Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.48
Liaison Dayna Cook
Submission Date Sept. 28, 2020

STARS v2.2

Northern Arizona University
IN-40: Sustainability Projects Fund

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s sustainability projects fund:
Green Fund

Which of the following best describes the primary source of funding for the sustainability projects fund?:
Student fees

Year the institution’s sustainability projects fund was established:
2,010

A brief description of the institution’s sustainability projects fund:

The NAU Green Fund (GF) promotes student participation in and provides funding for projects that reduce NAU’s negative impact on the environment and create a culture of sustainability on campus.The Green Fund was started with student support in 2010 and collects a $15 fee from every student, every session/semester they are enrolled in. The Green Fund has funded about 50 projects totaling over $1,000,000 as of 2016.

Additionally, in accordance with the Green Fund's mission to reduce NAU's negative impact on the environment and contribute to a culture of sustainability on campus, the Green Fund Research grant was created during the Fall 2019 term with the vision to incentive solution-oriented research on sustainable initiatives local to Flagstaff and NAU. All full-time NAU students, undergraduates and graduates could apply for funding. In 2019-2020, a total of $20,000.00 in research grants were divided and awarded to the following student projects:
-Justin Case for Testing Effectiveness of PET Plastic-eating Microbes at NAU
-Galen Dennis for Carbon Sequestering Algae Bioreactor
-Miles Dunlap for NAU Fleet: Path to Carbon Neutrality
-Jordan Masayesva for Data Acquisition System for Small Wind Turbines
-Trong-Doan Nguyen for Data-driven Analytics of Building Utility Demand
-Christina Osterink for NAU Office Food Waste Collection for Vermicomposting Program

The Green fund Research Grant is now an annual application that will accept research proposals from October to December of each year.


A brief description of the multi-stakeholder decision-making process used to determine which projects receive funding through the sustainability projects fund:

The Green Fund Committee consists of 10 members, both students and faculty. The Green Fund operates on a reimbursement basis and works with the departments that most fit the project to be implemented to provide the upfront funding.The committee has complete authority over GF spending. It is the duty of the voting committee members to:
-Review project applications and determine allocation of funds, the GF has the discretion to partially fund projects
-Vote on the passing of projects and allocation of funds
-Determine which projects should receive funding

Cocosus is a group of high-level administrators that helps to represent and communicate sustainability across all departments on campus. This group votes on passing Green Fund project proposals once they have first been approved by the Green Fund committee.

The Office of Sustainability is also a stakeholder as it includes the Green Fund and is highly involved and collaborative with its operations.

Facility services is another department that is heavily involved in Green Fund decisions as it implements many of the projects and provides institutional knowledge that helps guide project decisions.

Staff and faculty are stakeholders as they too can submit a Green Fund project proposal.


Website URL where information about the sustainability projects fund is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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