University of South Carolina
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

The 18th Annual First-Year Reading Experience was held on Monday, August 15, 2011 in the Carolina Coliseum. During summer orientation, students were provided with a copy of No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. The themes of the book will be carried throughout the year in various events and opportunities available to students. The Sustainable Carolina Campus Wide Programming Team heads up the planning for these events, and works to liaison with campus departments to market these events to a vast student body. Some of these specific events are: Stomp to the Stadium: An intiative to encourage students to walk to the football stadium instead of driving or taking the shuttle. Students who chose to walk received a pin to designate there support of the No Impact initiative. Sustainability Week: This included a t-shirt tie dye event and a Sustainability Fair that drew student attention and helped Sustainable Carolina and the First Year Reading Experience share opportunities for students to learn more about sustainable initiatives on campus. Film Festival: U101 freshmen classes were asked to have their students create short sustainability themed videos to be featured at a film festival. Local business donated the prizes for the top videos, as well as local food to serve the students in attendance. No Impact Week: USC is campaigning to have a No Impact Week. Students can join the event on Facebook or sign up when we table at events. Each day during No Impact Week, students get a reminder e-mail about the theme of the day. Sustainable Carolina and FYRE are holding a kickoff event to get students together to celebrate the week. U101 Presentations: Staff members have been contacted by U101 classes to have recycling presentations for Freshmen students. They also hand out a survey that asks how the presentation has impacted the student's knowledge of sustainability.

Monitor student attendance and gathered contact info for students who expressed interest in Sustainable Carolina: 160 students. 70 total submitted 17 short videos on Sustainability for the film festival. This project specifically got freshmen involved in an experiential learning component. From a administered survey of before or after results, 91% of campaign participants said their understanding of sustainability has increased and 66% said the campaign resulted in improved behaviors related to sustainable actions.