Indiana University Bloomington
IN-4: Innovation 4

At Indiana University Bloomington, there are over 5,000 students and 65 organizations involved in Greek Life, including 32 fraternities and 23 sororities. Our effort to improve the sustainability of those organizations is called the “Indiana University Green Greek Certification Program", an annual point system through which housed fraternities and sororities document and be rewarded for their sustainability efforts. Based on the number of points earned in a given year, fraternities and sororities can achieve different levels of certification: green engaged, green proficient, and green certified. The certification system consists of over 80 items in the categories waste, energy and water, community engagement, and innovation.

In the last 2 years, the IU Office of Sustainability has been working with the Panhellic Council (PHA) and the Intrafraternity Council (IFC) at IU to generate an institutional structure that can allow the system to work. As of spring 2015, all housed chapters have a designated Sustainability Chair. The chairs will be responsible for implementing the certification system within their houses. To become certified, each Sustainability Chair must submit their certification checklist in the Spring (mid April) of the academic year with the signature of the chapter Sustainability Chair and the chapter President. Before attaining certification, these documents will be reviewed by IUOS staff. For certain items (often high point value items), the chair will also be required to submit documentation (e.g. electricity bills for the chapter). The certification system has been vetted and approved by IFC, PHA, the Senior Associate Director for Student Life and Learning, and by the IU Director of Sustainability.

We expect to certify chapters in the Spring of 2016 based on their activities in the 2015-2016 academic year. In preparation for this, in the Spring of 2015, all sustainability chairs were invited to a “Green Greek networking” night at the E-House, home to the IU Office of Sustainability. At the event, 39/41 sustainability chairs for the housed Greek chapters attended and learned about the certification system. A similar event will take place in the early fall of 2015 to jump-start implementation of the system for 2015-2016.