| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 79.55 |
| Liaison | Lindsey Kalkbrenner |
| Submission Date | Feb. 27, 2020 |
Santa Clara University
PRE-2: Points of Distinction
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
N/A |
Lindsey
Kalkbrenner Director Center for Sustainability |
Name of the institution’s featured sustainability program, initiative, or accomplishment:
A brief description of the institution’s featured program, initiative, or accomplishment:
In 2019, SCU launched a Sustainability Strategic Plan which builds upon past climate action plans and propels the University forward with solutions that require the campus to innovate (while not creating vastly more work) and to feel capable to enact change. The Center for Sustainability's vision was to co-create a plan with key stakeholders across the University and to equally emphasize interactive components so that our campus community could partake in actions that directly contribute to the Plan’s outlined goals and objectives.
A suite of components make up this engaging and “digestible” plan:
1) an engaging overview video
2) an online brief booklet with goals and objectives
3) an implementation roadmap -- strategies have descriptors such as category, responsible party, fiscal year, and UN Sustainable Development Goals
4) a public dashboard with key performance indicators for tracking progress and milestones
5) Playbooks that display bite-sized actions for individuals to implement the Plan based on their role on campus
6) a badge-award system designed with community-based social marketing principles to incentivize and reward individual behavior change and action.
Visit http://www.scu.edu/missionsustainable to see all of the above.
Some examples of actions identified in our Sustainability Playbooks:
Faculty:
- Academics: Incorporate an activity integrating environmental, social, and economic aspects into your course
- Waste: Utilize Camino and Google Drive to make your class paperless
Staff:
- Landscaping: Join our urban forestry team and engage the campus in environmental stewardship
- Purchasing: Purchase reusable event supplies. If you must get single-use, be sure it’s “BPI certified”
Students:
- Purchasing: Eat vegetarian or vegan at least one meal per day
- Transportation: Take VTA bus 22/522 to get to Valley Fair and Santana Row instead of a ride-hailing service
Administration:
- Climate: Incorporate SCU’s climate commitment into your speeches: share stories and provide a vision for success
- Energy: Encourage employees to submit a proposal to the Campus Sustainability Investment Fund
Supervisors:
- Engagement: Include sustainability in employee performance reviews
- Waste: Ensure all new employees in your building are trained about waste reduction and waste sorting
Faculty are incorporating the Sustainability Strategic Plan into their courses. Campus organizations are using the Department Playbook to identify areas of improvement in operational practices. Campus employees are joining our peer engagement programs to learn more about how they can support their departments’ efforts. And most fun, students are competing with each other to see who can collect all 9 badges. The Center for Sustainability celebrates badge-earners at our annual Sustainability Celebration at the end of the academic year.
Since its debut in January 2019, 162 people have started to collect the badges and live more sustainably. 220 badges have been distributed in the areas of Academics, Engagement, Climate Commitment, Energy, Transportation, Water, Landscaping, Purchasing, and Waste. There has been an increase in people attending waste characterizations, engaging with social media to showcase their actions, and transforming their courses to become more sustainable. Since this campaign was started recently, the Center for Sustainability expects more and more people to get involved.
Which of the following impact areas does the featured program, initiative, or accomplishment most closely relate to?:
Coordination & Planning
Website URL where more information about the accomplishment may be found:
STARS credit in which the featured program, initiative, or accomplishment is reported (if applicable):
A photograph or document associated with the featured program, initiative, or accomplishment:
Name of a second highlighted sustainability program/initiative/accomplishment:
A brief description of the second program/initiative/accomplishment:
Since 2007, SCU has offered professional development workshops for 142 faculty members who want to revise an existing course or design a new one to include sustainability. Modeled after Geoff Chase and Peggy Bartlett's Sustainability Across the Curriculum workshops, our "Penstemon Project" workshops introduce a host of teaching resources and offer individualized support, while recognizing that faculty members are the experts in their fields. Participants receive a stipend for submitting a revised (or new) syllabus.
Santa Clara University is an AASHE Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum. We held our first workshop as an AASHE Center in June 2019. 2019’s workshop had 23 participants; 14 from SCU. The one-day workshop focused on experiential and community-based learning; using the campus as a living lab for teaching sustainability; and linking courses to the mission and strategic plan of the faculty member's university, especially in Jesuit and Catholic institutions. In 2020, we will add a special focus on environmental justice.
The Penstemon Project offers annual stipends and professional development workshops for faculty members who want to revise an existing course or design a new one to include sustainability. Workshops introduce a host of teaching resources and offer individualized support, while recognizing that faculty members are the experts in their fields. Over the past three years, the project has trained almost 40 faculty members to incorporate sustainability into at least one of their courses in the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Schools of Business, Law, and Engineering.
Drawing data from the University Registrar, department chairs, and the faculty, the Center for Sustainability compiles an annual inventory of sustainability courses taught each year and their enrollments. The Center then shares the results of this data with department chairs and administrators to identify courses to target for transformation.
In the 2018-19 academic year:
27.58% of courses are sustainability course offerings.
93% of academic departments offer at least one sustainability related course.
Which impact areas does the second program/initiative/accomplishment most closely relate to?:
Coordination & Planning
Website URL where more information about the second program/initiative/accomplishment may be found:
STARS credit in which the second program/initiative/accomplishment is reported (if applicable):
A photograph or document associated with the second program/initiative/accomplishment:
Name of a third highlighted program/initiative/accomplishment:
A brief description of the third program/initiative/accomplishment:
Faculty in the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative conduct research and provide training, resources, and networking to support community-driven research partnerships for environmental justice among community organizations, SCU faculty and students, and other academic institutions in Northern California and Jesuit higher education.
The Initiative is uniquely positioned to contribute research, training, and networking to:
Strengthen environmental justice in the Silicon Valley and South Bay.
Build stronger links between Catholic social ministry and grassroots environmental justice organizations.
Spread a community-driven, participatory approach to environmental justice research among Jesuit higher education institutions in the United States and globally.
SCU faculty and students conduct research on a range of environmental justice issues. Much of it is community-based, produced in collaboration with community organizations and government agencies. Research topics include: food justice, water justice, justice in the electronics industry, environmental justice law and policy, community-based research for environmental justice. The Initiative has developed formal partnerships with local organizations in Santa Clara County that work on issues of food justice, as well as occupational safety and health in the electronics industry.
Which impact areas does the third program/initiative/accomplishment most closely relate to?:
Public Engagement
Coordination & Planning
Website URL where more information about the third program/initiative/accomplishment may be found:
STARS credit in which the third program/initiative/accomplishment is reported (if applicable):
A photograph or document associated with the third program/initiative/accomplishment:
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.