The American College of Greece
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

The Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) School – a specialized sustainability training program for professionals initiated in 2019 by CSR Hellas – returned for its fourth year, in partnership between CSR HELLAS, University of Crete and Alba Graduate Business School, with the support of the Office of Public Affairs of The American College of Greece (ACG).

The advanced training took place online every Friday between September 30 to December 9, 2022. During the 10-part webinar series and 40 hours of learning, 45 participants watched lectures by 21 distinguished expert speakers, discussed relevant case studies, learned about best practices that have been implemented by experienced senior professionals, and exchanged views and thoughts around the incorporation of relevant theory into the CSR initiatives of their own organization.
The executive training program was held – for the second consecutive year - under the Auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Development and Investments and the Ministry of Finance, Hellenic Republic, along with many high-level sponsors.

This initiative, which is the first full-fledged collaboration between a public and a private university and a business network in Greece

• ACG was included in the 13th annual “Guide to Green Colleges” of Princeton Review for the fifth consecutive year. According to the Review, ACG is one of the 455 most environmentally responsible colleges globally out of the 713 schools surveyed during the academic year 2021-2022, examining the institutions’ commitment to sustainability-related practices, policies, and programs. ACG’s ranking, results from the STARS report submitted in 2020 by the Office of Public Affairs.
• In September 2022, ACG, based on the data submitted in our more recent STARS report, was recognized as a top performer for its sustainability best practices in the 2021 Sustainable Campus Index (SCI) of AASHE for the seventh consecutive year in the categories (i) Grounds, (ii) Purchasing (iii) Overall Top Performers – Master’s Institutions and (iv) International Top Performers.

• The ACG Senior Sustainability Manager, Office of Public Affairs, has been reelected by AASHE members to:
o serve a 3-year term to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Board of Directors.
o Serve a 2-year term as a member of the AASHE Advisory Council

Since November 2018, we are collaborating with the local NGO Boroume ("We Can") whose mission is to reduce food waste and to fight malnutrition in Greece. Specifically, we are participating in their "Boroume at the Farmers' Market" program that aims at reducing food waste at the farmers' markets.

In this context, we have ‘adopted’ two local farmers' markets, where every Monday, a group of 4-5 ACG members (students, faculty, and staff) gather the unsold and left-over produce from the market stands and we deliver it on the spot to a local charity supporting its soup kitchen and the guest house for young girls that lack the necessary funds to support their studies.

Since November 2018 we have gathered 9,932 kg of fruits and vegetables, equating to approximately 40,000 meals! A total of 667 volunteer hours have been offered by members of the ACG Community.