Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 61.34
Liaison Jennifer Kleindienst
Submission Date Dec. 20, 2019

STARS v2.2

Wesleyan University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Jennifer Kleindienst
Sustainability Coordinator
Finance and Administration
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Waste Not

A brief description of the campaign:
Waste Not is an annual student-run collection of reusable items. Student interns and volunteers collect reusables in the spring and sell these items to students in the fall. In 2013, Wesleyan began a partnership with Goodwill Industries to further reduce waste. Since 2016, Wesleyan has partnered with Grad Bag, a program that distributes dorm basics at no charge to incoming freshmen in the New York City area.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
10-25 tons of reusable items are recovered and resold or donated annually. Items are sold back to students to increase access, reduce costs, and reduce waste significantly.

Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Veg Out

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Students involved in Veg Out spread awareness of how the animal agriculture industry causes environmental destruction, human health issues, social inequality, and animal cruelty. They have launched comprehensive campaigns by working with Wesleyan's dining service to change food purchasing and to create a permanent plant-based protein installation in the main dining hall. Goals include spreading awareness of the issues caused by the animal agriculture industry and providing educational resources regarding plant-based alternatives to help people visualize what it means to reduce meat consumption.

In practice, this has manifested as multiple speaking events, cooking demonstrations, and a Middletown/Wesleyan plant-based food guide.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
"Veg Out Tuesdays" is an established program in which the largest dining hall (75+% of meals) serves no meat every other Tuesday. This will expand to every Tuesday in Fall 2019. The Food Guide was distributed in Spring 2019 and underwent a second printing because of popularity.

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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