Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.52
Liaison Ruairi O'Mahony
Submission Date Aug. 10, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Massachusetts Lowell
EN-9: Staff Professional Development

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 2.00 Juliette Rooney-Varga
Director & Associate Professor
Climate Change Initiative & Biological Sciences
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Does the institution make available professional development and training opportunities in sustainability to all staff at least once per year?:
Yes

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (the rate of employee participation in sustainability professional development and training)?:
No

Estimated percentage of regular staff (full-time and part-time) that participates annually in sustainability professional development and training that is either provided or supported by the institution (0, 1-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, 75% or more):
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A brief description of any internal sustainability professional development and training opportunities that the institution makes available to staff:

March 27, 2014, World Climate Game Session. Students and faculty members were invited to join in a World Climate game session. World Climate is a role-playing simulation game that gives participants a chance to negotiate a global agreement to address climate change. It has been played by Nobel-prize winning scientists, former Secretary of State George Schultz, CEOs of major corporations, the President of MIT, and students around the world. Juliette Rooney-Varga (Director of the Climate Change Initiative) facilitated the session. No experience or prior knowledge was necessary. Students could sign up as players and faculty members could be players, help facilitate or simply observe.

Jan. 15 and Jan. 16, 2014, Faculty Workshop on Cross-Disciplinary Climate Change Education - Faculty development workshop on interactive, cross-disciplinary climate change education tools. Workshop participants:
• Obtained resources for explaining key climate change science concepts and overcoming common misconceptions.
• Used systems thinking skills and tools to generate insights into complex, dynamic aspects of climate, energy, and related human systems.
• Learned about and experience simulation role-playing exercises framed by Climate Interactive’s accessible, transparent, and scientifically rigorous computer simulations
• Created an implementation plan for bringing climate change education into their own courses, with support from workshop facilitators and fellow participants.

Support for this workshop came from UMass Lowell’s Climate Action Plan, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Faculty from the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative and staff of Climate Interactive, an organization at the forefront of creating decision-support simulations around climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy, led the workshop. The workshop was open to faculty from any institution.

The Climate Change Teach-In is offered annually to students, faculty, staff and community members.


A brief description of any external professional development and training opportunities in sustainability that are supported by the institution(e.g. through payment, reimbursement, or subsidy):
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Estimated percentage of regular staff (full-time and part-time) for which sustainability is included in performance reviews (0, 1-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, 75% or more) :
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.