Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.35
Liaison Trevor Ledbetter
Submission Date May 2, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Arizona
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Benjamin Champion
N/A
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one 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 at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Recycle Mania

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:

The UA participates in Recycle Mania as a whole university but also holds a Recycle Mania competition for the Residence Halls. During the ten week program, the university promotes recycling in the Student Union, Facilities Management, and Residence Life through greater advertising and awareness campaigns. Facilities are encouraged to use less materials and power during this period.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

Recycle Mania allowed UA as a whole to recycle large amounts of waste. The following are summaries of UA results from the past several years of the competition (the 2015 competition is currently underway):

2014: 388,952
2013: 507,934
2012: 420,296

The number of sustainable or sustainability-related programs hosted in support of Recycle Mania in residence halls are the following:

2014: 70
2013: 130
2012: 133


The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Green Purchasing Project

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):

The University of Arizona implemented a green purchasing policy in February 2012, which directed campus purchasers to give the same consideration to environmental and social factors as is given to price, availability, and performance. In 2014, an outreach campaign was directed at employees entitled the "Green Purchasing Project". This project was funded by the UA Green Fund Committee and is designed to inform campus staff about sustainable product options in office supply ordering. Students personally met with staff purchasers to inform them of greener options through the online ordering system, AZ BuyWays. In its first few months of operation, based on FY '14 data, the project encouraged more than five buildings on campus to increase green purchasing by over 5%.

Project successes were largely driven through its integration with metrics supplied by the Office Depot "shades of green" system for codifying sustainability products and tracking purchasing impacts. As Office Depot has been acquired by another company, this shades of green system is no longer available. As a result, the Green Purchasing Project is shifting gears moving forward to partner with campus units such as the Student Unions on deeper engagement in green purchasing decisions in support of university waste reduction goals.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

In its first year of programming (from FY13 to FY14), working with the Residence Life purchasing officers, the program increased "green spend" by 3% from 45% to 48%. Improvement, but only slight. However, the darkest green spend (e.g. for paper, 100% recycled content) went from 1% to 14%, the mid-green spend (e.g. for paper, 30-50% recycled content, certified sustainable virgin content) went from 17% to 13%, and light green (e.g. for paper, 30% recycled content, 70% virgin content) went from 27% to 21%.

Overall, the program succeeded in shifting green spending toward more deeply sustainable products, but not so much in increasing the overall amount of green purchasing.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Latest update: 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.