Florida International University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Spring Clean-Out was an event hosted by the Office of University Sustainability. It was for faculty and staff. This event was done to promote recycling and raise awareness to the opportunities of recycling when "cleaning." The mission of the event was to increase recycling on campus by encouraging staff and faculty to eliminate clutter, recycle and organize. We featured a participation contest to increase engagement and participation. We hosted this event during RecycleMania. RecycleMania 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.

Thanks to our Spring Clean-Out with RecycleMania a total of 680,244 pounds were recycled over 8-week competition. The weekly average diversion rate is 26%. More information about FIU's RecycleMania standing can be found at: http://recyclemaniacs.org/scoreboard/participating-schools/list?node_id=9259

May Commuter Challenge was an event hosted by South Florida Commuter Services and FDOT. FIU encouraged its members to participate in the challenge by promoting the challenge and doing outreach. The goal of the challenge was to increase the numbers of people using alternative forms of transportation, whether it was via carpool, taking the bus or train, walking or biking. This challenge helped promote Clean Air Month. People "logged their trips."

During this challenge, a total of 33,000 trips were logged which equaled to 452,938 miles which in turn resulted in 362,351 pounds CO2 saved.

RideFlag Florida International University has partnered with RideFlag, a carpool on demand company. FIU will automatically provide a carpool permit for members of the community when utilizing this service when driving to. Having this service available via an app makes it more convenient to carpool, which in turn helps us reduce the number of vehicles driving to campus. 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.