Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 73.38
Liaison Brandon Trelstad
Submission Date Dec. 9, 2022

STARS v2.2

Oregon State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Leticia Cavazos
Sustainability Program Specialist
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Res Hall Move Out Donation Drive

A brief description of the campaign:

OSU Campus Recycling and Surplus Property, in collaboration with University Housing and Dining, coordinated an effort to reduce waste during residence hall move-out by educating residents and giving them the tools to recycle and donate as much as possible.

Each residence hall room received a move-out kit, which included a door hanger with details on how to donate and recycle unwanted materials, along with bags in which to sort their material in their room. Grocery-style plastic bags were provided for food and toiletries, and 13-gallon blue bags were provided for clothing, bedding, and small housewares. Labeled donation bins were located in the lobby, along with all the recycle bins.

Residents were made aware of the upcoming donation drive starting one month in advance. Info was provided via abundant signage inside the halls, large posters at each UHDS service center, notices in the Campus Living eNewsletter, a presentation to the Residence Hall Association General Assembly, posts on social media, and a web page made just for residents.

Donations were given to local non-profit organizations.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

In 2022, 20,422 pounds of donations were received.


Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Campus Race to Zero Waste

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):

Campus Race to Zero Waste is an annual 8-week competition for U.S. college and university recycling programs to see who can recycle the most. OSU has been competing since 2005 and currently competes for the largest amount of recyclables per capita and the largest amount of total recyclables. Campus Recycling weighs and measures all recycling from on-campus and reports it weekly during the competition.

In 2010, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon created our own Campus Race to Zero Waste competition, called the Campus Race to Zero Waste Oregon Classic.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

The 2020 competition spanned eight weeks, February 2 - March 28, 2020. OSU won the 2020 Campus Race to Zero Waste Oregon Classic. The final score was 9.90 to 6.30 pounds recycled per person.

In addition to beating the University of Oregon, OSU saw an increase in recycling over the 2019 competition, despite the drop in recycling in final weeks due to staff and students moving to remote work and classes. Over the eight weeks, OSU recycled an estimated 273,709 pounds - 82,048 more than 2019 - for an average of 9.90 pounds per Corvallis campus community member - a 41% increase over 2019. The greatest increase was in cardboard weights, which is due to our ability to measure more cardboard than in previous years (due to a change in OSU's contract with its hauler related to weight data tracking). We also saw a 31% increase in paper and 20% increase in commingled recycling but a 20% drop in bottle/can weights.

https://fa.oregonstate.edu/recycling/events-and-opportunities/campus-race-zero-waste-osu


A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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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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