| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 86.17 |
| Liaison | James Gordon |
| Submission Date | May 31, 2022 |
Thompson Rivers University
EN-7: Employee Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.58 / 3.00 |
James
Gordon Environmental Programs and Research Coordinator TRU Office of Environment and Sustainability |
Total number of employees:
Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):
Ambassadors spread the spirit of sustainability at TRU by being a force for change and improving the culture of sustainability on campus. This is a peer-to-peer sustainability education program with staff and faculty ambassadors demonstrating sustainability leadership to their colleagues. This group is ideas-driven, action-oriented, goal-motivated, all while having some fun.
Examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities include coordinating a Sustainable Behaviour Pledge campaign within the workspace; conducting zero waste seminars at office monthly meetings; doing energy assessments of workplaces (over-head lights, computers and monitors, kitchen and office equipment), followed by energy conservation campaigns and reporting on the energy conservation results; informing fellow staff and faculty members about sustainable printing practices in order to cut down on the volume of paper being used, and being involved during all of the varied sustainability-related events that take place on campus throughout the year. Examples of campus-wide initiatives that ambassadors participate in and promote include the TRU Campus Tree Program, TRU Trash Bash, and the Energy Dance.
A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):
TRU Staff/Faculty Sustainability Ambassador members target fellow staff/faculty members within their work units (offices, departments, etc.), as well as all TRU staff/faculty members through campus-wide initiatives.
Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :
Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):
This program was developed specifically to be 'covid-friendly' e.i. possible to do completely virtually.
Sustainability encompasses so much – environmental, social and economic factors—and we all have much to learn about it and much to share about it. All TRU students (including from Open Learning), staff, faculty and administrators are encouraged to join the new All-TRU Sustainability Educators Program. At the heart of the program is telling 1 minute original ‘sustainability stories’ that are important to the participants to share with each other, and the world. Participants can learn about other people’s 1 minute stories from a website where they are stored.
To participate in the program, participants are required to join for one year (30 minutes per month on average), and do the following:
1. Create at least one 60 second original ‘sustainability story’ about something they care about. Stories can be expressed in any creative format (video, text, photos, audio, etc.), so long as they can be shared in a digital format.
2. Share their story with ten members of the TRU community within their peer group who are not part of the program. Peer group examples: students sharing with other students; or staff/faculty members sharing with other staff/faculty members.
3. ‘Experience’ at least ten 60 second sustainability stories from other educators during the year. ‘Experience’ meaning to watch, read, listen to, etc..
Once a year there will be a program celebration with awards and prizes for best stories and educators, as well as weekly draw prizes that all program educators are eligible to win. Once the program requirements are met, all participants must complete a short program feedback survey. Once this is done they will be awarded a program certificate of completion.
Funding of up to $50 per educator per year will be available on an as-needed basis and while budget lasts. This is for seed funding to help promote stories, help bring stories ‘to life’, or for other needs.
During the program, there will be one-on-one meetings and group meetings, as well as training on sustainability issues provided by Sustainability Office staff and other qualified people.
Sustainability story ideas will need to be approved by a vetting committee to ensure content is correct and that the nature of the story has not been covered extensively by other educators. The vetting committee will be made up of students, staff and faculty, with a minimum of five members.
All stories will be stored on this website: https://sustainability.trubox.ca/
A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
This program is open to TRU students and staff/faculty, but as part of the program terms of reference, each group must share their stories with at least 10 members from their peer group (students to students and staff/faculty with other staff/faculty).
Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (2nd program):
A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
Website URL where information about the employee sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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.