| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 71.02 |
| Liaison | Emily Vollmer |
| Submission Date | Oct. 15, 2014 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Virginia Tech
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
5.00 / 5.00 |
Emily
Schosid Campus Sustainability Planner University Planning |
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indicates that no data was submitted for this field
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Does the institution hold a campaign that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes
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The name of the campaign(s):
1. America Recycles Day; 2. RecycleMania
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A brief description of the campaign(s):
1. America Recycles Day:
Summary: Every November 15 is America Recycles Day, a national day of education lead by Keep America Beautiful. Virginia Tech hosted its first America Recycles Day event in 2013, focused around Tailgate Recycling. Student interns in the Office of Energy and Sustainability set up a table, gave away food and prizes, had conversations about what can and cannot be recycled during a tailgate, and asked people to tell us why they recycle. The students took photos of people with a whiteboard telling us why they recycle, and these photos were posted to the Office of Energy and Sustainability Facebook page. Both the tabling event and the photos after the fact raised awareness of recycling on campus and how to recycle at tailgate events.
2. RecycleMania:
Summary: RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. The 2014 competition marks the ninth consecutive year that Virginia Tech has participated in RecycleMania.
Competition Details: Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash weight data in pounds. Five targeted materials are reported and include: bottles and cans, corrugated cardboard, paper, food service organics (composting), and trash. The first two weeks of the competition is a “trial period” for schools to practice the process of gathering and submitting data, and these results are not scored. The final eight weeks represents the “actual competition” and these results are scored. Cumulative results are posted each week. Schools are ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclable per capita, the largest amount of total recyclable, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate.
During the 2014 RecycleMania competition, Virginia Tech won the national Recycling Pledge competition, as well as the NWF Campus Ecology Case Study Competition.
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A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign(s):
1. America Recycles Day:
The biggest positive impact was increased traffic on all Office of Energy and Sustainability social media channels as a result of the photo campaign. With more people engaged online, we see increased participation in recycling programs as well.
For more information on America Recycles Day, see: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.448326651939675.1073741832.215975268508149&type=3
2. RecycleMania:
Measurement and Positive Impacts: Actual weights for waste and recycling materials are provided by the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority (MRSWA) in Christiansburg, Virginia. Actual weights for food composted material are provided by Poplar Manor Enterprises (PME) Compost, LLC. RecycleMania does not include Food Service Organics in their total recyclable figures as some schools don’t report that figure.
Fore more information on RecycleMania and to view Virginia Tech's weekly results, please see: http://www.facilities.vt.edu/sustainability/2013/recyclemania_2013.asp
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The website URL where information about the sustainability outreach campaign(s) is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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