University of Southern California
EN-9: Staff Professional Development and Training

In addition to the current Student Sustainability Training that is available to all USC students, postdocs, staff and faculty, a specialized Employee Sustainability Training is currently in development and will be launched in 2024. The training will differ slightly in content and duration as the already launched Student Sustainability Training, as it will be specifically tailored for staff and faculty. The training will consist of two parts:

Part 1 focuses on frameworks which help inform USC’s sustainability work, the impacts of current, global sustainability challenges, and finally, how USC is addressing these challenges through its sustainability efforts. Part 2, informs employees on how they can work and live more sustainably. The training will also inform employees on how USC’s sustainability intersects work with the six unifying values of the Culture Journey, a university-wide initiative to explore our values, align the supportive behaviors that bring those values to life, and develop opportunities to improve our systems and processes.

In addition, the USC FPM Zero Waste team conducts regular trainings on proper waste management to staff in USC Housing, Aramark staff, and FPM waste management and grounds crews. The trainings last about 30 minutes and educates staff on how to dispose of waste properly into external bins (compost, recycling and landfill). The goal of the trainings are to reach all staff in USC Housing and Hospitality, FPM waste management, FPM Grounds Crews and Aramark staff, with focus on training new and incoming staff each year.

USC Housing and Hospitality staff: Trainings are offered six times per year with an estimated 95 USC Housing and Hospitality staff trained per year.

Aramark staff (primarily janitorial staff: Trained as needed by the USC FPM Zero Waste team with topics covering the value of proper disposal of landfill, recycle and compost waste from interior centralized waste bins. Aramark Staff are also trained on what types of waste issues to report, which types of bags to use and where to correctly dispose of waste (via the different landfill, recycling and compost streams). 100-200 Aramark staff are trained each year.

FPM waste management and grounds crews: Trained on an as-needed basis, with about 50 staff trained per year.

USC Office of Sustainability also offers tips to Staff, Faculty, Postdocs and Students on how to make their Event a Zero-Waste Event, and how to Green their Office.

https://green.usc.edu/zero-waste/
https://green.usc.edu/get-involved/green-your-office/

Data up to date as of 10/30/23

Related News Articles:
https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2023/10/06/usc-shares-an-update-on-2028-zero-waste-goal/