| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 60.65 |
| Liaison | Michael Amadori |
| Submission Date | March 5, 2021 |
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Mikayla
Gullace Sustainability Intern Office of Sustainability |
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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
When in Doubt...Throw it Out!
A brief description of the campaign:
While it might seem a strange message to come from the sustainability office, when people incorrectly put trash in the recycling, a bag of perfectly good and clean recyclables becomes contaminated and is instead thrown away. Our housekeeping and grounds staff are correctly trained to throw bags of contaminated recycling into the trash to avoid the Colleges being charged a fee at the local recycling facility. To help educate campus we used a three-fold approach. First, a campus wide email was sent to everyone. Second, the Office of Sustainability hired student interns to table for 6 hours each week in the student center. Our tabling activity has individuals sorting 15 different common items you get on campus into either a recycling, trash, or compost bin. Then we explain what they got right or wrong. Third, our student EcoReps are making new posters to hang on campus as well as a large wall display with actual items glued on and shows the correct bin they should go in.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
A lot of our results have been qualitative thus far. Many campus members (student, faculty, and staff) have emailed back thankful for the guidance since recycling can be confusing. Our custodial staff have remarked that the while the recycling is less full, it is much cleaner and significantly less contaminated! This is reducing the amount of bags that have to get thrown away. Over the next two years we plan to continue this educational outreach campaign and track the weight of all materials being landfilled, recycled, or composted to see if this behavior change resulted in a change in our recycling rate.
if reporting an additional campaign, provide:
2nd campaign
RecycleMania
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
RecycleMania is a waste reduction and diversion competition. In 2017, HWS participated in its ninth consecutive RecycleMania competition. RecycleMania is used to improve awareness around more sustainable materials management on campus.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
RecycleMania acts to build campus awareness around recycling and better materials management practices. We held a competition between different dorms for collecting cans, bottles, and boxes after the Superbowl. It worked very effective at engaging the students as they wanted to win the competition more than they wanted to recycle. Last year we expanded our focus! The week after spring break we had a special special E-waste collection event where electronics from home or work could be dropped off for free to recycle.
Optional Fields
Each spring semester, and most recently during Earth Week 2019, the Colleges host waste audits as a way to raise awareness of disposal habits and as a means of data collection to better understand residential recycling and trash. Student EcoReps will show us how we can do more to recycle and compost. The information is used to improve sustainable materials management education, programming, and infrastructure. The Office of Sustainability oftentimes partners with ENV 204, “Geography of Garbage,” to hold waste audits in front of our main student center, the Scandling Campus Center, located at the heart of campus.
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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