Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.42
Liaison Dayna Cook
Submission Date March 3, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Northern Arizona University
EN-3: Student Life

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Ellen Vaughan
Manager
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have one or more active student groups focused on sustainability?:
Yes

A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:

There are many student clubs/organizations dedicated to sustainability or that have heavy sustainable components.

Student Environmental Caucus or "Green Jacks" - overarching environmental group on campus: http://nau.edu/Green-NAU/Green-Jacks/
Student-governed

Additional Student Groups are listed below, information on them can be accessed at: http://nau.edu/Green-NAU/Student-Groups/

Five Environmental Caucus Action Teams:
Waste Minimization Action Team (WMT)
Transportation Action Team (TransAT)
Sustainable Landscape Team
Communications Action Team
Energy Action Team

Eco-Reps
Hospitality and Business Sustainability Club (HBS)
Connecting Higher Education Indigenously (CHEI)
Botany Club - Student-governed
Forestry Club - Student-governed
Hiking Club (NAUHC) - Student-governed
Program in Community, Culture and Environment (CCE)
Student Association for Fire Ecology (SAFE) - Student-governed
The Wildlife Society - Student-governed
Ambassadors for the College of Engineering, Forestry & Natural Sciences (ACEFNS) - Student-governed
Anthropology Club - Student-governed
Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)
Astronomy Astrobiology Club - Student-governed

Community Re-engagement for Arizona Families, Transitions, and Sustainability
The ALTs create dynamic intergenerational hands-on learning communities, bringing first year seminar students, returning undergraduates, masters students in the sustainable communities program and community partners into a collaborative relationship.
There are over 15 Action Learning Teams, 1000 undergraduates and 20 graduate students participating both on and off campus in the areas of social, environmental, and economic justice. Click on each one to find out more and join us in action!

The Action Learning Teams (ALTs) include:
AGWA: ACTION GROUP FOR WATER ADVOCACY
ATAM: ART THROUGH ALL MEDIUMS (ATAM)
COMMUNITY GARDENS
The Equal Ecological Access and Opportunity (EEACO)
THE IMMIGRATION ACTION LEARNING TEAM (I-ART)
INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS (NASS)
NEW ECONOMY NORTHERN ARIZONA (NENAU)
PUBLIC ACHIEVEMENT
QUEER AND ALLY (Q&A)
VETERAN EDUCATIONAL TRANSITION SUCCESS (VETS)
Weatherization and Community Building Action Team (WACBAT)
WASTE = FOOD
ALL Student-governed!

Graduate Clubs
Environmental Science and Policy Graduate Student Organization (ESPGSO) - Student-governed
Biology Graduate Student Association (BGSA) - Student-governed
Forestry Graduate Student Association (FGSA) - Student-governed
Geology Graduate Student Org (GGSO) - Student-governed

NAU Learning Communities
Residence Life has developed on-campus communities where like-minded students live and study together.
http://nau.edu/CEFNS/Learning-communities/


The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Does the institution have gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
Yes

A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:

The Students for Sustainable Living and Urban Gardening (SSLUG).
What SSLUG does:
Integrate growing local foods and broader food-sustainability issues into education at the university via hands-on learning.
Advocate for food justice, and promote community gardening, fruit tree planting, and composting.
Research traditional agricultural practices.
Cultivate broad participation and durable networks of support so that they are able to flourish for many years.
Enhance collaboration with the broader community, particularly Flagstaff Foodlink and Community Gardeners.

