University of Minnesota, Morris
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

The BISoN program invited all campus members to join a small group of students, faculty and staff to learn more about sustainability. The purpose of the program is to train participants in basic sustainability-thinking and to provide them with tools to engage with other people within their social networks on campus.

An email was sent to all campus participants. Anyone who volunteered to be a part of the BISoN cohort is invited to participate.

The training trajectory follows this arc: think about where we live (sense of place, consider past), inform participants about what has the Morris sustainability journey has already been (celebration of past and present work), think about what sustainability is about (systems-thinking, how does it related to liberal arts education, getting basic literacy), think about how each of us leads (what is our personal leadership style, how do we make contributions to shaping the society we want, on- and off-campus, this is often the "hidden" lives of our fac/staff/students...volunteer work, etc.), then consider our role as a change agents (what do you want to see changed, how can we each take steps to make change happen), discuss as a larger group what we learned during the BISoN year. Materials are provided for each meeting.

Several offices, including the Sustainability Leadership Fellows for the Future program and Office of Sustainability provided staff support. https://www4.morris.umn.edu/sustainability/sustainability-leaders-future

The SLF program teaches members about sustainability concepts and ideas, creates a platform for team members to share ideas and work on sustainability projects, and encourages members to go back to their areas of campus life to share progress.

The Morris Sustainability for the Future Leadership Fellows program engages faculty, staff and students. 5 faculty member, 5 staff, and 5 students serve in the program. Each of the Fellows submitted an application and was chosen by a cross-campus steering committee that supervises the program. The Fellows are expected to reach out to their respective areas of campus life and to engage their colleagues in a discussion about campus sustainability efforts and progress.

The Fellows receive training on sustainability theory, practice and principles. The Fellows participate in workshops and conferences to improve their sustainability knowledge.

Compensation is provided for all of the Fellows. Travel support is provided to all of the Fellows.

Morris Green Team The Morris Green Team teaches members about sustainability concepts and ideas, creates a platform for team members to share ideas and work on sustainability projects, and encourages members to go back to their areas of campus life to share progress. We have an organizational document for our group so that we bring in representation from across our campus. We have staff members from communications, facilities, food service, faculty members, student members, student life, and office of sustainability, in total 9 members. Each year we ask members to continue to serve in the group or to help us identify new members to maintain our cross-campus representation. Office of Sustainability staff and Office of Sustainability Director educate staff about the STARS framework as a way of assessing sustainability progress on campus. We also discuss the idea of sustainability and how it is articulated. We also share information with each other about our respective areas of expertise and learn from each other about how each area of campus is advancing our sustainability efforts. The institution provides time off for Green Team members to attend the meetings. A Office of Sustainability intern arranges meeting times with this group.