Lehigh University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Lehigh University’s Sustainable Office Program is a voluntary, self-guided program designed for staff to take the lead on promoting environmental practices in the workplace. The Sustainable Office Program Representative takes the lead on completing the registration form, baseline survey, and checklist of actions but through this they inform their office peers about ways in which they can be more sustainable in each of the focus areas. By taking action in a variety of topic areas, the Sustainable Office Representative, through peer to peer education, can reduce the environmental footprint of the office, be responsible stewards of university’s resources, and contribute to Lehigh’s sustainability goals and commitments. The employees that have completed the program engage with their own colleagues within their offices to help continue to make their offices more sustainable. They also engage with colleagues outside of their office and department by helping to promote the Sustainable Office Program at events such as the Earth Day Fair. They also are asked to nominate an office that hasn't been certified to encourage other offices to join the program. We have found that these are extremely successful ways of getting new offices interested in the program. Employees like to hear from their colleagues who have already been through the program before they commit to join the program. Additionally, in the Summer of 2017, the Sustainable Office Program began phase one of a two phase outreach, marketing, and expansion plan. Phase one included revamping the registration form, baseline survey, and checklist of actions, creating resources for offices to use, and re-doing the program website. In the Fall of 2018 and Spring of 2018, the Sustainable Office Program did phase two of the outreach, marketing, and expansion plan. This included: revising the website content, hiring an additional intern, beginning to revamp the certification process for offices/suites and departments/colleges, developing a certified office of the year award and process, and determining the percentage of offices within a STEM that are certified or not.

Offices are required to select a leader(s), known as a Sustainable Office Program Representative, and members of the office are required to receive training by the Office of Sustainability. Sustainable Office Program Representatives self-select.

The certification process includes completing a registration form, a baseline survey, as well as a checklist of actions, which have specific questions that address day-to-day behavior such as regularly turning off the lights when you leave the office as well as waste reduction and recycling. The Sustainable Office Program Representative meets regularly with Office of Sustainability staff in order to receive training on the various components of the baseline survey and the checklist of actions. The Sustainable Office Representative learns how to appropriately conduct a baseline survey in their office and they learn what each of the actions in the checklist (within each of the focus areas) means and how they can best achieve them in their office. Since every office and department is different, the Office of Sustainability performs targeted training based on the anticipated needs of each office.

The Office of Sustainability identifies a staff member to assist the Sustainable Office Program Representative and their departments with the registration, baseline survey, and checklist of actions as well as throughout the certification process. The program does not usually cost the Office of Sustainability or the departments anything, except the minimal cost of the medallions and certificates that the Office of Sustainability covers. The Office of Sustainability will however contribute to workplace purchases, in order for the office to meet specific actions on the checklist, if requested.

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