What they grow and how we grow it
The SSLUG Garden promotes sustainable food systems through demonstration of organic growing methods in a campus setting. Hands-on participation in planting, harvesting, seed collecting, and soil amendment activities enable volunteers to learn how to grow a variety of food crops in a challenging high-elevation climate. The Garden features short-season heirloom vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs, climate-appropriate fruit trees and berries, along with native wildflowers and shrubs. Since Flagstaff has a relatively short growing season (103 days), many of the plants are sown from seed in the NAU Greenhouses in the spring and cared for by volunteers until they are ready to be planted in the garden in early June.
- Student-governed

The NAU Botney Club runs the SHAND garden on north campus. Creation of the garden transformed a weedy, unused lot into a beautiful and functional place on campus. The garden serves as an important teaching tool and research location for all botany courses.
- Student-governed

NAU funds a full-time Campus Organic Gardener (COG) to support the SSLUG organization and the expansion of on-campus, organic gardens that will be accessible to all students.

Flagstaff Foodlink: Community Gardens
First Year Seminar Programs work with Flagstaff Foodlink to get out into the community and connect students with community gardens.

Flagstaff Foodlink: School Gardens
First Year Seminar Programs work with Flagstaff Foodlink to get out into the community and connect students with K-12 gardens.

Students Nurturing Alternatives in Landscapes (SNAIL) - Engage the campus community in cooperative gardening on campus.
- Student-governed


The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Does the institution have student-run enterprises that include sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes (e.g. cafés through which students gain sustainable business skills)?:
Yes

A brief description of the student-run enterprises:

New Economy NAU Action Learning Team - Student group focuses on sustainable entrepreneurship cooperatives and alternative economic models. They work with community high school students and on-campus students.
- Student-governed

The University partners with the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technology (NACET) to nourish student-run enterprises, especially those that relate to sustainability. Specifically, the Launch Box program allows students to submit business proposals for the chance to win enterprise funding.


The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:

Green Fund - The Green Fund Committee oversee's NAU's Green Fund: In March, 2010, NAU students overwhelmingly voted to establish the University's Green Fund: a $5.00 per student, per term fee that goes towards projects that make NAU campus more sustainable. Funded projects aim to decrease the University's carbon footprint and contribute to the University's culture of sustainability.The Green Fund Committee is a resource available to the student body for project and investment coaching. The committee votes to select distribution of funds.
http://nau.edu/Green-NAU/NAU-Green-Fund/
Student-governed

NAU Student Managed Investment Fund - founded in 2000 with an initial fund from the NAU Foundation of $500,000. The fund was created to allow students to apply what they have learned in their educational career by investing money in the stock market. This is a hands-on learning experience, where students are required to perform investment research and manage a portfolio in excess of $1.88 Million.
The NAU Foundation awarded $1M to create a new portfolio managed with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. This is in addition to the $1.9M portfolio currently managed by SMIF. Companies will be identified that are doing well financially as well as by their various stakeholders.
http://franke.nau.edu/smif/


The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Does the institution have conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:

The Office of Sustainability hosts Earth Hour and Earth Month.
Earth Month is held annually on campus. Both include activities such as speakers, sustainable demos, events (like the Eco-Fashion show) and often music attractions.

NAU's Provost holds a lecture series each year and it is typical that at least one of her speakers is a sustainability-related speaker.

Franke College of Business brings at one sustainability related business presenter a year.

Community, Culture, and the Environment, ALTs, and the Program for Community Culture and the Environment brought three sustainability related presenters to their conference on Sustainable Business and Cooperative Economics.


The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
Does the institution have cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:

NAU hosts an annual "Better World Film Series"
This free documentary film series shows our society’s greatest challenges and celebrate the triumph of the human spirit.
Sustainable films shown in
2016:
Riding for the Brand
The Future of Energy
Merchants of Doubt
Trashed

2015:
Shattered Sky
This Changes Everything
Farmland
Vanishing of the Bees
Dam Nation

2014:
Inequality for All;
Streams of Consequence;
Bidder 70; Growing Cities;
Shift the Climate;
Taking the Earth’s Temperature;
Chasing Ice;
Carbon Nation

2013:
Bag It
Last Call at the Oasis
In Organic We Trust
The Big Fix
A Chemical Reaction
Revenge of the Electric
Your Environmental Road Trip
End of the Line
Trashed
Chasing Ice
Earth Day
The Better World Film Series is sponsored by: The Office of Sustainability, the Environmental Caucus, and the W.A. Franke College of Business

The Center for International Education (CIE) helps prepare Northern Arizona University students to be globally competent upon graduation.
They host an annual Symposium and International Week as wells as "Culture Nights." Other CIE events included a Tai Chi expert lesson, a lesson on international dances, and an international quiz show event. They also hosted a seminar on international business communication, a panel on STEM careers, and a session on international internship opportunites. They hosted lectures about Tibet, Chinese women's history, and women's experiences in Bosnia.

