Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.07
Liaison Breeana Sylvas
Submission Date Feb. 25, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of California, Merced
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign directed at students within the previous three years that has yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

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

The name of the campaign (1st campaign):
UC Merced Water Battle 2014

A brief description of the campaign (1st campaign):
The approximately 1,200 students living in the 9 on-campus residence halls competed as communities in a month long water conservation competition in October 2014. The hall that saved the most water per person won a pizza party, prizes, and $1,000 to donate to a local nonprofit organization. The student group PowerSave planned and organized the contest along with UC Merced sustainability leaders, and Student Residence House Government.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (1st campaign):
The 1200 students’ average use was 13 gallons per student per day during the campaign. This was calculated to be 70-90 gallons less than the national average daily water use per person. The competition was coupled with valuable education on water conservation.

The website URL where information about the campaign is available (1st campaign):
The name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The Cool Campus Challenge

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
UC Merced has participated in the 10 week long UC wide carbon footprint reduction campaign called the Cool Campus Challenge. The Cool Campus Challenge is an online sustainable action/pledge competition where participants (students, staff, and faculty alike) earn points as individuals, on teams, and as a university for pledging and verifying sustainable actions that save energy, and reduce environmental impacts. The pledge counts and verifications were calculated into pounds of CO2 saved for each action or activity.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
UC Merced had 2539 participants whose actions led to obtaining second place with a total of 8,044,408 points.

The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
The Do It In The Dark campaign was a UC Wide Competition to reduce energy usage as part of the Campus Conservation Nationals. Students from UC Merced’s Power Save (Green Campus) chapter coordinated this competition within UC Merced Residence Halls. Residents participated in reducing their energy usage for 3 weeks. At the end of the competition, savings were calculated in Kilo-watts. The Residence Halls reduced energy usage by 6.2%. UC Merced came in second in the UC competition just behind UC Santa Barbara. http://www.competetoreduce.org/participants

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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