Overall Rating Platinum - expired
Overall Score 87.10
Liaison Alex Davis
Submission Date March 5, 2020

STARS v2.2

Arizona State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Alex Davis
Asst. Director
University Sustainability Practices
"---" 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:
Ditch the Dumpster

A brief description of the campaign:
Since 2009, Arizona State University has partnered with local charities and nonprofits to collect and distribute reusable items during move-in and move-out. ASU Residential Life in partnership with the ASU Zero Waste Department, and community partners Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona and Goodwill of Central Arizona encourage the collection of items at residential halls on all four university campuses. Donation bins are located in residence halls and students can donate larger household items and clothing. Year-round collection bins are also located outside residential halls for students to encourage year-round donation.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Students contributed a total of 66,470 pounds of donations during move out 2019, 7,425 pounds more than 2018.

Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Carbon Free Day

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
ASU's Carbon Free Day (April 17, 2019) combined a traditional engagement program with carbon offsets and local tree planting to make a tangible step towards ASU's commitment to becoming climate positive by 2035. The event aimed to demonstrate small things everyone can do on a daily or weekly basis. 3,967 pledges were made by ASU staff, faculty, and students to reduce their carbon footprint on Carbon Free Day. A combination of digital marketing and in-person outreach (tabling) was conducted to reach a broad swath of the ASU community, including faculty, staff, and students.

In the lead up to Carbon Free Day, ASU community members could choose between three areas for pledges (transportation, food, energy) or create their own pledge. Options were provided to fit a broad range of the community. In addition, departmental pledges were offered, such as using alternate work schedules to reduce commuting emissions. Pledges were designed to meet a wide variety of situations to allow for full participation from the ASU community.

To make the day carbon neutral, ASU estimated its average daily emissions and purchased offsets and planted trees to eliminate its estimated 768 tons of emissions.

Event page:
https://earthmonth.asu.edu/carbon-free-day

More information:
https://asunow.asu.edu/20190411-arizona-impact-asu-first-carbon-free-day-earth-month

Note:
This program was created and implemented prior to ASU's decision to achieve carbon neutrality for Scopes 1 and 2

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
3,967 pledges were made by ASU staff, faculty, and students to reduce their carbon footprint on Carbon Free Day. The most popular pledges centered around food, with 401 pledging not to waste food on Carbon Free Day and another 395 pledging to eat plant-based meals one day every week.

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
ASU provides students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to make smart choices with sustainability practices with participation in our ASU Sustainability Certification Program. Self-assessment checklists are provided for 7 categories which give practical to-do’s and in-depth information on how to support our sustainability goals. The categories include: Event, Office, Classroom, Housing, Lab, Shop and Sport.

The On-Campus Housing Guide is available in the additional documentation section as an example.

Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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