| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 83.87 |
| Liaison | Yolanda Cieters |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Seattle University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Yolanda
Cieters Associate Director CEJS |
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?:
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?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
The annual “Race to Zero Waste” (previously called “Recyclemania” until 2020) is an 8-week friendly competition between colleges and universities in the US and Canada to reduce waste and improve waste diversion on campuses.
Seattle University has participated in Race to Zero Waste since 2017. The goal of the campaign at SU is for students and employees to think critically about how much waste is ending up in the landfill and how we can change our behaviors and purchasing habits to reduce and divert more waste.
During Race to Zero Waste, several events are held to engage SU’s campus community in the competition and provide information and education on “what goes where”. Examples of events for this year’s competition are:
• Education and Awareness Event-What Goes Where Workshop: Event to educate the campus community and bring awareness about proper waste disposal.
• Annual Community Recycling Day: Campus-wide event where community members can drop off clothes, office supplies, appliances, books, batteries, plastic bags, packaging material, and other goods.
• Recycling Waste Audit: staff, faculty and student volunteers find out how much waste and recyclables SU generates per day.
• Book Collection Event: For one day donation bins are placed at the resident halls and student center to collect books which will be donated to the nonprofit “Books to Prisoners”
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
In the most recent completed Race to Zero Waste challenge (2023), SU placed 11th nationally out of 91 participating Colleges and Universities in the Diversion Category. SU placed 3rd in the Medium Sized School Carnegie Class. We recycled and composted around 109,000lbs of materials throughout the 8 weeks of the competition. In a 1-month period, SU diverted over 2400lbs of electronics from the landfill. Our cumulative GHG reductions were equivalent to about 131 Metric Tons of CO2—which is the same as keeping 26 cars off the road, or the energy consumed by 11 households.
During the annual competition, SU’s waste management team runs weekly waste audits and uses the results to plan for measures to help improve SU’s recycling and composting efforts; work towards SU’s goal to become zero waste; and reduce waste-related costs. For example, after Race to Zero Waste 2020, SU's waste management team has been focusing on a variety of waste reduction and recovery initiatives including initiating a new bin placement system in high volume areas, expanding hard-to-recycle collections such as plastic film, fostering new relationships with the campus community, and improving data collection by working with departments to obtain metrics related to items such as balast, donated food and cooking oil.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
In Fall 2021, the student team at the Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability (CEJS) ran a “CampusCup” campaign for SU students. The campaign was in partnership with “All Matters” and an effort to address period poverty and reduce the environmental footprint of menstrual products. For two weeks, SU students could sign up to receive a free menstrual cup. In addition, all Seattle U community members (staff, faculty, students and alumni) could use a 20% discount code to purchase an OrganiCup/All Matters campus cup throughout academic year 2021-2022.
CampusCup was a campus-wide partnership between CEJS and MOSAIC (formerly called OMA, Office of Multicultural Affairs) Health and Wellness Promotion (HWP), the center for Student Involvement, and the student club PERIOD.
Read more here: https://www.seattleu.edu/cejs/events/campuscup-2021/
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
360 students received a free cup resulting in 190,080 pads/tampons avoided over the next two years, and $39,964.80 collectively saved on menstrual products by SU students over 2 years. Since we ran the CampusCup campaign, the Health and Wellness Promotion office continued to offer free All Matters menstrual cups for students.
Read more here: https://www.seattleu.edu/cejs/events/campuscup-2021/
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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.