| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 56.01 |
| Liaison | Suzanne Wood |
| Submission Date | Aug. 16, 2023 |
UMass Chan Medical School
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Kortni
Wroten Sustainability and Energy Manager Facilities |
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:
UMass Chan has been promoting sustainable transportation initiatives for years that has yielded measurable and positive results in advancing sustainability and other goals. These programs focus on electric vehicle adoption, bicycle-friendly facilities and programs, and ridesharing programs. UMass Chan has posted several articles in its Growing Green sustainability newsletter that focus on electric vehicles and charging station trends, growth, and benefits both on and off campus, and plans Ride and Drive events to help educate the campus and broader community on electric vehicles.
UMass Chan has implemented a Bike Registry for bicyclists on campus, allowing registered users to access showers for free in our Fitness Center. The university has installed several bike racks in the past three years.
Lastly, UMass Chan is promoting ridesharing by incentivizing carpool parking spots with lowered rates and preferential parking spots. Ridesharing is a common topic and a well-sed program at our parking-challenged university.
The impacts of these transportation initiatives on the campus are decreased idling due to congestion and electric vehicle adoption (measured at the parking office). UMass Chan has 149 registered EV drivers, which has steadily increased through the years. Our Bike Registry allows special access to showers in the Fitness Center, incentivizing bicycling as a commute option that would further decrease commuter emissions.
Lastly, our newly launched Ridesharing app, Bay State Commute, will monitor registrants and provide tangible examples of emissions reductions and miles traveled by alternative, sustainable means of transportation to and from campus. Not only does this reduce traffic and parking congestion, it will provide measurable impacts we can communicate with our campus.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
UMass Chan tracks the progress on these initiatives in several ways:
Electric Vehicles
- EV registrations at the parking office: These have steadily increased over time, due to high EV adoption among our campus community. This results in decreased emissions from idling and driving traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
- ChargePoint data: Our EVSE manufacturer provides a portal to view usership metrics on our charging stations. We use this platform to track how many stations are used each day, for how long, and the GHG emissions avoided by using EVs.
- Attendance at EV Stakeholder group meetings
- Mass DOT transportation survey helps us to monitor trends using self-reported data from campus community
Bicycles
- UMass Chan has implemented a Bike Registry where users can register at the parking office (similar to EV program). This allows us to track trends over time and contact this group directly with communications. UMass Chan has noticed an increase of bicyclists on campus, especially since providing access to the showers in the Fitness Center. Increased bike facilities has led to more students and staff riding bikes to campus, measured through the UMass Chan Bicycle Registry.
- Mass DOT transportation survey helps us to monitor trends using self-reported data from campus community
Ridesharing
- UMass Chan monitors ridesharing on campus through the parking office, who tracks carpooler groups and gives them preferential parking and lowered parking rates. This program has been full with a waitlist for some time, and is now being expanded at the current lot and Plantation Street garage.
- UMass Chan is rolling out an app called Bay State Commute to help students find fellow rideshare partners. Metrics are tracked through the app. This allows community members to get to know one another, builds a culture of sustainability, and reduces the number of vehicles driving and parking on campus, leading to cleaner air quality.
All programs are monitored in effectiveness by their impacts on parking congestion in our dense, urban campus.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The Sustainability and Climate Action Plan is implemented through working groups consisting of students, faculty, and staff in the UMass Chan community. There are three groups that meet quarterly: Grounds and Transportation, Materials and Resource Management, and Buildings and Energy. These groups meet to share updates, problem-solve as a group, and create goals for the next meeting.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The impact of these subgroups on the greater SCAP campaign is measured by counting attendance and engagement at quarterly meetings. Even though we are years into our plan, we still have core groups that attend the Working Group meetings. The Office of Sustainability actively recruits new students, faculty, and staff to attend these meetings. Together, we set goals, monitor progress, and learn and implement ideas.
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
In 2022, the campus began its Decarbonization Plan in conjunction with Arup and GreenerU. As part of this plan, a Decarbonization Task Force was formed to ensure the planning team incorporated feedback from the UMass Chan community. The Task Force has met several times since the beginning of the process in September of 2022, and will continue to meet until September of 2023 when the plan is completed. The Decarbonization Plan has been supplemented by engagement events with the community, including a Decarbonization Plan Open House where students learned about the campaign and contributed their ideas and pledges to reduce energy. During the month of April 2023, there was also a well-attended Clean Energy Webinar Series with guest speakers from the energy sector. By measuring quantitative data, like attendance, and qualitative data, such as interest levels, these events have had a positive impact on the campaign.
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.