Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.74
Liaison Krista Bailey
Submission Date Oct. 20, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Pennsylvania State University
EN-8: Staff Professional Development

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Lydia Vandenbergh
Assoc. Dir. Employee Engagement & Education
Sustainability Institute
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution make available training and/or other professional development opportunities in sustainability to all staff at least once per year?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability trainings and professional development opportunities available to staff :

The annual Staff Professional Development Review process includes sustainability thus providing an incentive for staff to learn about sustainability and practice these concepts in their work. Training is offered in a variety of formats.

On an ongoing basis, the Sustainability Institute offers workshops and presentations on the following:
- How to form Green Teams
- How to adopt the Green Paws Program to have an office "green" certified
- Sustainability 101
- Sustainability Strategic Planning
These workshops are available to all staff and faculty.

Faculty and staff can also learn sustainability concepts through the Green Teams program. At the quarterly Green Teams lunches, we bring in speakers to talk about specific topics, such as "green" purchasing, recycling, energy conservation, and wellness.

At the New Employee Orientation, we introduce the participants to the sustainability concept, the role of sustainability in Penn State's Strategic plan, and ways they can become involved.

Annually, the Finance and Business Environmental Key Initiative sponsors an Environmental Forum, open to all faculty and staff in order to create awareness about sustainability. At each forum, we want the participants to leave with ideas that they can act on in order to improve their sustainability practices, both in their own lives and at work. The 2013 Forum and the 2014 Earth Day celebration focused on food topics. Both events featured panel discussions exploring ideas on local food systems, food security, and more. In addition, every spring, an Environmental Colloquium is held to educate Penn Staters and the community about sustainability topics. The speakers have included Bill McKibben, Amory Lovins, David Suzuki, Peter Diamandis and other national leaders.
www.earthday.psu.edu
http://sustainability.psu.edu/food
http://sustainability.psu.edu/calendar/peter-diamandis-lecture-abundance-our-future


The percentage of staff that participated in training and/or other professional development opportunities in sustainability during the previous year:
20

The website URL where information about staff training opportunities in sustainability is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The percentage of the 16,700 staff members who participated in sustainability training was derived by adding up the participation in the following events:
Green Team 101 Orientations
Green Paws Orientation
Green Team lunches
Environmental Forum
New Employee Orientation
Environmental Colloquium
Green Team Trainings
Green Team sponsored events - information derived from the annual survey of Green teams.
We realize that this process double counts those who attend more than one event. Beginning this year, we will be using a centralized registration process for many of these events and will therefore be able to gauge a more accurate picture of how many people are receiving professional development training for sustainable decision making.


The percentage of the 16,700 staff members who participated in sustainability training was derived by adding up the participation in the following events:
Green Team 101 Orientations
Green Paws Orientation
Green Team lunches
Environmental Forum
New Employee Orientation
Environmental Colloquium
Green Team Trainings
Green Team sponsored events - information derived from the annual survey of Green teams.
We realize that this process double counts those who attend more than one event. Beginning this year, we will be using a centralized registration process for many of these events and will therefore be able to gauge a more accurate picture of how many people are receiving professional development training for sustainable decision making.

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.