Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.97
Liaison Teddy Lhoutellier
Submission Date March 13, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Miami
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Teddy Lhoutellier
Sustainability Manager
Environmental Health and Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
9,596

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
9,596

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

1st Program 

Name of the employee educators program:
Green Liaisons

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
9,596

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:
University of Miami faculty and staff are invited to volunteer as Green Liaisons for their respective offices, units, or departments. Green Liaisons will share information about environmental sustainability initiatives and opportunities while identifying improvements in their own units, to support the University’ Sustainability Mission. This mission can only be fulfilled if the entire UM community is involved in these efforts. The goal of the Green Liaison Program is to achieve this involvement by promoting an ethic of environmental responsibility campus-wide.

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:
Green Liaisons are selected through 3 processes: Historically, candidate is a Facilities Liaison, in which case, a special online training allows the candidate to get familiar with his/her mission and tasks. The second process is through direct outreach through our website, and the third process is through registration as Green Champions in our Culture of Belonging university wide initiative website.

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:
The training can be either an online short introduction to Sustainability at the U and sustainable best practices in the workplace, a more comprehensive webinar with an introduction on Climate science, or a face to face presentation in the the candidate's office during a staff meeting.

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 Green Liaisons program is embedded in the budget allocated to both the Green Office and the Green lab programs.

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

2nd Program

Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Green Office program

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
950

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
The Green Liaisons are in charge of implementing the program. They organize a Sustainability 101 Presentation during one of their office staff meetings. They send green tips every week to their team and making sure recycling, energy conservation and sustainable best practices in the workplace are adopted by their peers. Each applicant receives 50 points on their Well Canes card that they can use in our Wellness Center.

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
The office of sustainability, through its outreach program to staff (fairs, newsletter) receives requests from staff members. After a 1 on 1 discussion and a sustainability training, they become Green Liaisons for their respective offices.

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
The Sustainability 101 workshop is a 1 hour class. It gives Green Liaisons the basics in environmental awareness, triple bottom line and Climate Change science. The introduction focuses on Sea Level Rise which has major impacts in our region. The second part of the class is dedicated to the Green Office program and how to apply sustainability in the workplace. Each participant receives 2 Professional Development credits.

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):
$2,375.00 / FY from Office Sustainability for managing the program, including incentives like the reusable bottles that applicants get once certified.

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:
Green Lab Program; 1712 employees served in the last 3 years The program was launched in 2015 and has been first implemented on our School of Medicine campus. Lab workers, researchers and lab managers follow a simple 1 page checklist to apply some basic rules of sustainability in their Lab. From Waste diversion to energy and water conservation, green chemistry and outreach, the green lab program is intended to become a standard for UM labs. The Green Lab liaisons are in charge of implementing the program. They organize a Sustainability 101 Presentation during one of their lab meetings. They send green tips every week to their team and making sure recycling, energy conservation and sustainable best practices in their lab are adopted by their peers. The office of sustainability, through its outreach program to staff (fairs, newsletter) receives requests from lab workers and researchers. After a 1 on 1 discussion and a 20 min presentation of our sustainability 101 training, they become Green Liaisons for their respective labs. $1,500.00 / FY from the Office of Sustainability for managing the program

Optional Fields 

Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
32

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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.