Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 77.43
Liaison Elida Erickson
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of California, Santa Cruz
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.88 / 3.00 Alessandra Alvares
Office Manager
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees:
4,048

Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
1,022

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
25.25

Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
Green Office Certification Program

A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):

The Green Office Certification Program works to empower campus offices to implement sustainable practices in their everyday operations. We perform water audits and energy and waste assessments in campus offices and work with participating staff to identify actions they can take to decrease waste, conserve resources and improve their overall environmental performance (while saving money!). Each office/department is required to create a Green Team and it is their responsibility to continue to education and enact changes within their offices. Offices are to be re-certified every 3 years. There are four levels of certification, and offices have the opportunity to improve their rating by improving their performance and re-applying.


A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):

Any office or department on campus can participate in the program. The office's Green Team targets faculty and staff in their respective areas.


Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
70

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
48

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
0.25

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
840

Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :
Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Green Labs Program

A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):

The Green Labs program seeks to improve energy efficiency and increase green purchasing and waste reduction practices through behavior change, physical improvements, and education. The program trains at least one lab member to be a recycling and green lab coordinator and train other lab members about the best practices related to sustainable lab management. They are also responsible for onboarding new lab employees about sustainable initiatives.

Its financial support is paying a Sustainability Office staff to oversee the program, two paid student coordinators, and a $500-$1000 annual budget.


A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):

Faculty, staff, and students in the laboratories.


Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
40

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
48

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
0.25

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
480

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:

Sustainability Certificate Program: Campus employees examine sustainability through multiple lenses and develop knowledge and strategies for building a more inclusive and sustainable campus. Current staff, faculty, and graduate students are eligible to participate. To complete the certificate, participants must complete the five core courses and one elective within two academic years. Participants learn knowledge and strategies for engaging coworkers in sustainable behaviors. Courses are taught by UCSC faculty and staff, as well as community partners. To date, a few hundred participants have taken classes in the program and 114 participants have graduated.

Farm & Garden programs. UCSC has a 30-acre farm. Paid staff oversee multiple programs that are employee peer-to-peer education. For example, a docent program where faculty, staff, and community members are trained to be docents and provide tours of the farm to faculty, staff, students, community members, classes, etc. At any one time, approximately three UCSC faculty and staff are docents. Another example is the Farm & Garden educational series where volunteer faculty, staff, and community members teach gardening best practices. Overall four trained employee educators, 48 weeks of the year, .25 hours a week = 48 annual hours
https://agroecology.ucsc.edu/get-involved/index.html


Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
39

Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
48

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
0.30

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
561

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
1,881

Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.46

Website URL where information about the employee sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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