Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 68.45
Liaison Justin Mog
Submission Date March 4, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of Louisville
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Brian Barnes
Professor & EcoReps Director
Philosophy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees:
7,822

Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
7,822

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
100

Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
EcoReps

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

EcoReps is an ongoing peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program for all students, faculty, and staff at UofL. At the core of the program is an online training series and monthly in-person workshop series focused on topics in sustainability, particularly as they apply at UofL.

Once you become an EcoRep, you’re expected to serve as a resource person for sustainability in your sub-community at UofL, whether it’s your immediate peers and colleagues, your department, your building, your club, your residence hall, or any other realm where you live, work, and play. We encourage EcoReps to become conscious of the specific physical and social systems in their own departments or residence halls, and to help their peers understand the options and advantages of more sustainable solutions during planning meetings or when designing systems.

EcoReps stand for sustainable action, so we also encourage participants to actively demonstrate their personal commitment in those places where they can have the most impact. EcoReps are not “green police.” Eco-Reps are educators and mentors. As an EcoRep, you should feel free to politely observe and make note of problem behaviors or unsustainable systems, but you should always be courteous, respectful and supportive rather than punitive. EcoReps should also be a voice for sound practices regarding our campus environment, its inhabitants, and the planet at large. EcoReps should always strive to “practice what they preach” and to lead by example.

EcoReps are expected to attend our monthly workshops to expand their exposure to sustainability concepts and locals making a difference. There they can discuss their own sustainability activities in a public forum (with a free vegetarian lunch!), and report on their activities and ideas about sustainable practices to UofL's Sustainability Council. We also expect EcoReps to submit a brief monthly report designed to help everyone brainstorm and document more effective strategies for EcoReps representation across campus.

EcoReps also engage in group service projects to engage the community around UofL in some highly visible and meaningful efforts. EcoReps are encouraged to partner with Recognized Student Organizations, Campus Housing, the Student, Staff, and Faculty Senates, and other campus organizations to spread the word about sustainability on campus, and to help identify opportunities to engage with sustainability.


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

EcoReps targets any and all employees - including all faculty and staff - of the University of Lousiville that are interested in working towards a more sustainable UofL. This means that the EcoReps program has been designed in hopes of 100% student involvement - accomplished by not just holding in-person meetings and workshops, but also providing bountiful online resources and recordings of workshops that were held in person! The EcoReps involvement by employees of the University is a positive feedback loop - the more that are interested leads to the more that are involved, leads to an even more robust program, leads to better outreach to others, leads to even more that are interested, leads to a more sustainable UofL!!

The EcoReps also gather weekly for more informal meetings, discussions, and work in the community garden. The workshops which EcoReps sponsor monthly focus on a different sustainability topic each meeting and provide both free vegetarian lunches to all those in attendance and wisdom in the world of UofL sustainability.

The role of an EcoRep is described above as well as at the link provided. The steps to becoming an EcoRep are also listed in detail at the same link - displaying both how eager the program is to involve as many students as possible as well as how easy it truly can be to become an EcoRep.


Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
50

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
52

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
3.50

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
9,100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:
---

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

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

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

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

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
9,100

Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
1.16

Website URL where information about the employee sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

UofL's Sustainability Council launched its peer-to-peer Eco-Reps program for all employees and students in the fall 2012 semester.


UofL's Sustainability Council launched its peer-to-peer Eco-Reps program for all employees and students in the fall 2012 semester.

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.