| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 70.59 |
| Liaison | Daryl Pierson |
| Submission Date | June 27, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Portland State University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.67 / 3.00 |
Amanda
Wolf Program + Assessment Coordinator Campus Sustainability Office |
Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
Name of the employee educators program:
Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:
Climate Champions is a voluntary program for employee engagement and peer-to-peer outreach. This program promotes and recognizes resource conservation and stewardship within departments and provides training for employees who volunteer to be their department's "sustainability liaison."
Sustainability liaison's complete an online checklist to determine a baseline for departmental sustainability practices. Staff from the Campus Sustainability Office reviews this checklist to customize training for the department sustainability liaison and sets up a meeting to provide the customized training. The sustainability liaison acts as a mentor for the employees within their department providing peer-to-peer outreach to implement additional sustainability practices within their office.
Example:
The administrative services manager in our Office of Information Technology submitted a Climate Champion checklist in the spring of 2016, showing areas for improvement in energy and water conservation, event planning, and purchasing. Staff from the Campus Sustainability Office met with the administrative services manager (aka sustainability liaison) and provided one-on-one training to give her the resources and skill to provide outreach to the employees in her department. The sustainability liaison worked with computer lab staff in her department to provide education on using post consumer recycled content paper in the labs. Through her peer-to-peer outreach, the Office of Information Technology moved from a Bronze Climate Champion to a Gold Climate Champion in a little over a year. The Campus Sustainability Office is continuing to work with the sustainability liaison in this department to provide resources and training so that she can continue to work with her peers to target other areas of sustainability.
A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:
The Climate Champions program is voluntary, so employee educators are either designated by their department or volunteer to take the lead as a sustainability liaison.
A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:
Training for the sustainability liaison is customized based on the answers provided in their Climate Champion checklist. Once the checklist has been completed, staff from the Campus Sustainability Office reviews their answers and creates a training program specific to their departments needs.
Staff meets with the sustainability liaison to give them a customized one-on-one training that includes strategies to engage co-workers in sustainability efforts and resources to help implement outreach activities to increase the departments sustainability awareness and day-to-day operations that are more sustainable.
A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination):
The Education and Outreach Coordinator, a full time employee within the Campus Sustainability Office, supports the program. There is a small budget dedicated to the program to purchase incentives for Climate Champions (i.e. refillable pens, buddy bins, battery buckets, etc..)
Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
The Certified Healthy Department is part of PSU's Healthy Campus Initiative and supports healthy employees and the departments that support the health of its employees. Through an online survey, departments answer questions in the following categories:
-Leadership Support/Culture of Wellness
-Culture of Wellness
-Enivronmental Safety
-Active Lifestyle
-Nutrition/Hydration
-Tobacco Free/Air Quality
-Mental health and Well-being
The survey is a way to keep track and set goals for the department.
This is a new program and the initial pilot only included one division at PSU, Planning, Construction, and Real Estate. The full program will launch in the Fall of 2017
A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
Surveys are sent out to every department on campus. Once a survey is complete staff from the Health Promotions Department will meet with a person or persons from the department to help set goals for their department. Peer educators are self selected within the department and then work closely with their co-workers to educate and help implement health and well-being programs into the department.
A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
Staff from the Health Promotions Departments meets with a person or persons from the department to help set up goals for the department. Staff in Health Promotions are available for trainings and continued support.
A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):
Staff from the Health Promotions Department provide support for this program.
A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of employees served and how employee educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
Research to Action: An initiative of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Research to Action is a platform for identifying and linking PSU's diverse research expertise to the collaborative development of sustainable practices. Research to Action brings together faculty working on related sustainability issues. Via brief 5-minutes information blast presentations, the Research to Action program provides the opportunity for faculty to share ideas and provide explore existing and potential projects, and building new connections to advance research and implementation of projects on a given topic. Additionally, this is a great way for faculty to learn from others doing great work in other disciplines. There are approximately 116 faculty that are involved in this annual symposium, sharing their work with other faculty. ISS supports the annual symposium providing the space and food for the event.
Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Research to Action : https://www.pdx.edu/sustainability/research-to-action
Healthy Department Certification: https://www.pdx.edu/healthycampus/healthy-department
Research to Action : https://www.pdx.edu/sustainability/research-to-action
Healthy Department Certification: https://www.pdx.edu/healthycampus/healthy-department
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.