Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 73.90
Liaison Connie Norton
Submission Date Oct. 5, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Simon Fraser University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Kayla Blok
Program Coordinator, Campus Sustainability
Sustainability Office
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Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
7,271

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
7,271

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
100

Name of the employee educators program:
Sustainable Spaces: Offices Representatives

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
7,271

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:

Sustainable Spaces: Offices is a peer-to-peer education, staff engagement and collaboration program that is designed to engage SFU staff and faculty members to improve the social, ecological, and economic sustainability of the institution and to contribute to SFU's 20-Year Sustainability Vision and Goals. SFU's existing peer-to-peer staff sustainability engagement program, the Sustainability Ambassador's Program was combined with the Green Offices program in late 2017 and relaunched as the Sustainable Spaces: Offices program. This was a strategic decision to engage the SFU staff and faculty through one program rather than two separate programs to sync messaging, provide training, resources and ongoing community engagement to improve program impact and sustainability on campus. This new program is unique in that it goes beyond the traditional "Green Offices" initiative which ended at certification, to include hands-on training, ongoing engagement and cross departmental collaboration opportunities. During the launch of the program in 2017, over 130 previous Sustainability Ambassadors and Green Office's participants were invited to a lunch and learn event and encouraged to become office representatives for the new program.

Under this new program, each office is led by a representative that directly engages with the Sustainability Office's Program Coordinator to provide peer-to-peer education to their office or department. The Sustainability Office trains each representatives and provides tools and resources to move the institution's sustainability goals forward as outlined in SFU’s 20-year Sustainability Vision and Goals. Through the education and engagement led by the office representatives, program participants can engage with their peers in other departments and campuses. There are a total of 19 representatives at this time and together they are leading outreach activities that are having measurable impact on SFU's overall sustainability.

SFU's Facilities Services partnered with the Sustainability office to host a peer-to-peer outreach campaign called the Bright Ideas Campaign. This event consisted of short presentations, group sustainability trivia and an opportunity for participants to share their ideas on how SFU can better conserve energy. The ideas were then compiled and shared with SFU's Energy Management team who will implement the projects based on a selection criteria. Participants were encouraged to continually submit further ideas and take ownership within their roles to improve sustainability performance.


A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:

Employees volunteer for the program and are trained by the Sustainability Office's Program Coordinator to be able to share the program content with their peers on an ongoing basis.


A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:

Given the recent launch of the program, the Program Coordinator is working to identify the best way to provide ongoing training to staff and faculty representatives of this program. At this time, a mix of one-on-one training and consultation, campus specific lunch and learns, and workshop formats have been adopted to train representatives. At the training sessions, the Program Coordinator goes over SFU's institutional sustainability commitments, highlights the institution's long-term sustainability vision and provides a list of actions that can be adopted right away to certify the office space. Through ongoing engagement with office representatives, the Program Coordinator is evaluating the needs and is preparing a training symposium for staff and faculty that are interested in the program for Fall 2018.


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 program is supported and delivered by a full-time Coordinator. The budget for the program is $3,000.


Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
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A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
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A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
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A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
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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):
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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:
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Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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