Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

The inaugural Energy Challenge took place in the 2018 fall semester. Three university residence halls competed over a period of three weeks to reduce their energy consumption through behavior change. Students were engaged through their residence sustainability coordinators, as well as marketing materials disseminated through social media, campus publications, and the campus sustainability website featuring an interactive dashboard. The students running the Energy Challenge met with the University Student Government (USG) to spread awareness and gather input. Regardless of residence status, the Office of Sustainability collected pledges from students, faculty, and staff committing to reduce their energy usage through various activities ranging across categories like lighting, heating/cooling, transportation, water consumption, and waste reduction. The residence hall with the greatest energy reduction received a celebration party and their name was listed in the Energy Challenge banner that permanently hangs in the Campus Center.

In Fall 2019, we hosted the second-annual Energy Challenge. This year, in addition to the residence halls, we engaged two additional buildings, the Campus Center and University Library that involved staff and faculty that utilize these buildings. We encouraged all occupants to take the Energy Pledge and engage in practices to lower their personal energy utilization in these respective buildings and at home. IUPUI Sustainability partnered with the campus communications group, IU Studios, to produce a series of videos promoting the Energy Challenge. We also hosted two events as part of the challenge: (1) a kickoff event, titled Turn Down for Watt, and (2) a celebration party for the winners of the challenge.

https://sustainability.iupui.edu/engagement/energy-challenge/index.html

Energy Savings Tips and Challenge promoted through News @ IUPUI:
https://news.iu.edu/stories/2019/09/iupui/inside/26-how-to-save-energy-during-this-years-energy-challenge.html

In 2018, all three residence halls collectively saved 38,408.8 KWh of electricity. The winners reduced their energy usage by 11.6%.

In 2019, the four buildings collectively saved 27,286 Kwh of electricity. More than 80 Energy Reduction Pledges were submitted by students, faculty and staff.

A celebration event was held for the winning location, Turn Down for Winning Watt: University Tower Celebrates Energy Challenge Victory. University Tower residents celebrated their hard-fought victory in the 2019 Energy Challenge at IUPUI. The Tower single-handedly saved 14,548.98 KWh of energy – the equivalent of saving more than 11,000 pounds of coal from burning or 23.8 barrels of oil from being consumed. The celebration also achieved Green Event Certification by utilizing sustainable practices like zero-waste catering, composting and more.

From November 12th-16th, 2018 IUPUI hosted a series of events in respect of the national Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (HHAW) to raise awareness and promote ending poverty in our own community, along with strengthening the national movement to end hunger and homelessness. Bringing attention to the plight of the hungry and homeless fosters greater understanding and solidarity, inspiring others to take action.

The campaign kickoff event at the Campus Center featured a performance by the Young Actors Theatre, insprired by research of real-life stories of homelessness among youth. A community resource fair was hosted by Student Affairs, providing information about services and programs available to the campus and local community. A volunteer program called Jaguars in the Streets gathered 60 volunteers to give back to area organizations.

During this campaign, attention was brought to IUPUI's food rescue programs, the Campus Kitchen at IUPUI and Paw's Pantry. The Campus Kitchen hosted a campus community dinner, called "Gather at the Table." This event served over 100 individuals free, warm meals made by the Campus Kitchen using rescued food. Paw's Pantry hosted "Jam the Pantry," an annual food drive aiming to fulfill the needs of the community throughout the holiday season. A Pack-a-Meal event with Million Meal Movement led volunteers in packing meals that included vitamins, minerals, dried vegetables, soy protein, and rice to create wholesome meals. All meals packed were distributed at Paw’s Pantry.

During HHAW, all post-consumer food waste was collected from all employees and students during lunch hours and analyzed for trends in IUPUI food waste generation. Over the week, 711.7 lbs of leftovers were thrown away by IUPUI students, faculty, and staff - an average of 142.34 lbs per lunch period. Scaled up to across the 32 week academic year, that's nearly 23,000 lbs of food thrown away a year.

The Gather at the Table community dinner served 100 warm meals using rescued food. To date, the Campus Kitchen at IUPUI has rescued nearly 32,000 lbs of food from waste, preparing it into 10,625 warm meals. The Pack-a-Meal event gathered 60 volunteers and packed 5,000 meals to donate to Paw's Pantry. A subsequent food waste audit found a total of 557lbs of food were thrown away, demonstrating an improvement from the semester before.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our campus community moved remotely in March, 2020 through the summer of 2020. Therefore, the IUPUI Office of Sustainability transitioned to a 2020 Virtual Earth Month and promoted these events and resources to all faculty, staff and students through our social media outlets:
Virtual Content Now Available Online at the IUPUI Sustainability You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpuAYz8JvSBNogrAsxASBQw/videos

Throughout the month of April, the Sustainability team delivered a host of virtual engagement activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Each one of our virtual events were developed and produced by our student interns and staff. Without a doubt, the success of our Earth Month celebrations could not have been possible without them! You can now view the webinar recordings and videos at our IUPUI Sustainability YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpuAYz8JvSBNogrAsxASBQw/videos
• IUPUI Sustainability 101
• Using Psychology to Drive Behavior Change
• Becoming Carbon Neutral: Strategies from Succeeding Universities
• Recycling on Campus Simplified
• How to Win the Energy Challenge at Home: Energy Saving Tips
• Food Insecurity and How to Grow Plants from Food Scraps
• Five Ways You Can Celebrate the 50th Earth Day
• Prepping Your Garden Beds: How Good Preparation Augments Soil Health
• How to Design a Promotional Event Flyer
The festivities carried on into Arbor Day, which we celebrated with the release of a week-long video series, produced in partnership with IUPUI Grounds and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. The Arbor Day Celebration Series explored the beauty of our campus trees, demonstrated how to care for your trees at home, and culminated with a virtual tree planting in Ball Gardens! Check out those videos:
• Iconic Trees and Greenspaces at IUPUI
• Pollinator Showcase
• How to Mulch
• How to Prune Trees
• Virtual Tree Planting

Civic Engagement Outreach:
IUPUI has repeatedly received national recognition as a civically engaged campus. In 2018, 72.9% of students were registered to vote, and the university was recognized with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Silver Seal and Voter Friendly Campus designation. In 2020, IUPUI was named one of Washington Monthly's Best Colleges for Student Voting.

During the 2020 election year, IUPUI is participating in the 2020 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge to increase first-year student voter registration and engagement of minority students and to develop a strong student outreach campaign.
https://engage.iupui.edu/service-opportunities/voting-guide.html

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