Colorado College
IN-2: Innovation 2

The Office of Sustainability (OoS) at Colorado College is a unique and innovative office model. In order to fully address all aspects on campus related to sustainability, there are student interns working across campus and the leadership working directly amongst the administration. The office of the Sustainability Director, Ian Johnson, reports to the Dean of the College. The placement of this office is to further facilitate the development of curricular aspects of sustainability at the college. The OoS is equally as focused on the co-curricular sects on campus. Many of the OoS interns are funded to work directly with other offices across campus, building bridges into areas not often associated with sustainability while decentralizing and demystifying sustainability efforts across campus. For example: the Building and Grounds intern works in the OoS as well as in facilities; The Communications intern works in the communications department working on the OoS website, the blog, and the student newspaper, the Catalyst; the Residential Life intern is housed both in the OoS and the Residential Life and Housing department on campus; and the Local Food Intern works as a leader within the Collaborative for Community Engagement. In addition to this, the OoS has interns working solely for the office. These interns are working on the STARS report as well as the Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the colege. In addition, the zero-waste intern works at the Care and Share Food Bank to develop a zero-waste program to divert all waste from a landfill. The model of the Office of Sustainability is truly innovative and demonstrates the commitment that the office has to introducing sustainability to all parts of campus and the Colorado Springs community.

The rating given by the STARS report itself is one measurable outcome of the Office of Sustainability model. As the office works to infiltrate all aspects of the campus community, the far-reaching STARS criteria become fulfilled. Student interns and the Office of Sustainability has the ability to work on many different projects at once including curricular, co-curricular, and community-based projects directly reflected in the STARS rating.