| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 66.35 |
| Liaison | Trevor Ledbetter |
| Submission Date | May 2, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Arizona
EN-3: Student Life
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Benjamin
Champion N/A Office of Sustainability |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Student Groups
Yes
A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:
Aside from Students for Sustainability and EcoReps which are staffed campus-wide programs with significant student leadership, there are also a wide variety of student clubs with varying degrees of membership and participation. Some of these include:
Sustainable Built Environments club
USGBC student chapter
Food Security and Social Justice Network
Eller Green Team
EnvAS
Here's a description of EnvAS as an exemplar: The Environmental Awareness Society is a student-governed club focused on conservation and sustainability advocacy. They volunteer at different organizations and educate other students about the environment. This is a formal student club recognized by the Associated Students of the University of Arizona. https://www.facebook.com/uaenvas/
The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Gardens and Farms
Yes
A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
The UA Community Garden is a collective of students who share a passion for growing and consuming food. Our goal is to transform and manage unused spaces on the University of Arizona campus into verdant gardens where people can grow crops and plants organically. Such use of land will allow local members to reclaim areas as a space for sustainable practices, with an emphasis on community building and maintaining the desert ecosystem. We established and currently run two gardens on the UA campus, including the UA Community Garden.
The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Student-Run Enterprises
Yes
A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
UA Compost Cats is a student organization that works to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions and increase local food security by diverting food scraps, landscape clippings, and paper from landfills and turning it into a high quality soil amendment for local agriculture and landscaping use. This compost is then donated to the community and sold for private use.
This program is led by students, and operates a commercial-scale composting operation as a self-supporting program as a student-led enterprise under the auspices of the university. The program must generate enough revenues, grants, and other forms finances to support itself, and has done so since 2010. To date, it has composted over 10 million pounds of food waste, and is set to continue growing as it expands its business customers in partnership with the City of Tucson's environmental services division.
http://www.compostcats.com/
The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
Sustainable Investment and Finance
Yes
A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
The University of Arizona Green Fund Committee is a student led investment vehicle. The Green Fund uses funds generated by a student fee to support projects that will make the institution more sustainable. With an initial budget of $400,000 the 10 member committee is responsible for reviewing requests for proposals, marketing the committees efforts, and selecting final Green Fund recipients. The Green Fund allows students the opportunity to act as venture capitalists by giving them the power to invest student funds into projects that will make the University of Arizona more sustainable while following the guidelines set forth by the Administration and Business Affairs departments in effect providing an experience that develops investment skills and socially responsible project identification.
For more information please see:
http://saem-aiss.arizona.edu/student-affairs/student-fees/ua-green-fund
Additionally there is another opportunity for students to learn investment skills which may involve sustainability concepts.
The Eller College of Management offers an Applied Portfolio Management Class to both undergraduates and MBA students that allows students to manage the Don Seelye Fund which worth almost $1 million. While the fund does not focus entirely on socially responsible investment, it has managed socially responsible investments in companies such as Clean Harbors.
For specific information please see: http://www.uafoundation.org/impact/articles/article_00055.shtml
The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Events
Yes
A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:
The Institute of the Environment schedules speaker and conferences on environmental sustainability topics with students and the community being the intended audience. One conference of note, was the Adaptation Futures Conference that hosted world renowned scientists, policy makers, and practitioners from all over the world to discuss climate change adaptation.
The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
Cultural Arts
Yes
A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:
The UA Arts & Environment Network, hosted by the Institute of the Environment, aims to foster, support, and instigate collaborations and conversations between and among its affiliates—artists, writers, humanities scholars, and environmental scientists—at the UA and in the broader community. The network and its affiliates strive to find novel ways of knowing the world in which we live and to offer new ideas about how society might address environmental risks. Along with hosting talks and film screenings relating to arts and the environment, this Network hosts the Eye on the Environment photography competition. This competition has faculty, staff, and students as the intended audience and aims to highlight the beauty, diversity, and unique qualities of our natural surroundings and offer visual commentary on environmental issues.
The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
Wilderness and Outdoors Programs
Yes
A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
Outdoor Adventures provides students with the opportunity to experience the wonder and glory of the Arizona landscape and beyond. Program activities include various types of climbing, hiking, canyoneering, canoeing, SCUBA diving, mountain biking, surfing, backpacking as well as training to be a Wilderness First Responder. Before all trips, participants attend a mandatory meeting discussing the Leave No Trace principles and specific information related to the area the group will visit.
The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
Sustainability-Related Themes
No
A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
UA Residence Life hosts sustainability-themed competitions in residence halls each spring and fall semester called Recycle Mania and Battle of the Utilities. Battle of the Utilities challenges each residence hall to reduce their utility usage by 10% in order to win money towards a sustainable hall program. This program is targeted at all of the first-year students in the residence halls, which at over 7,000 is the bulk of the freshmen class. However, UA does not have a comprehensive first year sustainability experience.
http://www.life.arizona.edu/home/hall-living/sustainability/events/battle-of-the-utilities
Recycle Mania is a friendly eight-week competition between the top college and university recycling programs in the United States. During the national event, UA Residence Life puts their own spin on Recycle Mania and hosts a head-to-head competition between the halls. Students can earn points across several categories and the hall with the most points wins.
The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Sustainable Life Skills
Yes
A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
The University of Arizona runs the EcoReps program in residence halls that is a peer-to-peer education program and runs events within the residence halls to educate residents about sustainable lifestyles and behaviors. Sustainability program staff within the residence halls supplement this peer to peer outreach with the Battle of the Utilities and Recyclemania competitions each year.
In addition, UA Residence Life runs an off-campus outreach and student education program with partnering private apartment complexes near the university. The outreach developed through this program informs sustainable lifestyles and behaviors of off-campus residents, including promoting sustainable transportation options in the community as here: https://offcampus.arizona.edu/resource
The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
Student Employment Opportunities
Yes
A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
Residence Life conducts a waste audit annually that informs residence hall educational outreach, and student leaders are employed to conduct this audit. Additionally, a paid student leader runs an outreach program to off-campus apartment complexes. In total, int five years, residence life sustainability coordination has employed 29 students.
The Office of Sustainability also regularly employs students to work on a variety of projects, such as communications/outreach, green purchasing within the university, development of internships and others.
Students for Sustainability has a wide variety of programs and experiences that feature paid student coordinators, including Greening the Game for football game recycling, Compost Cats for community and campus composting, and more.
All of these positions are posted on Wildcat Joblink as part of typical marketing of student employment opportunities across campus. There are also commonly used listservs throughout campus to spread the word.
The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
Graduation Pledge
No
A brief description of the graduation pledges:
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The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
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Other Programs and Initiatives
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A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:
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The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
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Optional Fields
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Updated: February 2016
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.