The Native American Cultural Center hosts cultural arts events.

Campus Dining holds regular cultural food events


The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
Does the institution have wilderness or outdoors programs (e.g. that organize hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or other outings for students) that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
Yes

A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:

NAU is one of the many nation-wide educational institutions that has partnered with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. The mission of the NAU Outdoor Program is to facilitate experiential opportunities where students have the ability to learn the values of trusting one's self, intrapersonal communication, diversity, health, leadership, and the importance of creating life-long friendships while exploring and preserving our natural environment.

NAU Outdoors consists of a collection of programs designed to assist NAU students and others to explore Arizona and the surrounding area.

NAU Hiking Club supports LNT principles: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2217965304/


The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences (e.g. choosing a sustainability-related book for common reading)?:
No

A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:

ECO HOUSE LEARNING COMMUNITY
The Eco House learning community is a residential and academic community that focuses on making positive environmental change through:
environmental research and education
community engagement
personal change
Approximately 20 Eco House residents study their personal impact on the environment and use this knowledge to promote environmentally sustainable living within the university and Flagstaff community.
This learning community is ideal for students if you’re considering majoring in:
environmental science
environmental studies
biology
forestry
geology
related fields

The Sustainable Environments and Engaged Democracy (SEED) Residential Learning Community.
SEED enables you to learn and work with people of diverse backgrounds in order to foster creative and beneficial change in the world.
http://nau.edu/Residence-Life/Housing-Options/Learning-Communities/SEED/


The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Does the institution have programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
Yes

A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:

The First Year Seminar Program brings the best faculty, teachers, and scholars on campus together with highly motivated first year students to explore rich and engaging topics based upon faculty research, scholarship, interests, and current issues. Through this experience, undergraduate research is pursued from the beginning of students’ careers, communities are established among Seminar students, strong mentoring relationships are formed with Seminar faculty, and increased numbers of students are retained from the first year into the second year.

EcoReps teach students how to live sustainably: http://nau.edu/residence-life/life-on-campus/sustainability/ecorep/

The Sustainable Citizen Program teaches students how to live sustainably: https://nau.edu/green-nau/sustainable-citizen-program/


The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:

Students can work for:

Environmental Caucus
http://nau.edu/Environmental-Caucus/

Office of Sustainability
http://nau.edu/Green-NAU/Office-of-Sustainability/

Campus Recreation/NAU Outdoors/Bike Hub
http://nau.edu/campus-recreation/outdoors/

Composting with Campus Dining
http://nau.edu/Dining/Sustainability/

Green Fund
http://nau.edu/Green-NAU/NAU-Green-Fund/

Graduate Assistantships
NAU has dozens of sustainability-related academic departments and classes which can offer GA or GT positions to research or teach sustainability related topics.
https://nau.edu/gradcol/financing/grad-assistantships/


The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
Does the institution have graduation pledges through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
No

A brief description of the graduation pledges:
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The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
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Does the institution have other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives?:
Yes

A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:

NAU students can earn a Sustainable Living Certificate and become a No Impact Jack.

No Impact Jacks adopt and practice sustainable living habits. By choosing to become a No Impact Jack, they support NAU’s commitment to conserve limited natural resources and help make the world a better place.


The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
Estimated percentage of students (full-time and part-time) that participate annually in sustainability-focused co-curricular education and outreach programs (0-100):
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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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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.