Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 74.09
Liaison Merry Rankin
Submission Date Aug. 30, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Iowa State University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Merry Rankin
ISU Director of Sustainability
Facilities Planning & Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
6,480

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
6,480

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
100

Name of the employee educators program:
Procurement Process Certification Training

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
6,480

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:

The Procurement Process Certification Training includes a session on green procurement covering Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Guidelines. The goal of this program is to educate and empower employees in making environmentally, economically and socially-conscious purchasing decisions. Upon completion of this training, employees are furnished with knowledge, materials and resources allowing them to convey these guidelines to coworkers within their respective departments.


A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:

Iowa State Procurement Services delegates purchasing authority to departments which in turn select their employees to make purchases on the departments’ behalf. Employees with this authority are required to take the Procurement Process Certification Training before spending departmental funds.


A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:

The Procurement Process Certification Training details Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Guidelines to ensure a "green" focus is given to procurement decisions. These guidelines include: prioritizing the purchase of recycled-content products and ENERGY STAR certified electronics; minimizing the generation of environmental toxins via the purchase of biodegradable products, including environmentally-preferable paper and wood products; supporting locally produced goods and services and reducing waste of natural resources, including energy and water. Educators are also taught key concepts integral to Green Procurement, including: life cycle cost analysis, post-consumer content, as well as the waste minimization through reuse, repurpose and recycling.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination):

The program is sponsored by Iowa State University Procurement Services, which provide staff and training materials for the sessions.


Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Green Teams

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
4,317.40

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):

Green Teams are groups of faculty, staff, and students who have voluntarily come together with the goal of furthering sustainability practices, policies, behavior, and opportunities at Iowa State University. These teams have organized in conjunction with various alliances representing specific buildings, colleges, departments, and functional areas across campus.


A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):

Green Teams members are appointed by their representative alliances.


A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):

Green teams collaborate with each other on green initiatives for a particular building or department, which then allows members to reach out to others in the organization and spread sustainable ideas. Teams gather and discuss information during meetings, allowing educators to become knowledgeable in sustainability-related issues and opportunities within each team's area.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):

Green Teams work closely with Iowa State University's Director of Sustainability related to obtaining connections to resources and collaboration opportunities. Additionally, dialogue meetings are held each semester and on as-needed basis as determined by the Green Teams. Meeting discussions include challenges, successes, strategies, campus sustainability initiatives and opportunities and strategic planning.


A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of employees served and how employee educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:

Although not specifically focused on sustainability, a beneficial partnership has been formed with University Building Supervisors toward enhancing awareness of sustainability processes, procedures and policies within campus buildings and encouraging increased dialogue around issues of sustainability.

Each building at Iowa State University has an appointed building supervisor which acts a resource and serves as critical liaison for facilities-related activities between building occupants and Facilities Planning and Management staff. Building supervisors (faculty or staff) provide education, awareness, support and guidance to their building occupants in operational areas including, but not limited to:
•Communicating service interruptions or outages
•Establishing building hours of operation
•Communicating maintenance, custodial or grounds needs or concerns
•Approve access to exterior doors.
•Sustainability practices and opportunities including energy conservation and recycling and waste diversion.

Building Supervisors are appointed by their representative alliances.

Supervisors meet annually with Facilities Planning and Management for orientation and training and on an as-needed basis determined by both the building supervisors and Facilities Planning and Management.


Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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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.