Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.71
Liaison Greg Kozak
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

Northwestern University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Sarah Tulga
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees:
10,591

Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
10,591

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
100

Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
Green Office Program

A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):

The Green Office Program provides tools and support to help offices and departments conserve resources, reduce costs, and create a healthier, greener workplace. Participating offices and Green Office teams receive University-wide recognition for their efforts and become part of a campus-wide community of sustainability leaders and peer-to-peer educators for their respective office or department. Green Office teams serve as peer educators to their whole staff, spearheading the program for their spaces. All staff in the program are trained by sustainNU and are expected to communicate sustainability information with colleagues in their office and across the institution. The program has 943 Green Office trained employee educators across both Northwestern campuses.


A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):

The Green Office Program serves all staff and faculty institution wide. Additionally, graduate students also are served by the program within academic departments who join and engage with this program.


Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
943

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
50

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
0.50

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
23,575

Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :
Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
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Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
---

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
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Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (2nd program):
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A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
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Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
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Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
---

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
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Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
23,575

Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
2.23

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

Employee educators in the Green Office program educate their peers in a variety of ways. They lead their coworkers through the process of conducting an assessment of their workplace. This involves a walk through of the space focused on identifying opportunities to conserve resources, use less energy, facilitate recycling, or take other steps to become more sustainable.

Green Office leaders also educate their peers by hosting presentations and events focused on sustainability, posting information about recycling and energy conservation in the workplace, including sustainability reminders in team meetings and newsletters.

Green Team leaders also work with the sustainNU program to help keep their colleagues informed about sustainability events taking place on campus such as Earth Month activities, lectures, and other special events.

Other examples of how Green Office leaders have educated their peers include:
- Hosting zero waste meetings and events that feature education on cutting waste
- Providing all new staff with Green Office information along with a reusable mug and water bottle
- Hosting coffee gatherings that require participants to bring their own reusable mugs
- Co-hosting events such as park clean-up days with the sustainNU program


Employee educators in the Green Office program educate their peers in a variety of ways. They lead their coworkers through the process of conducting an assessment of their workplace. This involves a walk through of the space focused on identifying opportunities to conserve resources, use less energy, facilitate recycling, or take other steps to become more sustainable.

Green Office leaders also educate their peers by hosting presentations and events focused on sustainability, posting information about recycling and energy conservation in the workplace, including sustainability reminders in team meetings and newsletters.

Green Team leaders also work with the sustainNU program to help keep their colleagues informed about sustainability events taking place on campus such as Earth Month activities, lectures, and other special events.

Other examples of how Green Office leaders have educated their peers include:
- Hosting zero waste meetings and events that feature education on cutting waste
- Providing all new staff with Green Office information along with a reusable mug and water bottle
- Hosting coffee gatherings that require participants to bring their own reusable mugs
- Co-hosting events such as park clean-up days with the sustainNU program

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.