Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 45.35
Liaison Wesley Enterline
Submission Date April 22, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 3.00 Wesley Enterline
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Planning and Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “supportive”?:
Yes

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A brief description of the institution’s supportive sustainability partnership(s) with the local community:
UW-Whitewater Sustainability Coordinator has worked with the City on the Community Garden project over a number of years. A UW-Whitewater faculty member was the garden manager for a number of years and now we look to support the new garden manager with historical information sharing and labor assistance, either directly or through coordinating volunteer events. Promoting garden membership among the campus community has been an ongoing effort to support the garden as well. Additionally, children from the Kids Escape summer program participated in Campus Garden tours over the summer and more workshops will be planned for future years. UW-Whitewater Nature Preserve is currently under restoration efforts to return the area to a native ecosystem. Part of this effort involves collecting prairie seeds to be replanted in other, unrestored parts of the nature preserve. During years of nominal production or harvesting of prairie seeds that do not yield enough to significantly plant a new portion of the preserve, the seeds have been donated to the City of Whitewater for their smaller restoration project at the Indian Mounds Park. This effort has been somewhat sporadic, but hopefully expanded once more of the Nature Preserve is restored and the volunteer program becomes more robust.

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Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “collaborative”?:
Yes

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A brief description of the institution's collaborative sustainability partnership(s):
The campus and city have partnered on the Whitewater Innovation Center, a business incubation center in the Whitewater Industrial Park. The construction of this facility was certified LEED Gold and features several prominent sustainability features, including a rooftop solar array. Businesses that occupy this facility often have sustainability-related goals or objectives. The campus/community wellness partnership called W3: Working for Whitewater’s Wellness is dedicated to improving the environmental health of the local community. There is a committee specifically designated to focus on environmental initiatives and collaborative relationships regarding the campus garden and other opportunities to take advantage of the campus Nature Preserve through educational walks and improved trails through restored portions of the prairie. The committee is ongoing and membership is often equally distributed among campus and community members.

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Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “transformative”?:
No

None
A brief description of the institution's transformative sustainability partnership(s) with the local community:
N/A

None
A brief description of the institution’s sustainability partnerships with distant (i.e. non-local) communities:
N/A

None
The website URL where information about sustainability partnerships is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1211:mvp&catid=43&Itemid=85 http://www.usgbc.org/projects/whitewater-innovation-center http://www.whitewatertechpark.org/InnovationCenter.aspx Continued expansion of efforts that fulfill all three descriptions of "town-gown relationships" will be explored moving forward.

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