Portland Community College
EN-3: Staff Engagement and Training

PCC's Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council is a volunteer council that oversees the integration of sustainability into PCC’s curriculum across all disciplines. SPARC members include staff, administrators, and instructors from across the disciplines. SPARC facilitates sharing, design and development of all curriculum between faculty. This is done through workshops, meetings and conferences including regular lunch and learn events that are open to everyone, including staff events.

Additional opportunities come through our Bee Campus and Tree Campus USA committees, which also host programming for staff, students and faculty.

Events at PCC are generally organized by topic rather than for targeted audience due to the distributed nature of a district college, with a higher percentage of part-time students. In addition, many of our staff and students are participating remotely.

Every term, the PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals offers Member Organizer Institute, a training and development opportunity for emerging leaders who are ready to take their union organizing skills to the next level. The program includes a two-day organizing training with other member organizing institute/academy participants and real-world field experience under guidance from professional organizing staff.  The goals of the institute is to train union members to build power, grow membership, engage current members in our union and ensure the long-term sustainability of our local by having members trained to continue their organizing work and help develop other members after participating in the institute. 

PCC's Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council is a volunteer council that oversees the integration of sustainability into PCC’s curriculum across all disciplines. SPARC members include staff, administrators, and instructors from across the disciplines. SPARC facilitates sharing, design and development of all curriculum between faculty. This is done through workshops, meetings and conferences including regular lunch and learn events that are open to everyone, including staff events, which have included trainings on climate change, climate justice and an annual update on the UN Conference of Parties.

PCC has been a participant in the Energy Trust of Oregon Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program since 2015. It focuses on continuous energy improvement by optimizing the performance of existing building systems and equipment, influencing employee and occupant behavior and investing in economically beneficial capital improvements. The SEM program includes workshops on topics such as energy audits, building systems optimization, behavior change, performance monitoring, and managerial strategies. 

Our Environmental Health and Safety team offers a Stormwater Management training to a variety of staff including Parking and Transportation, Support Services, Fleet Management Services, Buildings and Grounds and others. The training was hosted live,  recorded and posted for others to take later.

PCC's Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council is a volunteer council that oversees the integration of sustainability into PCC’s curriculum across all disciplines. SPARC members include staff, administrators, and instructors from across the disciplines. SPARC facilitates sharing, design and development of all curriculum between faculty. This is done through workshops, meetings and conferences including regular lunch and learn events that are open to everyone, including staff events. This includes an annual update on the UN Conference of Parties, Earth Week events and the Ecochallenge.

PCC has been participant in the Energy Trust of Oregon Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program since 2015. It focuses on continuous energy improvement by optimizing the performance of existing building systems and equipment, influencing employee and occupant behavior and investing in economically beneficial capital improvements. The SEM program includes workshops on topics such as energy audits, building systems optimization, behavior change, performance monitoring, and managerial strategies. 

Our Environmental Health and Safety team offers a Stormwater Management training to a variety of staff including Parking and Transportation, Support Services, Fleet Management Services, Buildings and Grounds and others. The training was hosted live, recorded and posted for others to take later.

This is a rough estimate based on tracking of participation in our most recent Earth Week, engagement at events at our learning gardens and other events and attendance during various tours (green building tour at the Opportunity Center, tour of the Rock Creek Solar array, sustainability tour of the Sylvania Campus), Teaching Week, SPARC activities, attendance at sustainability conferences, and in sustainability related community service through the Unity Crew (Unity Crew events include: Classified Employee Week, National Employee Appreciation Day, Administrative Professionals Day, Faculty/Academic Professionals Appreciation Week and PCC Employee Service Awards.).