| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 72.36 |
| Liaison | Andrew D'Amico |
| Submission Date | Nov. 13, 2024 |
Princeton University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Matt
Brinn Communications and Engagement Management Office of Sustainability |
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?:
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?:
1st campaign
A brief description of the campaign:
Every spring, the Office of Sustainability leads Greening Move Out, an outreach campaign to reduce landfill waste, support local charities, and provide students with high-quality, affordable, used goods. Throughout the spring semester, the Office of Sustainability promotes Greening Move Out to the entire student body, informing students about how to donate, event logistics, and the program's environmental and social justice impact. The Office also conducts a campus-wide effort to recruit staff volunteers for various roles, including site manager and donation sorter. Event promotion to students and staff is a semester-long effort that includes in-person and digital outreach.
During Move Out, students are encouraged to bring unwanted items to donation stations located across campus. Donated items are sorted and cleaned by EcoReps and staff volunteers, then repurposed as a donation to a community partner like Goodwill, Helpsy, Better World Books, and Arm In Arm, or put up for resale at the beginning of the next semester. Most of the collected items are sold at the Resale. At the same time, the rest are provided for free or at a heavy discount to students in the Freshman Scholars Institute, a transition program for first-generation and low-income students.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
2023 Greening Move Out
- Over 40,000 lbs of items were diverted from the landfill. Two stories of a warehouse filled with 55 couches, 60 refrigerators, many dorm essentials, and hundreds of trash bags filled with donated clothing.
- 83% of items collected were sold back at the resale event in the fall. Discounts as high as 90% off.
- Over 60 student, faculty, and staff volunteers from over 28 different departments
- 9 donation sites, 6 community partner organizations
if reporting an additional campaign, provide:
2nd campaign
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The Power Is Ours is a Campus as Lab project aimed at reducing the energy/climate footprint of laboratories and event spaces at Princeton. The initiative was born out of research that indicated laboratories account for 50% of Princeton's energy footprint despite making up only 13% of the square footage on campus. To address this issue, the Office of Sustainability, Environmental Health and Safety, Campus Energy, and behavioral science firm Evidn developed a behavioral-science outreach campaign to incentivize students, faculty, and staff to adopt energy-saving behaviors.
The project team has developed marketing materials, a real-time dashboard, and an award/game system to incentivize participation in energy-saving behavior. These outreach efforts have increased participation among student researchers in laboratories across Princeton and allowed for a significant program expansion. Simultaneously, the Power of Ours team has conducted extensive in-person outreach to the laboratory and building staff to gain buy-in among employees. Through hundreds of conversations with staff, the program has built a large network of invested stakeholders and reduced energy consumption across campus.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Princeton Energy Use Research
- 106 stakeholders
- 74 meetings, interviews, and presentations
- 225+ hours of stakeholder engagements and analysis
- 25 departments, organizations, and groups
Rabinowitz Lab Pilot
- 22% decrease in fume hood energy use
- ~7.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent avoided
- ~$1,080 saved in energy costs
After engaging with more than 100 stakeholders, the project implemented a pilot program in the Rabinowitz Lab. The pilot created “Energy Dashboards” that alerted lab managers when fume hoods were left often for more than 30 minutes, weekly energy use reports for fume hood users, and new signage based on behavioral science principles.
The result: A 22% decrease in fume hood energy use since the start of the pilot program. The project has now been scaled to eight more laboratories on campus.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.