Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 59.78
Liaison Joseph Wasylycia-Leis
Submission Date March 1, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Winnipeg
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.19 / 3.00 Joseph Wasylycia-Leis
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Campus Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
810

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
322

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
39.75

Name of the employee educators program:
Green Office Program

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
322

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:

The Green Office Program (GOP) is an ongoing initiative led by the Sustainability Office that helps UWinnipeg maintain high environmental performance standards. The program offers voluntary office sustainability assessments along with trainings, informational resources and educational opportunities, all in an effort to help staff green their work spaces and make sustainable choices on and off campus.

Peer-to-peer education is an important part of the GOP. GOP Representatives are encouraged to attend info sessions and training hosted by the CSO, and then take that information back to their co works. Two examples of this are:

-Waste education training for GOP Reps who then share tips, information and new signage with their coworkers
- The annual Commuter Challenge where GOP reps are trained on green commuting options and on how to log green travel distances. The reps then educate and encourage their co-workers to take up green commuting during the challenge and beyond, helping them log their kilometers for
- Green Office Walkthroughs where GOP reps works with CSO staff to identify challenges and opportunities for improving office-level sustainabiltiy practices. Reps set goals and educate their co-workers on required changes.

The three core objectives of the GOP are:

1. Establish an effective approach to monitoring and improving sustainability performance at the office level to help meet our LEED O&M targets pertaining to waste diversion, purchasing, energy consumption and transportation.

2. Encourage all departments on campus to engage wholeheartedly in sustainable practices and to embrace “sustainability” as part of our campus identity by offering tools and resources that enable staff, faculty and students to take leadership.

3. Provide open lines of communication with all departments for sharing ideas, events and opportunities relating to sustainability across campus, thereby encouraging action that benefits our campus and the wider community.


A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:

GOP representatives are selected on a volunteer basis. An identified office requires only one Green Office Representative.


A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:

The GOP representatives attend a yearly orientation for background on the University's Sustainability Strategy and the role day-to-day actions taken by staff can help us achieve our goals. GOP reps are trained on several sustainability topics relating to the University's Environmental performance as well as lifestyle choices. They then go back to their departments and share what they have learned during department level meetings, helping their peers take sustainable actions.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination):

The CSO gives ~10 paid hours of employee time a month to the Green Office Program. The CSO provides training and information on an ongoing basis to office-level staff and GOP Representatives


Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
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A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
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A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
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A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
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A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):
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A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of employees served and how employee educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
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Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

In response to STARS staff review feedback, We have added more details about the peer-to-peer education components of the Green Office Program.

We recognize that other aspects of the Green Office Program fit better with EN-9: Staff Professional Development. But EN-9 is locked for editing so we were not able to add details there, and thus left the information in EN7.


In response to STARS staff review feedback, We have added more details about the peer-to-peer education components of the Green Office Program.

We recognize that other aspects of the Green Office Program fit better with EN-9: Staff Professional Development. But EN-9 is locked for editing so we were not able to add details there, and thus left the information in EN7.

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.