| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.19 |
| Liaison | Ian Johnson |
| Submission Date | July 14, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Colorado College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Ian
Johnson Sustainability Director Office of Sustainability |
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? :
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?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:
Recyclemania is a nation-wide competition to promote waste reduction on college and university campuses. Colorado College participates in Recyclemania to foster behaviors that both minimize waste and increase the campus's waste diversion rate.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
The college's waste recycling rate since the first year of participating in Recyclemania has increased from 38% in 2012 to close to 52% in 2015. Last year, Colorado College ranked first for composting the most food service organics.
The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):
The Real Food Challenge is a national organization that educates and supports student food justice activists in implementing change in institutional food purchasing. They've developed the first comprehensive food auditing tool, the Real Food Calculator, which allows students to gage how much their institution's food procurement helps or harms our overall goals of human, animal, and environmental protection. "Real Food" is defined as food that fits into any or all of the following categories: local/fair trade & labor/ecologically sound/humane. By necessity, the criteria applies only to the production level of food items, as distribution and sale is often much too complicated to track.
By student initiative, Colorado College got involved with RFC in 2013, performing an initial audit of two weeks worth of BonApp's purchasing. In 2014, the initiative got stronger and a team of students (receiving small stipends by BonApp's Ecogrant program) performed a two month audit. They found that CC had 78% con.ventional food purchasing (meeting none of the aforementioned criteria); 18% Real Food Category B (meeting one of the criteria) and 2% Real Food Category A (meeting more than one of the criteria).
This spring starts the 3rd audit, also two months, with a team of 7 students.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A comprehensive audit has helped gage how socially and environmentally sustainable our campus food purchasing actually is, and has been a driving force of student activism around the issues of food justice. (Food Coalition and RFC Club both formed as initiatives at the end of last year). There has also been collaboration with the Butler Center on issues of race and socioeconomic disparity in the food system (Ex. RFC and SOMOS co-hosted a screening of "Food Chains", a documentary on the Coalition of Immokalee workers unionizing for fair wages for farm workers in in CA's Central Valley)
2014: 18% Real Food "B", 2% Real Food "A"
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:
Colorado College Office of Sustainability has worked in conjunction with Bon Appetite to create a 'Ditch Disposable Campaign'. During Recyclemania, anyone who brings their own mug, cup, or cutlery to Colorado Coffee on campus receives a discount on their purchase as well as a sticker to encourage people to stray from landfill waste and encourage the use of reusable cups, cutlery, etc.
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:
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.