Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 84.41
Liaison Patrick McKee
Submission Date March 26, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Connecticut
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Richard Miller
Director
Ofice of Environmental Policy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
6,386

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
6,386

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
100

1st Program 

Name of the employee educators program:
Green Office Certification Program

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
6,386

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:
The Green Office Certification Program is aimed at reducing the campus environmental footprint, one office at a time. The Office of Environmental Policy provides technical support to offices on campus by assessing their behavioral sustainability in the office through the use of a survey. Once we receive the results from these surveys, we calculate a raw score that determines how the office ranks competitively amongst other UConn offices. We focus on encouraging behavioral changes that will have a large impact on office water and energy consumption as well as waste reduction. https://ecohusky.uconn.edu/green-office-certification-program/

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:
"Employee educators are selected on a volunteer basis. A message is sent out through the UConn Staff & Faculty Daily Digest, an email that all university employees automatically receive in their inboxes every day with various links and noteworthy announcements. Interested offices respond by delegating one person to enter in their contact information and their department name into a survey that the Office of Environmental Policy receives. The representatives have either volunteered to represent their office based on their interest in sustainabily, or have been chosen by their colleagues based on their dedication. Additionally, posters are placed around office buildings in order to attract participants."

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:
"The UConn Sustainable Office Guidelines are available online, and are also emailed directly to the office representatives. The representative spreads this information along to their office, educating their colleagues on how to work sustainably at the office. They also promote and encourage environmentally responsible actions. Sustainable Office Guidelines: http://ecohusky.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2041/2017/01/Engagement-GOCP-guidelines-2014.pdf

A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination):
The OEP staff and interns administer and promote this program, and it is largely self-implementing for Green Office Team Organizers (GoTo) designees who complete the GOCP surveys that determine their scores (like AASHE STARS). There is no financial support to the program, aside from any amounts budgeted by the OEP's Sustainability Office. The Office of Environmental Policy worked with the university purchasing department in order to reduce the price of Smart Power Strips, energy saving power strips that we suggest that offices have.

If reporting employees served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide: 

2nd Program

Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
---

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
---

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
---

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
---

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
---

A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):
---

Additional Programs 

A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of employees served and how employee educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
---

Optional Fields 

Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
---

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

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.