Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.95
Liaison Kathleen McCaig
Submission Date June 14, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Berea College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Kathleen McCaig
Sustainability Coordinator
Operations & Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one 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 at least one 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:
Recyclemania

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:
Recyclemania is an annual event sponsored by the Office of Sustainability in partnership with Facilities-Recycling and Residential Life, to improve recycling results on campus. A volunteer EcoChallenge committee made up of students develope and disseminated educational and event promotional materials to encourage more focus on recycling and waste reduction.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Over the course of the 10 week event, per capita recycling increased from 2.35 pounds per capita to over 4 pounds per capita. The College finished 1st in Kentucky in the per capita competition during the 2014 competition.

The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Annual Carbon Neutral "Green" Basketball Game and Tree Planting

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):
The Office of Sustainability launched the first ever for Kentucky Carbon Neutral "Green" Basketball Game in 2013 which has been held annually since that time. The purpose is to engage the entire college and city community in what it means to be carbon neutral. Since it's inception the language of "carbon neutrality" could be heard in both the locker room and the class room. We use a carbon calculator developed by our institution to calculate how many trees need planting in one year's time to offset the carbon from both gas and electricity-generated emissions. Each spring, during earth day week, we plant the necessary number of trees engaging athletics as well as agricultural students and anyone else on campus interested in helping us plant the indigenous trees. In 2015, Berea City Mayor was one of the participants.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The annual green game is the highest attended basketball game of the year, and has held that record for the past three years. Professors from a wide range of classes from agriculture to economics have used our Carbon Calculator in their classrooms. One Berea student, from Bolivia, requested our carbon calculator for an event in Bolivia, which resulted in the first known carbon neutral conference for the area,.

The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
Zero Waste Campus Events. This outreach is geared to event planners on campus, primarily staff, to educate them about zero waste events, provide them the tools and resources such as event bins, compostable and recycleable event materials, and ambassadors to help sort during the event. In the 2015-2016 Academic year, all campus-wide events were weighed and tracked with 100% Zero Waste achieved (90% of all waste composted or recycled). Carbon Neutral Basketball Game: Annual Event for both campus and local community to bring awareness to carbon neutrality in a fun and engaging way. Each year, we measure the carbon expended during the men's and women's designated Green Day game. Emissions during the game and travel by the opposing teams are measured using a calculator developed by Berea College and then the number of indigenous trees needed to plant in one year's time to offset the carbon is calculated. The trees are planted on Earth Day each year, with the last two years calculated at 24 trees per. According to Athletics, the Carbon Neutral Basketball game is consistently one of highest attended game of the year, attracting hundreds of student, staff, and community at large participants. Link: https://www.berea.edu/news/berea-college-mountaineers-host-carbon-neutral-green-games/

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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