Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.66
Liaison Eric Boles
Submission Date March 5, 2021
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Arkansas
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Eric Boles
Director
Office for Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

1st Partnership 

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
City of Fayetteville

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:
The University of Arkansas Office for Sustainability has met monthly for the past 5 years with the City of Fayetteville's Sustainability Director and the Town/Gown Committee. At these meetings, strategies and opportunities for collaboration are discussed. These discussions have led to many event partnerships as well as projects where University research supports effective policy at the City level. Examples of projects that have taken place because of this partnership are the Tree Preservation Ordinance, Community Resilience Assessment, VeoRide Bike-Share Program, creation of University of Arkansas Sustainability Council and more.

2nd Partnership

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
UofA Social Innovation Hub

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):
The University of Arkansas' Walton College of Business collaborates with the Social Innovation Hub which facilitates efforts towards solving social and environmental problems within the North-West Arkansas Community. A variety of different organizations also come into the hub offering mentorships to students, faculty and staff in creating solutions to such problems. Brainstorming, workshops, networking, and competitions are examples of events that take place in the Social Innovation Hub. https://entrepreneurship.uark.edu/places/the-hub.php https://entrepreneurship.uark.edu/programs/social-innovation-challenge.php

3rd Partnership 

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Sustainability Consortium

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):
The University of Arkansas is currently a member and host of The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), a multi-national, multi-university involved program, which is trying to make the supply chain more transparent with businesses and organizations. Their mission and vision is "a world in the near future where we can experience the benefits of consumer products without causing harm to people or going beyond the environmental limits of our planet." TSC works with an abundance of different members that all support the efforts of working towards sustainable products. A few of the members that are a part of these efforts are The University of Arkansas, Walmart, Amazon, and P&G. The Sustainability Consortium is composed of four university partnerships (University of Arkansas was a founding partner) and partnerships with over 160 major companies and corporations.

Optional Fields 

A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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