Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.18
Liaison Joseph Kahn
Submission Date April 20, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Central Michigan University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Jay Kahn
Facilities Operations Director
Facilities Managment
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one 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 at least one 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:
RecycleMania

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:

Recycle Mania is an international recycling competition for higher education facilities across the United States and Canada. Their website Reads:

"RecycleMania Mission: Using fair and friendly competition, RecycleMania provides tools and opportunities that inspire, empower, and mobilize colleges and universities to benchmark and improve efforts to reduce or eliminate waste.

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more.

National recognition is provided to the winning school in each category on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release. Winning schools receive an award made out of recyclable materials, and win the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year.

Overall Goals for RecycleMania:

1. Motivate students and staff to increase recycling efforts and reduce waste generation.
2. Generate attention and support for campus recycling programs.
3. Encourage colleges to measure and benchmark recycling activity in their effort to improve their programs over time.
4. Have a fair and friendly competition."

Each year, students, staff and faculty are encouraged to participate in additional recycling efforts through campus signage, public announcements, faculty and staff announcements, as well as word of mouth outreach around campus.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

Since Central Michigan University's first year participating in Recycle Mania, recycling numbers have steadily increased and, for the 2016 competition, recycling, as well as composting weights reached an all time high for the University.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Food Reduction Challenge

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):

The Food Recovery Challenge is a program governed by the Environmental Protection Agency designed to encourage and assist facilities in establishing baseline food waste data, set goals in reduction, take action in reduction as well as track and evaluate progress in that regard.

Students, staff and faculty are encouraged to participate in additional food waste reduction efforts through campus signage, public announcements, faculty and staff announcements, as well as word of mouth outreach around campus.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

Central Michigan University received yet another award for the Food Waste Reduction Challenge in 2016. Goals set and achieved in 2015, resulted in this award. CMU has obtained two consecutive Food Recovery Challenge awards as the Region 5 winners and is currently working towards a third award for the 2016 fiscal year, to be awarded in 2017.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
---

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
---

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

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.