| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 73.33 |
| Liaison | Maria Dahmus |
| Submission Date | Nov. 30, 2023 |
University of St. Thomas
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Rachel
Schauer Program Manager Office of Sustainability Initiatives |
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
In the spring of 2021, over 725 individuals from Minnesota colleges and universities joined the challenge to compete in teams comprised of students, employees, alumni, and other community members. The two-week long challenge provided a fun and social way for students across campuses in the state to take meaningful action, learn about sustainability, and make a positive difference.
Participants in the Campus EcoChallenge complete actions in a range of categories including waste, food, health, building resiliency, community, and simplicity. The wide variety of categories encourages participants to think about sustainability in broad terms, from the individual level to the community level and beyond.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
The collective engagement of students and employees in the challenge landed the University of St. Thomas in 2nd place in the Minnesota Cross-Campus Ecochallenge. The university's competing teams included students, faculty & staff, and alumni. The Campus EcoChallenge dashboard tracks the university's participants during the two-week challenge. This included reduction of CO2, savings of water, preparation of meatless or vegan meals, diversion of plastic bottles from the waste stream, learning about sustainability and environmental justice, and meditating or being mindful.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The Campus Race to Zero Waste is a nation-wide competition between colleges and universities to reduce their waste. In spring 2022, St. Thomas participated in three main categories of the competition. Weeks one through seven of the competition included programming based on the seven Rs of waste (refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, replant, recycle, rot). The goal of this programming was to increase outreach and encourage waste reduction.
Week 1's theme was Refuse, and we hosted a virtual showing of the "The True Cost", a movie about the social and environmental impacts of fast fashion.
Week 2's theme was Reduce, and we hosted a webinar called "How to Reduce Your Food Waste".
Week 3's theme was Reuse, and we hosted a book drive and a Free Pop-Up Book Shop. 1,141 pounds of books were collected, of which 361.5 pounds were taken at the event and the remaining 779.5 pounds were donated to Books for Africa.
Week 4's theme was Repair, and we hosted a Fix-It Clinic in the create[space]. Campus community members were invited to bring their damaged items to repair with the help of a fixer.
Week 5's theme was Replant, and we hosted a webinar called "Regrowing Your Food from Scraps", hosted by Steve Szathmary, UMN Food Systems graduate and urban farmer.
Week 6's theme was Recycle, and we held a plastic bag drive around the St. Paul campus. 14 pounds of plastic bags were collected and recycled!
Week 7's theme was Rot, the final R in the seven Rs of waste. We had a waste sorting game in the student center and gave out sustainable prizes provided by the Office of Sustainability Initiatives.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
In the 2022 Campus Race to Zero Waste competition, the University of St. Thomas ranked 14th out of 103 participants in the Diversion category with a diversion rate of 57.162%, 14th place out of 91 participants in the Food Organics category with a score of 71.24 points, and 75th place in the Per Capita category with an average of 5.613 pounds recycled per person.
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.