| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 52.53 |
| Liaison | Andrew DeMelia |
| Submission Date | June 6, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Bryant University
EN-3: Student Life
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.75 / 2.00 |
Katie
Hughes Student Affairs Specialist VPSA |
Does the institution have one or more active student groups focused on sustainability?:
A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:
Enactus is an international non-profit organization of students, faculty and corporate leaders that focus on creating entrepreneurial sustainable solutions for community issues. Using business concepts, our group uses business solutions to develop community outreach projects to shape a better, more sustainable world. Bryant University's chapter of Enactus focuses our community projects to assist our local community of Rhode Island with social, economic and environmental issues. One of Enactus' projects is called 'Green Team' which focuses on green initiatives on campus and off campus
Another student group on campus is the Student Sustainability Ambassadors. The mission of the Student Sustainability Ambassadors Program is to serve as a support and training program for students who have leadership characteristics and have a passion for creating positive change in the community through hands on experience. Ambassadors serve as the primary student educators and coordinators for campus and community related sustainability initiatives ranging from energy and water conservation and waste diversion to sustainability in the supply chain and food and dining. Ambassadors can take on various levels of involvement from project development and management, communications, marketing, research, and more! This year the Ambassadors conducted a Game Day Recycling Challenge, and in depth recycling audits of the residence halls on campus to enhance the recycling infrastructure and educate students on recycling.
The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Does the institution have gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Does the institution have student-run enterprises that include sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes (e.g. cafés through which students gain sustainable business skills)?:
A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
The Archway Investment Fund was established in 2005 to provide Bryant University students with the opportunity to manage an investment portfolio following the principles used by financial professionals.
The initial investment in The Equity Fund was $200,000. Additional cash infusions of $500,000 total in four installments in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2016 were provided to the Fund from the University. The program allows students to develop necessary skills and investment protocols to manage a currently-valued portfolio of approximately $1,300,000 (as of December 2018).
The Fixed Income Fund was launched in Fall 2017 and is currently valued at approximately $500,000.
Within The Equity Fund there is a focus on ESG.
ESG EMPHASIS
(Environmental, Social, and Governance analysis)
Sustainability has become an important consideration in how the Fund operates. The Fund is looking to include an ESG tilt on its investment strategy and start to focus on how ESG will affect the returns of companies. With the increasing popularity of socially responsible investing strategies, the AIF sees value and potential in evaluating a company’s corporate responsibility.
The Fund is utilizing possible methods for implementing ways to evaluate companies on these criteria, such as ESG scores and ratings, and qualitative analysis of a company’s sustainability. For ESG metrics, students run reports from Sustainalytics on each company they present for potential investment to address issues surrounding ESG. Furthermore, AIF has an ESG committee which consists of 5 students each semester who do in-depth research on ESG and present to the class to advance expertise on ESG trends.
The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Does the institution have conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:
Bryant University North East Entrepreneurial Conference - regularly invites sustainability advocates as speakers. last year's speakers included:
-Craig Dubitsky - founder and CEO of "Hello" personal care products which are thoughtful, responsibly sourced ingredients and materials, from sustainable bamboo and stevia to boxes made from 100% recycled paper printed with soy-based ink.
- Dan MacCombie - a social entrepreneur with a passion for creating new pathways and models for connecting communities, livelihoods, food, and ecosystems in a way that re-imagines how we can connect with our planet.
The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
Does the institution have cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:
The Sustain Us student organization regularly creates art installations/sculptures to demonstrate how the amount of plastic bottles used at Bryant University. This statue was prominently displayed in the student center.
The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
Does the institution have wilderness or outdoors programs (e.g. that organize hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or other outings for students) that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
The Bryant Outdoor Adventure Club promotes involvement in outdoor activities including kayaking, hiking, apple picking, scuba diving and caving. This organization regularly abides by a "Leave No Trace" set of principles.
The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences (e.g. choosing a sustainability-related book for common reading)?:
A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Does the institution have programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
Some Honors Capstone experiences have focused on exploration of sustainability goals. In the Science & Technology Department two recent examples featured studies of coastal resilience in Rhode Island, and on Sustainable Food Management on the Bryant campus.
The Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chain Management course focuses on the strategic impact of corporate social responsibility on the global supply chain. The goals of this course are to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the various types of supply chain events that are connected to corporate social responsibility and the strategic best practices to mitigate these events.
The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
Each year some students who are majors or minors in the Department of Science & Technology work with professors to conduct research on a variety of topics related to pollution monitoring and abatement, climate change studies, coastal ecology, and studies of the Blackstone River. Additionally, there are summer research programs funded by NSF (EPSCoR), NIH (INBRE) and NASA, wherein, students receive fellowships for their studies (SURF – Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships). The laboratories of the following professors are involved in these and other studies: Professors Blais, Crowley-Parmentier, Langlois, Leng, McNally, Reid, and Yang. These projects often result in presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, and subsequently lead to jointly-authored publications in the scientific literature. When the grants provide stipends, the students are “employed”, whereas, when the research is structured as a course, the students receive academic credit.
The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
Does the institution have graduation pledges through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
A brief description of the graduation pledges:
The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
Does the institution have other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives?:
A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:
The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
Estimated percentage of students (full-time and part-time) that participate annually in sustainability-focused co-curricular education and outreach programs (0-100):
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.