Virginia Tech
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

Members of the Office of Energy and Sustainability (OES) are charged with overseeing the implementations of the Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment and Sustainability Plan. The OES Sustainability Program Manager and Campus Sustainability Planner plan and implement this program. Assisting them are other employee educator subject matter experts from key units charged with advancing sustainability on campus to include: Energy Manager, Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator, Alternative Transportation Manager, Environmental Health & Safety Environmental Engineer, and Human Resources Professional Development Office.

On September 16, 2014, the Office of Energy and Sustainability conducted a live webinar entitled, “Let’s Invent the Green Future”. The webinar’s goals were to highlight a number of our university’s sustainability accomplishments, introduce the audience to upcoming sustainability events and opportunities, encourage them to get involved in their workplace and residence, and solicit their ideas to help advance sustainability both at the university and in the surrounding community. All Virginia Tech employees are invited to join in on the conversation from the comfort of their desks during the lunch hour. These free brown bag webinars are designed to provide employees across the state with interesting information on a variety of topics. Employees participating in the webinar will be invited, and encouraged, to ask the speaker questions during the one-hour discussion. These webinars are on-going and occur all year long. The webinar is posted on the OES website and can be viewed throughout the year and will be updated as necessary: https://vthr.adobeconnect.com/system/get-player?urlPath=/p73z8fn47go/ This webinar serves as an ideal training vehicle for any university employee or organization interested in our campus sustainability program. This could also be used as a model for others.

"Our VT" is sponsored by the Department of Human Resources who provides the staff and financial support. For a listing of the committee members, upcoming events and general program details please see the following link: http://www.hr.vt.edu/great-place-to-work/culture-community/our-vt/

Membership is available to facility managers employed at Virginia Tech and those that have a formal association with the university. To view the complete membership list, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/members09172014.pdf FMDG Overview: Virginia Tech staff responsible for management of state-owned and leased properties and others with a formal relationship with the University. Program Objectives: 1. To identify and promote opportunities for professional development through enhanced coordination and communication between campus-wide facilities management staffs. 2. To provide a network that enables facilities managers to obtain knowledge and skills to improve efficiencies through a synergistic effort. Purpose Summary: A leadership group comprised of representatives from numerous campus departments, The Office of Health and Safety and the Facilities Services Department will address specific concerns of, and facilitate communication among, facilities management personnel by: 1. Sponsoring programs of general interest to facilities managers and their staffs. 2. Inviting guest speakers to present topics of mutual interest in the area of facilities management. 3. Providing opportunities for specialized training and problem solving discussions for such topics as OSHA compliance; disaster recovery and emergency action plans; security; working well with contractors; improving purchasing processes; enhancing space planning efforts; and identifying effective approaches to maintenance. 4. Providing information that enables facilities managers to better understand policies, procedures and processes required in maintaining campus facilities. 5. Identifying opportunities to share resources, expert knowledge and skills from different areas of campus and affiliated organizations. 6. Providing mentors for new facilities managers and like personnel. 7. Providing opportunities for affiliation with professional organizations.

The Office of Energy and Sustainability (OES) conducts ongoing training for FMDG and has done training for this group in the past. OES will conduct another training session on October 16th, 2014. FMDG has had many employee educator sustainability training opportunities to date. Sustainability training sessions and presentations have included: the VT Energy & Sustainability Plan Update presentation, Indoor Air Quality training, University Building Code training, Campus Energy & Sustainability Efforts presentation, VT Recycling Program presentation, a tour of campus buildings and the VT Power Plant, VT Energy Conservation presentation, and other additional trainings. To view a complete list of past training programs, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/minutes.html

Membership is available to facility managers employed at Virginia Tech and those that have a formal association with the university. To view the complete membership list, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/members09172014.pdf

Environmental Health and Safety hosts the training for the Department of Site & Infrastructure Development (SID). SID oversees Virginia Tech’s MS4 program. The MS4 Program is based on the VSMP Permit which consists of three parts (Section I, Section II, and Section III). Section II, the primary focus of the VAR04 Permit, includes six Minimum Control Measures (MCMs). One of these MCMs includes training employees (MCM 6 – Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping. This training is a requirement of the permit.

Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) actively promotes a positive, responsible, integrated safety culture at all levels of the university community, advocates providing a safe and healthy living, learning, and working environment for all, and assists departments with complying with regulations and mandates. They offer training to the entire university community. The stormwater management department at Virginia Tech offers a training thru EHS as well as Dining Services. The training consists of various pollution prevention tips and how we can protect our campus waterways. 1,436 Virginia Tech Dining Services employees have received stormwater management training, which includes job‐specific pollution prevention techniques such as disposing of wastewater and used oil, and cleaning off floor mats. Employees were trained as a part of New Hire Orientation or, for returning staff members, as an annual training requirement for all levels of employees including student, wage, and salary employees. 1,092 of the 1,436 employees are students. It can be assumed that most, if not all, of the students are off‐campus students. 279 of the 1,436 are wage staff members and 63 are salaried staff members. 139 Virginia Tech employees were trained through Environmental Health and Safety on MS4 awareness and pollution prevention, which includes disposal information and spill procedures for those working in areas and with equipment susceptible to generating stormwater pollution. For more information see the following links: http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/DiningServicesNewHireOrientationSlides.pdf http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/DiningServiecsManagementTraining.pdf http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/EHS_QuizQuestions.pdf http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/DiningServicesBrochure.pdf http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/FinalFacilitiesTraining.pdf http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/PAE15/TrainingTable2013-2014.pdf

In order to satisfy MS4 Permit training requirements, employees in both the Facilities Operations and Dining Services Departments have received Stormwater Pollution Prevention Training. It was determined that the job tasks and responsibilities of these departments have the potential to impact stormwater. As a result, pollution prevention training was implemented in an effort to lessen the potential impacts.

The Office of Energy and Sustainability has prepared a Sustainability "Road Show". Patterned after the "Let's Invent the Green Future" webinar (See Program 1). This Road Show is available for all University employees and organizations and serves as a training vehicle to educate them on our sustainability program and upcoming events. OES is scheduled to give presentations to the "Fiscal Bunch for Lunch Group (FBLG)" on October 30th, 2014. The FBLG consists of nearly 500 University employees that have fiscal responsibilities for their units. The idea is to train these fiscal personnel so they can then train their colleagues. Like the FMDG (See Program 2) this is a wonderful opportunity to communicate our sustainability program to the entire University community and to encourage their engagement. OES is scheduling a similar Road Show with our Institute for Critical Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICTAS) in November 2014.