Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.93
Liaison Srinivasan Raghavan
Submission Date Feb. 24, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Missouri
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Michael Burden
Sustainability Coordinator
MU Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign directed at students within the previous three years that has yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign directed at employees within the previous three years that has yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

The name of the campaign (1st campaign):
Waste Not, Waste Not

A brief description of the campaign (1st campaign):

The “Waste Not, Want Not” task force is a Mizzou Advantage undergraduate research team involving an interdisciplinary collaboration of students and faculty seeking to understand food waste and how to decrease it on campus.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (1st campaign):

Objectives:
The research team will be organized around three general learning objectives.
1. Understand what constitutes food waste.
2. Explore some of the root causes of food waste.
3. Identify ongoing local and regional efforts to address food waste.

Outcomes:
By the end of the second semester, we hope to have achieved the following outcomes.
1. Increase interdisciplinary networking and dialogue on campus about this issue.
2. Synthesize a working definition of food waste.
3. Compile a literature review about food waste.
4. Maintain ongoing writing (journal, Discussion Board) that reflects our learning.
5. Present research poster on findings at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievements Forum.
6. Identify possible projects to alleviate food waste.
7. Develop a draft syllabus for a future team-taught course on food waste.
8. Design experiment aimed at measuring sources of food waste.

This is an ongoing project that began in spring 2014 and will continue through 2015. The work has already increased awareness among students regarding food waste.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (1st campaign):
The name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
RecycleMania

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period, colleges across the United States and Canada report the weekly amount of recycling and trash collected and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more.

National recognition is provided to the winning school in each category on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release. Winning schools receive an award made out of recyclable materials, and win the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

In the spring of 2014, the University of Missouri – Columbia got a new Chancellor. On February 1st R. Bowen Loftin began his new position and it was a huge media blitz of attention on him. He is a bowtie-clad, mustachioed man who is beloved by students of his past appointment. He has an active Twitter account @Bowtieger and we piggy-backed off of his celebrity status on campus and wanted to let the community know right from the start that he supported RecycleMania! Below is the text we used in the postings. Not only did he re-tweet the photo, but so did the official Mizzou Facebook page!

"R. Bowen Loftin thinks you should give recycling a chance-llor! Join us in our effort to
make Mizzou a greener place by participating in RecycleMania! Everything you recycle on campus not only reduces waste in the landfill but saves us money, too! Like our page for more awesome MU Sustainability Office updates!"

With our new Chancellor and the adorable pun, we attracted a lot of attention. We had more media call us during this RecycleMania than ever before. We got high profile people at our University to publicly support RecycleMania in order to get full “buy-in” from all levels of campus. More people have visited our Facebook page and called the office to see how they can help.

Spring 2014 was our best performance in RecyleMania. We finished 26th out of 256 schools and recycled at a 50 percent rate, due in part to the campaign and the participation of faculty and staff.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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