Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.52
Liaison Ruairi O'Mahony
Submission Date Aug. 10, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Massachusetts Lowell
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Ruairi O'Mahony
Executive Director
Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
UMass Lowell & Mill City Grows Urban Agriculture Program

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:

Sustainability is a core commitment in the University’s comprehensive strategy to manage growth and respond to societal needs. As a result, the university opened an Office of Sustainability in 2015 in light of increasing demand for sustainable solutions to every aspect of campus life. In considering the social, economic and environmental components of sustainability in an urban community such as Lowell, food access and justice has emerged as an issue that the university is passionate to address.

The Office of Sustainability manages an urban growing space on its East Campus. The approximately 1 acre site is in a prominent location on our primary residential campus and is established to serve as an innovation center for urban agriculture by linking community needs into the academic & research expertise that exist at the university.

In light of this, the Office of Sustainability has partnered with Mill City Grows, a local non-profit that focuses on urban food justice in the City of Lowell, to develop a unique urban growing space that will have a lasting impact on sustainable innovations for urban agriculture.

The overarching goal of the partnership is to increase the distribution of locally and sustainably produced food to low-income residents in Lowell and beyond. Sales and donations of produce have increased and hundreds of UMass Lowell students and local youth and volunteers actively work in partnership to gain first-hand experience in urban agriculture.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
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Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
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Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
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A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):
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Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
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Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
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Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
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A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):
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A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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