| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 83.12 |
| Liaison | Patrick McKee |
| Submission Date | Nov. 16, 2023 |
University of Connecticut
PA-1: Sustainability Coordination
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Patrick
McKee Senior Sustainability Program Manager Office of Sustainability |
Does the institution have at least one sustainability committee?:
The charter or mission statement of the committee(s) or a brief description of each committee's purview and activities:
Charter/Mission:
Environmental Policy Advisory Council (EPAC) is advisory to the President, Provost and other senior administrators about strategies for enhancing the University's environmental performance in:
•Fostering environmentally sustainable development and mitigating environmental impacts of our construction activities
•Improving environmental compliance in operations
•Distinguishing academic, operational and community outreach reputation by promoting environmental leadership initiatives
•Better integrating environmental principles into the University's governance by ensuring coordination with administrative advisory committees and task forces.
Functions:
The EPAC meets once per semester, or as needed, and may appoint committees and task forces to:
•Develop and revise UConn’s environmental policy statement.
•Identify environmental risks and recommend goals, policies, and procedures to address risks and improve environmental performance
•Identify opportunities and sponsor initiatives designed to advance and achieve environmental sustainability
•Develop strategies for building environmental awareness and engaging students, staff members, and faculty members in environmental initiatives
•Advise the University about conservation and development plans and activities
•Formulate strategies for dealing with stakeholder groups on environmental issues
•Monitor the University’s environmental performance and sponsor periodic environmental reports
•Organize and promote outreach events and partnerships that showcase the University’s environmental leadership.
Additionally, workgroups, committees, and task forces, associated with EPAC, like the Green Campus Academic Network, and the Green Office Team Organizers, engage more than 400 members of the UConn community in initiatives, events and planning activities.
More recently, EPAC and the Office of Sustainability have worked with CSR, Human Rights and Public Engagement staff and faculty on initiatives involving the social and economic aspects of sustainability.
The list of EPAC members is found here: https://sustainability.uconn.edu/uconn-environmental-policy-advisory-council/
Charter Mission:
The President’s Working Group on Sustainability and the Environment (PWGSE) was a working group from 2019 to 2021, aimed at providing a means of decarbonizing by 2040. It was first charged by President Katsouleas to find pathways to this goal. This working group consisted of several students, faculty members, staff members, and external partners. It produced two reports that are pertinent to the following working group in effect today.
The group’s findings and complete work is contained within this document: https://president.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2794/2021/05/PWGS-Implementation-Report-Final-for-President-5-13-2021-Total.pdf
Charter/Mission:
Carbon Reduction Working Group (CRWG) is a UConn working group involving student leaders, faculty members, and other senior UConn Facilities Operations. The Carbon Reduction Working Group will continue to support ongoing energy conservation efforts but will also identify, evaluate, and recommend specific cost-effective initiatives and actions within the larger context of the university’s available resources. This includes academic research and other programs, that will increase the use of clean and sustainable energy on UConn’s campuses and reduce environmentally harmful emissions. The goals of this group include UConn achieving carbon neutrality on its campuses by 2030, with the ultimate goal of zero carbon by 2040.
Functions:
CRWG meets once a week, providing transparency for Scope 3 reduction initiatives, while also continuing of the work of the President’s Working Group on Sustainability and the Environment. This working group was founded this January, making it difficult to report on its complete function and work thus far, however it holds immense promise for this university.
https://today.uconn.edu/2022/12/uconn-aims-to-achieve-carbon-neutrality-by-2030-and-become-international-model-of-sustainability/
Members of each committee, including affiliations and role:
List of members is found here: https://sustainability.uconn.edu/uconn-environmental-policy-advisory-council/
Does the institution have at least one sustainability office that includes more than 1 full-time equivalent employee?:
A brief description of each sustainability office:
The Sustainability Office resides within the UConn Institute of the Environment (IoE) and is comprised of three full-time employees, the Director, Sustainability Program Manager, and Administrative Coordinator as well as 12 undergraduate interns who devote 12 hours to the office per week during the academic calendar year. It also oversees 19 EcoCaptain Interns.
