| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 66.00 |
| Liaison | Jonna Korpi |
| Submission Date | Nov. 4, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Minnesota, Duluth
PA-1: Sustainability Coordination
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Mindy
Granley Sustainability Director UMD 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:
The charge of the members of the UMD Sustainability Subcommittee is:
Facilitate continued incorporation of sustainability into UMD operations, education, outreach, and research activities at UMD.
Guide efforts at UMD to meet commitments for climate protection and support implementation of the U of MN Board of Regents Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Policy and the UMD Strategic Plan.
Advance opportunities for sustainability-related education, service, and research
Serve on Working Groups to support sustainability improvements at UMD.
Members of each committee, including affiliations and role (e.g. staff, student, or faculty):
Current committee membership can be accessed here for both the Sustainability Education and Sustainability Operations Committees:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eAGzL4GyrGbI_Ogsnx3W1Rs63N_JDQeGq3IQmh1jRTA/edit?usp=sharing
Does the institution have at least one sustainability office that includes more than 1 full-time equivalent (FTE) employee?:
A brief description of each sustainability office:
There is one sustainability office for the UMD campus. It is housed within Student Life and reports directly to the Vice Chancellor of Student Life.
The mission of the Office of Sustainability and the UMD campus is a commitment to communicating, educating, and inspiring action to integrate sustainability into all aspects of campus life.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) 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 (e.g. a campus-wide committee or an officer/office responsible for the entire campus)?:
A brief description of the activities and substantive accomplishments of the institution-wide coordinating body or officer during the previous three years:
The UMD Sustainability Office is made up of a Director and Student Activities Coordinator, as well as a handful of paid student positions and academic internship positions that vary year to year.
The Director provides leadership on strategic planning to reduce carbon emissions campus-wide, and communicates and measures sustainability progress. The Coordinator guides student involvement in campus sustainability through creating opportunities for peer-to-peer education, outreach, professional development, and community engagement.
Substantive accomplishments of the last three years include:
-- increasing solar capacity on campus by 900% (from 11kw to 101kw)
-- investing in an additional 100kw of solar off-campus through Minnesota Power's Community Solar Garden Project
-- Assisting in the creation of a new student leadership position in Student Association: Student Sustainability Director. This position offers students more voice in campus-wide sustainability issues through a platform that reaches higher level, administrative staff. Student Association has also added a sustainability committee of it's own to get more student input on these topics.
-- The addition of an additional full-time staff (Student Activities Coordinator) to directly engage students and the full student body around campus sustainability initiatives.
-- Overhaul of the campus waste system to improve consistency and access to bins for material disposal, increase knowledge around item disposal with educational signage, and overall goal to increase proper disposal/diversion rates. Along with the system overhaul, we have included better data collection around waste disposal to monitor progress, active monitoring of waste to find areas of improvement through regular waste audits, and increased emphasis on outreach to help our campus populations learn to properly use our waste system.
-- Surpassed 7 million riders on DTA buses through the UMD UPASS program
-- Established our first baseline of local, organic, and fair trade food purchases and are in the process of setting our first goal to increase those purchases substantially.
Job title of the sustainability officer position:
Job description for the sustainability officer position:
Job description for the sustainability officer position:
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):
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):
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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.