Florida International University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Transit Day was an event hosted by the Office of University Sustainability and South Florida Commuter Services in 2014. It was for students, faculty and staff. This event was done to promote different forms of alternative transportation to campus: carpooling, biking and public transportation. The mission of the event was to create a greener campus by encouraging the FIU community to use alternative forms of transportation. We featured the Miami Heat dancers as a means to add excitement and also had a raffle and gave away a complimentary one day bus pass to whomever used public transportation the day of the event.

Of the 186 registrants for Transit Day, 36 transit passes were given out for those that used public transportation the day of the event. However, this doesn't take into account the participants who already take Miami Dade Transit and already had a monthly pass. The overall turnout for the event was fantastic, and since then we have noted an increase in interest of finding alternative methods of transportation to campus.

RecycleMania is an eight week nationwide benchmarking competition between colleges and universities to increase recycling and promote waste reduction to the campus community. The campaign is a campus wide initiative incorporated with the FIU Recycles program. The Office of University Sustainability holds different events and workshops through out the competition to educate about recycling and increase recycling numbers. The Office of University Sustainability also encourages different offices and departments to host their own RecycleMania events whether it is just in their office or for the whole campus. Supplies and give-a-ways are given to any office who does this. As part of the campaign, a weekly newsletter bulletin with FIU's standings against its state peers is sent out. Since 2012, FIU has competed in the three main divisions; Grand Champion Division, Per Capita Classic, and Gorilla Prize Division.

FIU has participated in RecycleMania for the last 4 years. Every year our recycling rates have increased. In the 2016 competition, FIU came in First in the State of Florida in the Gorilla Category (total pounds recycled) and the Per Capita Classic Category (recycling per capita). RecycleMania 2016: Total Recycling over 8-week competition: 663,063 pounds Weekly Average Diversion Rate: 24% RecycleMania 2015: Total Recycling over 8-week competition: 635,579 pounds Weekly Average Diversion Rate: 23% More information about FIU's RecycleMania standing can be found at: http://recyclemaniacs.org/scoreboard/participating-schools/list?node_id=9259

Give and GoGreen Give and GoGreen is a waste reduction and charity donation program during the end-of-year move-out coordinated by the Office of University Sustainability and Housing Facilities. During move-out, residents typically generate a lot of waste by discarding items they no longer need or want even if they are in good condition. Give and GoGreen allows residents to donate these items to charity instead of the items ending up in the landfill. To educate residents about this program, flyers are passed out, there are ads on the TV screens in each resident hall, and resident advisors are engaged. Each resident hall has a clearly marked collection area in the lobby with educational information as well. This program piloted in 2011 and continues to grow each year. Since program inception more than 60,000 pounds of clothes, household items, and furniture have been donated to local charities. Local organizations include: Miami Rescue Mission, Habitat For Humanity and Goodwill Industries. During 2015 Spring move-out 17,232 pounds of household items were donated to Goodwill. At the time of this submission we are collecting for the 2016 Spring move-out.