Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 67.27
Liaison Veronica Johnson
Submission Date Jan. 14, 2022

STARS v2.2

Southwestern University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Veronica Johnson
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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?:
Yes

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?:
Yes

1st campaign 

Name of the campaign:
The Treasure Chest

A brief description of the campaign:
The Treasure Chest, created and run by the Sustainability Ambassadors, encouraged both students and employees to donate and exchange clothing and other items on campus. This campaign educated students and employees about the wastefulness of discarding clothing and initially rewarded donors with 'coins' tallied in a spreadsheet that could then be used to "buy" other goods at the Treasure Chest. By encouraging students and employees to take part in the campaign, many useable items were saved from otherwise ending up at landfills or for-profit thrift stores.

https://megaphone.southwestern.edu/2019/12/16/one-pirates-trash-is-another-pirates-treasure/

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Over the course of a single semester, 10448 'coins' were earned by students and employees by donating items ranging in value from 1-100 coins. The most commonly donated item was shirts, which were worth 5 coins. During the course of the semester, 1860 coins were exchanged.

if reporting an additional campaign, provide:

2nd campaign

Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Break it Down Waste Audit

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Sustainability Ambassadors ran a campaign to see if Southwestern University students were able to follow composting guidelines and how much waste could be composted. The audit itself lasted a week to ensure that front-of-the-house (FOH) waste could be trusted to be properly sorted by students as they used the cafeteria, but back-of-the-house (BOH) composting by collaborating with employees has been ongoing. The audit included educational signage to help direct students to compost correctly.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
During the week of the audit, it was found that close to 40% of waste from the cafeteria was diverted to be composted. While this is far from the optimal 80% possible diversion and the audit found 10% of the bins were contaminated, results are promising that with more education students could improve their score. In one month, the collaboration with employees to divert BOH waste diverted 120 gallons of food to be composted rather than end up in a landfill.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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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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