Full-time equivalent of people employed in the sustainability office(s):
Does the institution have at least one sustainability officer?:
Name and title of each sustainability officer:
Does the institution have a mechanism for broad sustainability coordination for the entire institution?:
A brief description of the activities and substantive accomplishments of the institution-wide coordinating body or officer during the previous three years:
EPAC meets twice a year (once a semester) to review events, activities and progress in UConn's overall sustainability-related programs and to determine and advise the University administration about how to further enhance sustainability at UConn. Most recently, at the EPAC meeting in the Fall of 2022, topics included expanding UConn’s renewable energy portfolio, achieving energy and water conservation through major steam system replacement projects, purchasing more EPEAT Gold products, and applying the LEED Sustainable Sites standards to a major campus road improvement project.
UConn's Climate Action Plan (CAP) was established through a Task Force of EPAC members in 2008-09. In 2011-12, the Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, again as a subset of EPAC members, helped develop the 2012 Adaptation Amendment as a separate section of the CAP, with a focus on resilience goals and targets. The members of EPAC continue to ensure that the objectives set forth in the Climate Action Plan are being carried out as planned.
The PWGSE and now Carbon Reduction Working Group has acted a means of bringing together stakeholders to address Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Their focus thus far has been on expanding hydrogen infrastructure, solar canopies on parking lots, and decreasing the footprint of university buildings. It has several senior administrators working to increase transparency of initiatives and gage student input.
Amongst faculty, there is more coordination to find academic and operational synergies, which has culminated into the organization linked below.
https://cleanearth.engr.uconn.edu/
Job title of the sustainability officer position:
Job description for the sustainability officer position:
Job description for the sustainability officer position:
Mike Willig is the Acting Director of the Office of Sustainability for UConn. Mike is also the Executive Director of the Institute of the Environment (IoE) and directs a wide range of sustainability initiatives and programs that promote clean energy, conservation and resource efficiency, waste reduction and diversion, low impact development, green building, Climate Action, environmental literacy, and student engagement. A new full-time Director of the Office of Sustainability was hired and will begin work in April 2023.
Job title of the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
Job description for the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
Job description for the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
•Develop new and lead existing educational, outreach, and engagement programming, including support for regional campuses
•Assist with evaluation of programs and activities to achieve the objectives of the Office of Sustainability.
•Prepare presentations for meetings with key stakeholder groups, and represent the Office of Sustainability at University events including speaking to student groups
•Manage the sustainability.uconn.edu webpage, digital sustainability monitors/dashboards, and social media accounts.
•Monitor media performance, provide updates/and or analysis, and suggest improvements.
•Draft sustainability-related publications such as newsletters, blogs, progress reports, and strategic plans.
•Assist with publicity and fundraising activities including developing promotional materials for sustainability activities and programming.
•Support recruitment of interns and participants in the EcoCaptain program that enhances performance with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
•Coordinate volunteer events (including occasional activities during evenings and weekends).
•Supervise interns and volunteers at outreach events.
•Provide administrative support for event planning and coordination.
Job title of the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
Job description for the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
Job description for the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
Reporting to and under the guidance of the Director of the Office of Sustainability (OEP), develops, plans and administers UConn's sustainability initiatives and programs that reduce environmental impacts, improve efficiency of the University's operations, preserve natural resources and promote conservation-based behavior, increase environmental awareness, engage students in experiential learning opportunities, and demonstrate research by showcasing the campus as a living laboratory for sustainable technologies and practices.
Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainability coordination is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The new director, Joseph Fullerton, will be arriving in April 2023. There will be action spurred by this with President Maric of UConn placing the task of developing a Sustainability Action Plan for him.
The new director, Joseph Fullerton, will be arriving in April 2023. There will be action spurred by this with President Maric of UConn placing the task of developing a Sustainability Action Plan for him.
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.