Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 66.39
Liaison Michelle Patterson
Submission Date March 4, 2022

STARS v2.2

Washington University in St. Louis
IN-18: Green Event Certification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Cassandra Hage
Sustainability Manager
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have or participate in a green event certification program?:
Yes

Has the institution held one or more certified events in the previous year?:
Yes

Does the institution’s green event certification program address the following?:
Yes or No
Sustainable transportation options, teleconferencing options, and/or carbon offsets Yes
Sustainable catering (e.g., sourcing local and third party certified food and beverages, providing vegetarian/vegan options, using reusable/compostable materials) Yes
Paper consumption (e.g., minimization and recycled/FSC certified content) Yes
Energy efficiency (e.g., equipment and lighting) Yes
Waste minimization and diversion Yes
Communications and/or signage about the sustainable practices Yes

A brief description of the institution’s green event certification program:
**All events, including green events, have faced serious restrictions on the ability to hold events, and food-related restrictions have been challenging to manage in the COVID context. However, if we look to 2019, the last full year before COVID impacts, we had 42 events that (at minimum) requested compost collection and had zero waste set ups. About 10 events were certified, including high profile events like Commencement, Convocation, and WILD, which each have more than 5,000 participants.

Washington University in St. Louis is working to make all events zero waste events. The ‘green waste station’ approach allows us to compost and recycle up to 95% of material, significantly reducing landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Without these stations, we would likely capture less than 25% of the event waste.

Stations and compost collection totes can be rented for a nominal fee. The main on-campus catering service provides 100% compostable material at no extra cost upon request.

Major campus events (commencement, convocation, staff day, employee picnic, WILD concert and Thurtene Carnival, etc.) all use green event stations and receive consultation and support from the Office of Sustainability and/or the Student Sustainability Board.

Funding and consultation support is available for all student groups to host zero waste events (waste stations are provided and compostable products are sourced).

An annual workshop provides green event best practices for campus event planners.

Energy efficiency and conservation is covered indirectly because most of the buidlings have energy efficient lighting, HVAC, and techonology. We also encourage event planners to turn off lights and equipment when finished with programming.

Website URL where information about the green event certification program is available:

Optional Fields 

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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