| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 49.37 |
| Liaison | Beth Klein |
| Submission Date | Feb. 5, 2025 |
State University of New York at Cortland
EN-1: Outreach and Communications
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 5.00 |
Megan
Swing Energy and Sustainability Engagement Coordinator Sustainability Office |
1.1 Sustainability outreach and communications
Website URL of the institution’s central sustainability website:
Does the institution integrate sustainability information into the educational offerings or materials provided during new student orientation or the equivalent?:
Narrative outlining how sustainability information is integrated into new student orientation or the equivalent:
Summer Orientation for First Year Students
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During summer orientation for first year students, the Orientation staff talk about sustainability two specific times during first-year orientation:
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Day one when students check-in and receive a water bottle to refill throughout the two-day program to help eliminate plastic waste.
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Morning of day 2 when Orientation staff explain that one of our campus priorities is sustainability and ask students and families to recycle their name badges by dropping them in a bin before they leave campus.
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Resource Fair
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The Sustainability Office has a table at the Campus Resource Fair. The overall goal of this program is to set students up for success and provide them with the opportunity to learn about the academic support, co-curricular and well-being resources available to them. The Sustainability Office attended and interacted with students to educate them about the sustainability resources available to them on campus: the Green Rep Program, recycling across campus, composting in dining halls and other sustainability efforts.
COR 101, First-Year Seminar
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COR 101 is a required one credit, graded seminar designed to facilitate the intellectual and social integration of first-time college students into the SUNY Cortland academic community. The first-year seminar reader has a few pages with a focus on sustainability, specifically climate change, recycling, civic engagement at SUNY Cortland and courses with applied learning. Discussion questions following the reading include the topics of carbon footprint and emissions on a personal level and campus wide. Additionally, there are activities which encourage students to engage in deepening their sustainability through a survey of their peers about recycling habits and interviewing the campus Green Representative (a student job to promote sustainability through peer-to-peer education).
Does the institution integrate sustainability information into the educational offerings or materials provided during new employee orientation or the equivalent?:
Narrative outlining how sustainability information is integrated into new employee orientation of the equivalent:
All new faculty and staff are provided with a brochure that highlights the campus sustainability-related operations and activities when they are handed their new employee packet. Featured in the packet is one-page, double sided hand-out highlighting the different sustainability initiatives with a QR code linking to the longer and more in-depth brochure online as well as to the Sustainability website.
Does the institution have dashboards and/or signage highlighting the institution’s sustainability features or performance?:
Description of the institution’s sustainability dashboards and/or signage:
There are digital signage screens located all around campus in the Student Life Center, the Dowd fine arts center, admissions, and all of the academic and administrative buildings. Through a digital signage management system, the Sustainability Office can share ‘slides’ on the screens highlighting SUNY Cortland’s sustainability features on campus, so that students, faculty and staff may see them as they are walking around campus or sitting in a lounge waiting for a meeting. The content on the screen varies every few weeks so that the content does not get repetitive, and people stop paying attention. Thus far campus recycling rules, where to find second-hand residence hall goods, and general sustainability related facts such as LEED certified buildings on campus have been on display to educate the campus population.
Does the institution manage a sustainability-focused social media account, newsletter, blog, online community, podcast, video series, or equivalent communications medium or platform?:
Description of and/or website URL for at least one sustainability-focused communication medium or platform:
Keeping it Green is the newsletter of the Sustainability Office. The Energy and Engagement Outreach Coordinator and the Green Reps contribute to the articles in the newsletter. The articles center around sustainability topics relating to the campus community and sustainability events. The stories in the newsletter are centered around sustainability initiatives on campus, current events, and sustainability tips for the campus community. Stories are written by the employees of the Sustainability and Energy Management Office as well as by Green Reps, student employees of the Sustainability Office who work to bring sustainability to the campus community.
The Green Reps and Sustainability Office also share social media presence through an Instagram account. On this account Green Rep programs and events on campus are shared in addition to graphics sharing facts and tips encouraging sustainable behaviors.
Has the institution coordinated one or more sustainability-focused outreach campaigns during the previous three years?:
Description of sustainability-focused outreach campaigns from the previous three years:
Food & Food Waste
- A campaign lead by SUNY Cortland auxiliary services. One event of this campaign was the Weigh the Waste, which occurred on Earth Day in 2023. Students using the largest dining facility on campus, Neubig Hall, were encouraged to guess the weight and track it on social media, with each consumer receiving their own contribution and running total for the day's post-consumer waste. Another effort of the food and food waste initiative is fighting food insecurity on campus. The Swipe out Hunger program is another outreach campaign which encourages students to help address food insecurity on campus by donating their guest meals for other students to use.
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Each year the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC), an all-campus committee of faculty and staff appointed by the provost, choose a theme along with a text with the goal to connect students, faculty and staff for the year. The 2023-2024's theme was Food, an interdisciplinary series has focused on how sustenance is taken for granted until weather disasters, invasions, wars, supply chain issues or corporate greed place this urgent topic on America’s own dinner table. Events relating to the theme and the information covered are included in the campaign.
Cortland ReUse Partnership
Cortland ReUse Partnership during Move-Out- SUNY Cortland has partnered with a community nonprofit to avoid the overfilling of dumpsters during student move. Through the campaign Cortland assist students in donating items they do not wish to move-out of their residences halls with to Cortland ReUse thereby extending the life of the product and keeping items out of landfills.
On Campus Gardens
- New garden celebrates Indigenous crops and culture
- Campus planning interactive garden
- Model Garden and Bioswales signage ceremony held
Animal Grazing amongst Solar Panels
SUNY Cortland has brought sheep (and pigs) to graze the grass in and around the university's two solar arrays. These areas are difficult to mow and require gas-operated equipment.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
1.2 Percentage of campus stakeholders reached through sustainability outreach and communications
Percentage of campus stakeholders reached through sustainability outreach and communications:
Approach used to determine the percentage of campus stakeholders reached:
Description of the methodology used to determine the reach of the institution’s sustainability outreach and communications:
The Office of Sustainability's Newsletter, Keeping is Green, is sent out via Communicator, a list serve containing all of the emails to all students, faculty and staff in the SUNY Cortland system. Any other stories or outreach highlighting sustainability, such as The Bulletin, are also sent out on the same list serve so that every individual on SUNY Cortland's campus receives the email containing the outreach and information.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
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.