Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 72.19
Liaison John Pumilio
Submission Date Aug. 11, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Colgate University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00
"---" 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:
Waste Minimization and Recycling

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:

Colgate's Office of Sustainability provides education on waste minimization and recycling to campus community members throughout the year. The campaign focuses on how students and staff can minimize landfill waste and reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost. With programs such as RecycleMania, Green Living and Green Office and through activities planned and implemented by an on-campus composting program led by the student Compost Club, the office has improved behaviors across the campus. Colgate's recycling guide is available at: http://www.colgate.edu/distinctly-colgate/sustainability/climate-action-planning/waste-minimization-and-recycling

Colgate also provides an opportunity for students and staff to track their energy conservation efforts through Building Dashboard (http://buildingdashboard.net/colgate/). This tool tracks energy and water usage in student residence halls. The publicly accessible dashboard features up-to-the-minute statistics.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

In 2016, Colgate's RecycleMania campaign increased recycling rates from the 16% baseline to 18% in the campaign's final week. In addition to the increased recycling rate, total landfill waste in the final week decreased by about 1,500 pounds when compared to the baseline.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Electricity Conservation and Efficiency

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):

Colgate's Office of Sustainability provides education and social-marketing strategies to reduce electricity consumption on campus. In 2015, we started conducting Colgate-specific residential competitions, the largest being Colgate Unplugged. The competitions serve as a fun and competitive way to encourage energy conservation and sustainable behavior. We use peer-to-peer education, prompts on light switches, real-time energy use data, and tabling events to reduce wasted energy.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

Since 2009, we have reduced our electricity consumption on campus by over 2.8 million kilowatt-hours. This is attributed to better systems management, lighting upgrades, more efficient data centers, and all-around more sustainable behavior (e.g., people turning lights off in empty rooms, powering down computers overnight, and unplugging coffee pots and other electronic devices).


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