Overall Rating Reporter - expired
Overall Score
Liaison Jonna Korpi
Submission Date Aug. 2, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

University of Minnesota, Duluth
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete Reporter Mindy Granley
Sustainability Director
UMD Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution hold a campaign that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

The name of the campaign(s):
The UMD Energy Pledge

A brief description of the campaign(s):

The UMD ENERGY PLEDGE campaign promotes energy conservation actions for students, staff, and faculty. The campaign started in Spring 2010 by a student intern, Hannah Schoof.

During the 2010-2011 school year, students in the UMD MPIRG group (MN Public Interest Research Group) rallied around the Pledge and helped tripled the number of Energy Pledge signers.

The Pledge is used at various student events, tabling, and is also promoted in electronic communications to campus. It is accessible from the home page of our UMD Sustainability website www.d.umn.edu/sustain.

PLEDGE TEXT BELOW

I pledge to join my fellow students, staff, and faculty by taking the following actions to help save energy at UMD:
Check any that apply

Enable energy saving settings on my computer to turn it off or 'sleep' when not in use

Turn off lights when leaving a room

Avoid the use of space heaters and personal fans

Use automatic door openers only when necessary

Put recyclable items in the proper bins instead of the trash

Buy products with reduced packaging or high recycled content packaging

Walk, bike, ride the bus, or carpool to school

Rely on natural lighting when possible and/or use compact fluorescent lights

Take the stairs instead of the elevator

Unplug equipment, appliances, and gadget chargers when not in use, or turn off a power strip


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign(s):

Our campus is over one-third of their way to meeting their UMD ENERGY PLEDGE goal of 1,000 pledges. To date (June 2011), 348 students, staff, and faculty have signed the Pledge to take energy-conserving actions on campus.

The Pledge promotes easy, everyday behaviors to help create a new social norm of energy conservation on campus. A student intern in the Sustainability Office is working to estimate carbon reductions from the Pledge actions, and this will be used as part of a future dashboard on our Sustainability web page.

The UMD ENERGY PLEDGE has been used in several Education classes as a class exercise. It is also promoted through Housing as part of Earth Hour (take action step) and other sustainability-related Residence Hall events. In 2011, Resident Advisers in Housing will receive a smart power strip and be asked to sign and promote the Pledge as part of their outreach/education duties as an RA. In addition, the Pledge is used as part of the Green Your Office trainig for staff/faculty.


The website URL for the campaign:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The UMD ENERGY PLEDGE is accessible through the UMD Sustainability Home Page at www.d.umn.edu/sustain or directly at the Pledge (survey tool) at
https://umsurvey.umn.edu/index.php?sid=98498&lang=um


The UMD ENERGY PLEDGE is accessible through the UMD Sustainability Home Page at www.d.umn.edu/sustain or directly at the Pledge (survey tool) at
https://umsurvey.umn.edu/index.php?sid=98498&lang=um

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.