Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 56.41
Liaison Audrey McSain
Submission Date March 1, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Lehigh University
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.50 / 3.00 Delicia Nahman
Sustainability Officer
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Is the institution an active member of a national or international sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the national or international sustainability network(s):

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)


Is the institution an active member of a regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s):

Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC)


Has the institution presented at a sustainability conference during the previous year? :
Yes

A list or brief description of the conference(s) and presentation(s):

1) AASHE Conference 2017

Presentation Title: Let's Talk Trash and Recycling: How to Build a Comprehensive View of Campus Waste Management and Diversion Efforts

Developing a comprehensive waste management plan, policy, and data tracking system can be a daunting, yet rewarding task for an institution. These materials not only provide information on existing campus waste and recycling streams, responsible parties and duties, data collection and reporting, and operational guidance, but they also detail waste diversion goals and provide recommendations for achieving those goals. By developing a waste management plan, policy, and data tracking system, an institution builds a comprehensive view of campus waste management and diversion efforts and is able to track progress both at a granular and high level. This allows the campus sustainability community to break down the silos between departments, make connections, and build bridges to further progress toward the institution's waste diversion goals. But how do you get started? What is the path to develop these materials? In this session, we will chart Lehigh University's path to developing a comprehensive plan, policy, and data tracking system. Lehigh went from having no plan or policy and a very simple tracking system in 2016 to having a fully developed, comprehensive plan, policy, and data tracking system in 2017. Through efforts like this, institutions continue to enhance the culture of sustainability on their campus. Together we can reduce our campus' environmental footprint, be responsible stewards of our institution's resources, and contribute to our sustainability goals.

2) Communicating Sustainability Through Social Media

In order to reap the full benefits of engaging your campus community and the public in sustainability through social media, it is important to think about strategies to better leverage social media effectively and efficiently. In this session, we will discuss a couple of strategies that will help you better leverage your social media platforms. We will cover the importance of utilizing Facebook and Instagram Insights to learn about the demographics of your audience and behavior, building a community, forming relationships with your communications department, as well as tagging, using hashtags, sharing, and developing your own style of sharing and caring. By doing these things, you can develop more pertinent, engaging, and timely content and develop informed best practices and guidelines for the administrators of your pages. As a result, you will begin to enhance your reach, better engage with your audience, and further make progress toward a more sustainable, healthy, and equitable campus community through social media. This will be an interactive session where we will gauge audience knowledge/experience, do a quick think-pair-share activity on communications challenges and successes, as well as open it up to Q&A.

2) Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Sustainability Conference.
Presentation Title: The Evolution of the Lehigh Eco-Reps Leadership Program


Has the institution submitted a case study during the previous year to a sustainability awards program that is inclusive of multiple campuses? :
No

A list or brief description of the awards program(s) and submission(s):
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Has the institution had staff, students or faculty serving on a board or committee of a sustainability network or conference during the previous three years? :
Yes

A list or brief description of the board or committee appointment(s):

Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges Sustainability Conference.
Lehigh University had a staff member serving on a committee of LVAIC conference in the Spring of 2017.


Does the institution have an ongoing mentoring relationship with another institution through which it assists the institution with its sustainability reporting and/or the development of its sustainability program?:
No

A brief description of the mentoring relationship and activities:
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Has the institution had staff, faculty, or students serving as peer reviewers of another institution’s sustainability data (e.g. GHG emissions or course inventory) and/or STARS submission during the previous three years?:
No

A brief description of the peer review activities:
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Has the institution participated in other collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year, e.g. joint planning or resource sharing with other institutions? :
Yes

A brief description of other collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year:

Lehigh University is a member of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC). Our activities, focused on our strategic priorities of professional excellence, programmatic sharing and synergy, and operating efficiencies, provide expanded and enhanced opportunities for faculty, staff, and students and free resources to support campus-specific programs.

Among the many LVAIC activities, Lehigh University has also hosted the "LVAIC Campus Sustainability Conference 2016". The purpose of the conference was to explore sustainability projects, cultivate dialogue and shared learning and encourage concrete action promoting responsible stewardship of the natural environment and equitable community in the areas where we live and work.

For more information: https://www.lvaic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/LVAIC-Annual-Report-2015-16.pdf


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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.