Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 65.15
Liaison Emma Blandford
Submission Date Feb. 29, 2024

STARS v2.2

Georgia Institute of Technology
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Emma Blandford
Portfolio Manager
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held a 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 a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

1st campaign 

Name of the campaign:
AWARE Program and ECGO Partnership

A brief description of the campaign:
The AWARE Program (Actively Working to Achieve Resource Efficiency) is an innovative waste minimization program. The program aims to make Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff aware of the critical role they play in waste minimization and encourages members of the campus community to make environmentally responsible choices regarding the waste they generate. AWARE places the responsibility on employees to sort and empty their waste into larger bins located within the building. Custodial teams do not service desk-side containers.

Georgia Tech partners with ECGO to enable easier recycling on campus. The ECGO app helps lessen the confusion and allows consumers to recycle with confidence while earning rewards. App users can take a photo of what they are recycling, and the app will tell them which bin to deposit the item. Once they dispose of the waste in the appropriate bin, they will collect points and trade them in for rewards. Through ECGO’s partnership with Georgia Tech, students can be rewarded with gift cards to on-campus restaurants.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
The following data is from the ECGO pilot program that was focused on housing facilities and was conducted between January 8, 2023 – May 31, 2023.
● Total users: 723
● 44% of users disposed waste on ECGO each month
● 33 items disposed of each month on ECGO (on average)
● 30,733 items recycled in Spring 2023
● 571 landfilled in-app (2% Prevented Contamination Rate)
● 2,105g or 4.64 pounds of waste disposed / per person / per month
● 4.45 pounds of waste recycled / per person / month
● 7,078 lb or 3.5 tons of waste diverted from landfills
● 10.29 metric tons of CO2 Captured
● 88% of students at Georgia Institute of Technology feel confident at the Recycling Bin
● 73% of students say that their recycling habits have improved since using ECGO
● Average number of items recycled by an ECGO user is 40


The ECGO program has demonstrated a measurable positive impact on the current recycling habits of the Georgia Tech community. The baseline recycling habits at Georgia Tech have contributed to an average 37% contamination rate. This rate was derived from previous waste audits conducted on campus. As shown in the previous metrics, the ECGO app as part of the AWARE program has prevented contamination rates by 2%. This number was calculated by dividing the number of landfill items disposed by the total items disposed on the app. This resulted in a calculation of 571 / 30,733. The statistics surrounding students’ opinions about recycling (88% feel confident and 73% improved habits) were based on a survey conducted with 25 ECGO app users after they utilized the app.

As the AWARE program continues to grow, it will reach other parts of the Georgia Tech campus and continue to decrease contamination and improve recycling confidence.

https://facilities.gatech.edu/recycling
https://www.ecgo.co/

if reporting an additional campaign, provide:

2nd campaign

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

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.