University of Missouri, Kansas City
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Honoring our partnerships is what makes UMKC a leader in our local community and provides a showcase for urban sustainability. Higher education provides the platform for pilot programs, research and student participation in many areas of sustainability. UMKC Sustainability Office partners with municipalities, local community colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations to help bring them along the sustainability continuum. UMKC Office of Sustainability also works with state and national level organization such at USEPA and MDNR and MODOT to implement new pilot programing that is transformative and never been done before in the region and therefore set the bar for others when it comes to sustainability activities and initiatives. Examples include Clean Commute Program (bicycle loarner program developed by UMKC and a local non profit with funding MDNR) and Give and Go Pilot MoveOut Recycling and Reuse Program developed with the help of the UMKC Sustainability Office in partnership with Keep America Beautiful. UMKC also partners with USEPA Region 7 on their Food Waste Challenge by showing other campuses across the nation how composting can be done to reduce waste and carbon emissions. These partnerships have been developed over the years since 2007 and are continuing through 2014 and into the future. Partnerships with the local community, government, businesses and other organizations are invaluable for implementing programs, supporting actions steps and engaging through collaboration.

UMKC Collaborates with the City of Kansas City, Missouri and their sustainability efforts from 2007 through 2014 and beyond. The transformative nature of UMKC and its partnerships are that they are changing the face of the region by lowering carbon emissions through energy reduction and expanding transportation options for a region that has a great number of older inefficient buildings and been mainly a single occupancy vehicle use area with few other options. Since 2007, Dennis Murphy, KCMO Director of Sustainability, and Deb Ridgway, Bike/Ped Coordinator for KCMO engages campus in both academics and administration on the level of sustainability efforts at the city and on campus, plus work with UMKC Sustainability Office on multiple projects. This partnership has only grown stronger with time and will continue well into the next 15-20 years. Additionally the UMKC Sustainability Office is part of the state and national communities by investing time and energy as board membership and works with program development in areas such as recycling waste reduction, education and pilot programing. UMKC also acts as a mentor to other universities by working as an Implementation Liaison with Second Nature as well as presenting at regional and national conferences.

UMKC is represented on the Kansas City Energy Project Advisory Committee. This project is transformative on how energy efficiencies are addressed in buildings over 100K sq. ft. and the focus is to have all building in the city in that range rated in Energy Star Portfolio Manager. This is a task undertaken by only 10 cities in the nation and will reduce the carbon print of KC by 25-30% and proves to transform the region. UMKC is a leader in the community with 4 buildings built to LEED Standards over the past five years and is embarking on Energy Star training for key staff. KCMO is part of the 10-city national effort to reduce energy consumption in large commercial buildings and help address climate change Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/29/4784430/kc-chosen-for-10-city-effort-to.html#storylink=cpy UMKC is represented on the BikeKC Steering Committee. BikeKC is a department within the City of Kansas City, MO that is developing a Bike/Ped Master Plan and UMKC is a critical partner because of its size and local in the urban core. This partnership is transformative because it will develop facilities, signage, education and awareness in an region where the single occupancy vehicle is the predominate means of transportation. This will greatly reduce the carbon emissions from single occupancy vehicles in the region. UMKC has also transformed the campus to be more bicycle and pedestrian friendly with facilities that promote education and provide critical amenities for use of bicycle/pedestrian modes of transportation. http://kcmo.gov/publicworks/bikekc/

R. Kaye Johnston is a board member on the Campus and University Recycling Coalition 2013-2016 http://curc3r.org/about-curc/leadership R. Kaye Johnston is one of the Implementation Liaison (IL) Leadership Circle, 2012-Current http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/il-support-committee