New Sustainability Campus Engagement Goal

by Melanie Stewart

If you read last week’s 2017 Sustainability Master Plan Metric update, you noticed that we have made some progress on our Sustainability Engagement Score (SES), which is great news.

The SES is calculated using the answers to several questions in our biannual sustainability survey, the most recent of which was completed last fall.  We gauge what colleagues and students know about sustainability, what sustainability actions they participate in, as well as those around them.  This is then calculated into an overall engagement score, with the highest point total possible being 100.  Here is the latest update:

CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT

• Baseline: Sustainability Engagement Score is 45 (out of a possible 100)
• Goal: Achieve a Sustainability Engagement Score of 75 by the end of 2023
  • Progress: Current Sustainability Engagement Score is 59

We will need to have a high rate of engagement in order to meet our ambitious, updated, goals in emissions/energy, waste, water, and active transportation. In light of that need and in order to align the goal timeline with the other goals, a new goal has been approved:

Achieve a Sustainability Engagement Score of 85 by 2030.

A score of 85 is high making hitting that mark, especially by 2030, an ambitious goal as well.  That said, I’m confident we can make it.  I’ve spoken with so many of you who understand how important sustainability is and how it is connected directly to our mission of “creating a healthy future for all individuals and communities.”

If you want to be more involved, considering becoming a LiveGreen Ambassador.  We don’t have regular meetings to worry about, and it’s a good way for you to get information, share it with colleagues, as well as provide feedback to the Office of Sustainability.  If now isn’t a good time, the opportunity will always be available to you.

Thank you for all you do to help in reducing energy/emissions, conserving water, using active transportation, reducing/reusing/recycling, and all of the other “little” things you do that add up!  Sometimes those actions seem small, but don’t discount them.  Small acts done repeatedly create an impact on their own, and as more people do so, it will become the norm leading others to change their habits too.  I look forward to attaining these goals with all of you as we move forward.