Portland Community College
EN-1: Outreach and Communications
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 5.00 |
Stephania
Fregosi Sustainability Analyst Academic Affairs |
1.1 Sustainability outreach and communications
Website URL of the institution’s central sustainability website:
Does the institution integrate sustainability information into the educational offerings or materials provided during new student orientation or the equivalent?:
Narrative outlining how sustainability information is integrated into new student orientation or the equivalent:
Weeks of Welcome encompasses a series of events across the PCC campuses starting the first day of Fall Term and throughout the month of October that combines academic and social programming to help new and returning students kick off the new academic year.
The programming focused on supporting navigation with topics such as making connections with other new and returning students, academic preparedness, social identity, campus engagement, and other important topics transitioning to college life.
During Week of Welcome Day, students may participate in a half-day introduction to the college's campuses and resources. During Week of Welcome, students have the opportunity to participate in a half-day introduction to the college's campuses and resources. Students may tour the campus; attend workshops on college success, access resources, financial management, learn about student activities, and visit with faculty and staff. Sustainability staff participate in tabling events at all four of the main campuses. We provide information about sustainability curriculum, programming and initiatives, as well as ways that students can get involved. At campuses where we have learning gardens, students give garden tours and share volunteer opportunities.
During tabling events, sustainability staff share many resources including their guide to sustainability education resources, which provides a one stop shop for students to educational pathways, individual courses, community based learning opportunities, the learning gardens, the Rock Creek Environmental Studies Resource Center, library guides, volunteer opportunities and more! Most of this information can be found on our website under Academics, or our Student Sustainability Hub.
Staff from the learning gardens and the active transportation programs also host their own tables.
Does the institution integrate sustainability information into the educational offerings or materials provided during new employee orientation or the equivalent?:
Narrative outlining how sustainability information is integrated into new employee orientation of the equivalent:
In addition to Weeks of Welcome, the college hosts an annual in-service during which all new staff and faculty are required to attend. The Sustainability Department has a table during in-service and provides resources and a variety of outreach materials to educate employees on the college's sustainability programs, resources and procedures.
In addition, PCC sustainability staff host a workshop during in-service. In the Fall of FY 2023, we offered multiple learning garden tours. In the Fall of FY 2024, we held a learning garden open house specifically for all staff.
Does the institution have dashboards and/or signage highlighting the institution’s sustainability features or performance?:
Description of the institution’s sustainability dashboards and/or signage:
PCC has sustainability signage installed in each of its LEED certified buildings that explain the critical LEED features of each building.
Additional signage containing program specific information can be found throughout the institution. Examples include signs for stormwater features, no-spray zones, a monarch waystation, the five learning gardens, the ground-mounted PV array at Rock Creek, the bathroom hand-dryers and reminder stickers for the power-shift energy conservation program, EV-charging stations, the stormwater plaza at PCC's Climb Center, shuttle waiting areas, bike rental programs, the food pantry program, and information for the college's recycling services. Offices also contain information about the college's speciality recycling services such as pen and marker recycling and battery recycling.
Past students from our GIS programs have also created campus sustainability maps so that folks may take a digital sustainability tour of our four main campuses.
In addition, the Portland Community College Office of Planning & Capital Construction built a PCC workforce and contracting data dashboard, a real-time transparency and accountability tool used to understand contractor performance, address deficiencies and support contractors in meeting their equity and workforce objectives.
For contracts over $100,000, PCC aspires to meet the following workforce and contracting equity objectives – 25% and 22% journeyworker and apprentice hours worked by people of color; 20% and 9% apprentice and journeyworker hours worked by women; and 20% total apprentice hours by a minority-owned contractor, respectively.
Past students from our GIS programs have also created campus sustainability maps so that folks may take a digital sustainability tour of our four main campuses.
