| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 56.16 |
| Liaison | Matthew Liesch |
| Submission Date | May 13, 2024 |
Central Michigan University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Eric
Urbaniak Student Reviewer OID |
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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:
Campus Race to Zero Waste (Formerly RecycleMania)
A brief description of the campaign:
The Campus Race to Zero Waste website reads “The Campus Race to Zero Waste is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling.”
Each year CMU students, staff and faculty are encouraged to participate in additional recycling efforts through campus signage, public announcements, faculty and staff announcements, as well as word of mouth outreach around campus.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Since Central Michigan University's first year participating in RecycleMania (now Campus Race to Zero Waste), recycling numbers have steadily increased and, for the 2016 competition, recycling, as well as composting weights reached an all time high for the university.
In 2022, CMU championed the Campus Race to Zero Waste Large Campus Organics category.
Campus Race to Zero Waste is a campus-wide collaboration, encouraging students, staff and faculty to learn and participate in recycling. Campus Race to Zero Waste (formerly RecycleMania) happens annually, but over the years, it has made recycling a norm on campus, with marked bins in all campus buildings.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Waste Reduction Wednesdays
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Waste Reduction Wednesdays include social media posts, collaborative tabling events in dining halls, waste audits at a central campus location, shares from official CMU social media pages and collaborations with sustainability-focused registered student organizations like Take Back the Tap and Student Environmental Alliance.
Students, staff and faculty are encouraged to participate in additional sustainability efforts through campus signage, public announcements, faculty and staff announcements, as well as word of mouth outreach around campus.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Waste Reduction Wednesdays resulted in increased awareness of sustainability issues and solutions among CMU students, faculty and staff alike. Waste reduction efforts by the CMU community, such as Waste Reduction Wednesdays, led to several sustainability-focused awards since 2020:
2021 EPA Waste Wise National Award Winner
United States Environmental Protection Agency 2020 College and University Partner of the Year Award winner
2021 EPA Sustainability Public Education Award winner
2021 National Association of Educational Procurement Sustainability Procurement Award
2021 AASHE Student Sustainability Leadership Award
2020 EPA Waste Wise National Award Winner
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
Please see EN-1 for more sustainability-related outreach campaigns.
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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