community of practice monthly gatherings including AASHE’s Scaling Up Curricular Integration and the CURC Meet Up, Waste Down networks.
Has at least one individual affiliated with the institution served as a peer reviewer for another institution’s sustainability report or data during the previous three years?:
Description of the institution’s peer review activities:
Wes Dripps served as the formal external peer reviewer for Connecticut College’s 2024 STARS submission.
Points earned for indicator EN 9.1:
Notes about the information provided for this credit:
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.