Does the institution manage a sustainability-focused social media account, newsletter, blog, online community, podcast, video series, or equivalent communications medium or platform?:
Description of and/or website URL for at least one sustainability-focused communication medium or platform:
We use pcc.edu/sustain as our major sustainability communication platform. The PCC Student Campus Sustainability Hub, is our one stop shop to help students find classes, jobs, events and resources for their sustainability journey.
In addition, we released a campus wide sustainability newsletter for all staff in January of 2025 and are working on ways for students to sign-up for the newsletter.
Historically, @PCC_Sustain is our instagram platform where we share announcements, events, tips, etc. We have spotlighted professors teaching sustainability and sustainability related courses, job opportunities, classes, events and more.
Has the institution coordinated one or more sustainability-focused outreach campaigns during the previous three years?:
Description of sustainability-focused outreach campaigns from the previous three years:
We have regularly participated in challenge campaigns run through EcoChallenge.org. In 2023, we participated in the 2023 Drawdown Ecochallenge, which is focused on climate change. Participants take on a mini-challenge, log progress and earn points. At the same time, the challenge offers tips for students around a variety of sustainability topics. It meets students where they are, so they can choose the challenge/campaign that best meets them where they are.
While some faculty use the Ecochallenge in their coursework, our office also signs up individuals so the college can compete as a team.
As a group we ranked 3rd in the world for total points.
- Traveled 2,804 miles not using a car
- Kept 1,369 lbs of CO2 out of the atmosphere
- Spent 2,183 minutes outdoors
- Spent 7,262 minutes learning
- Picked up 5,4232 pieces of litter
- Saved 870 gallons of water
- And consumed 342 meatless/vegan meals.
One of our professors, Kim Smith, was recently celebrated for having engaged students through the Ecochallenge with over 1,000 students since 1996. Kim integrates discussion book materials into her curriculum and has also created a framework which supports other educators wishing to conduct similar activities.
PCC’s How You Can Kill-A-Watt campaign ran from September 2022-May of 2023 and focused on energy saving tips for employees returning to the workplace. The campaign ran through a monthly energy newsletter and posts through the sustainability department’s instagram campaign. In the summer of 2024, the sustainability department followed up with a blog post for keeping PCC cool during periods of high heat, something we can provide whenever there are heat warnings for our region.
We use instagram. We also started a newsletter in 2024.
Our website contains a news section and a blog.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
1.2 Percentage of campus stakeholders reached through sustainability outreach and communications
Percentage of campus stakeholders reached through sustainability outreach and communications:
Approach used to determine the percentage of campus stakeholders reached:
Description of the methodology used to determine the reach of the institution’s sustainability outreach and communications:
We examined the Word Press analytics from our website and looked at views from the region. The website had approximately 22,600 views in 2023 (September 2022-August 2023) and over 3,500 users. We also looked at our instagram account. Our instagram account has 1,027 followers and our peak engagement was 726 accounts with over 2,000 views and is one of the more popular PCC instagram accounts. (The majority of the views came from the towns where we draw our college population from, although about 9% came from Seattle.) The Basic Needs and Sustainability Leadership Instagram platform also had over 300 followers at last check.
The PCC newsletter goes to all staff and faculty for an estimated additional 3,000 users. The college also features news stories on sustainability regularly that appear on the main website several times a year. These are high traffic items.
Students, staff and faculty who participate in civic engagement are signed up through the give pulse platform, which we use for enrolling students into volunteer work such as beach clean ups, learning garden work and other opportunities. We have about 718 folks signed up through give pulse.
PCC also regularly features news stories about sustainability on the main page of the college's website throughout the year a - from September 2023-September 2014, this was about 730 views. These include stories about the college's many green building projects, highlighting accomplishments in our green initiatives and grants.
Website: 4,100 users, 22,100 views
Instagram PCC_Sustain: 1027, Instagram: Basic Needs and Sustainability Leadership 321
Newsletter: 2,979 staff and faculty FTE
Civic Engagement: 798
News Stories: 1,000
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
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.