Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.48
Liaison Amy Brunvand
Submission Date Oct. 21, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Utah
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.62 / 3.00 Ayrel Clark-Proffitt
Campus Engagement Manager
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees:
25,952

Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
3,871

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
14.92

Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
Green Office Certification

A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):

Offices and departments are significant resource users, from energy to waste to purchasing. The University of Utah’s Green Office Certification extends the work of sustainability professionals on campus by identifying “Green Office Educators” across campus who can engage more personally with colleagues in their offices. The Green Office program and its educators help provide tools, support, and guidance to make smarter and more sustainable choices. The Green Office Educators introduce new employees (including student employees) to green practices, share sustainability tips, and monitor compliance with the Green Office program within their offices. Educators are asked to contribute 1-2 hours per week toward working with their peers on sustainability efforts in their space. Educators are supported by Sustainability Office staff, who visit the office/department for walkthroughs and/or presentations, as well as provide answers to employee questions; they are invited to attend periodic "Green Office Power Hour" presentations with lunch provided to keep their knowledge and engagement up to date. The program has been successful because it creates a true peer-to-peer touchpoint. Rather than Sustainability staff speaking to the tens of thousands of campus employees, colleagues they know and have relationships with share sustainability ideas and priorities.


A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):

Staff, including student employees. Staff are the frontlines of an office, demonstrating best practices in space management, behavior, purchasing, and more.


Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
46

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
52

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
1.50

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
3,588

Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :
Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Wasatch Experience/Faculty Learning Communities

A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):

The Wasatch Experience engages educators in a two-day, team-based workshop in May, followed by regular small-group meetings during the school year. Participants design and implement an action plan to integrate the big ideas of sustainability into their courses. Upon program completion, participants are awarded $500 and receive the University Sustainability Teaching Scholar designation. These faculty the lead quarterly faculty learning communities open to all faculty. A faculty learning community (FLC) comprises an interdisciplinary group of faculty members who are devoted to enhancing sustainability teaching and learning. The Sustainability FLC focuses on faculty, providing a space to learn about other work on campus and opportunities to creatively infuse sustainability concepts and issues into courses and academic endeavors. Possible projects and discussions include interdisciplinary teaming for sustainability education, sustainability literacy assessment, and engaging students and faculty in existing sustainability education projects and programs.


A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):

Faculty members


Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
60

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
36

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
1

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
22

Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (2nd program):
A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
---

Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
---

Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
---

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
---

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
---

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
3,610

Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.14

Website URL where information about the employee sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

BACKGROUND
Certify Your Green Office. Sustainable Utah [blog] February 8, 2017
URL: https://sustainableutah.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/certify-your-green-office/

Wasatch Experience
https://sustainability.utah.edu/education/the-wasatch-experience/


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.