Kevin Gilford Sustainability Office Coordinator STARS Case Study Kevin Gilford Sustainability Office Coordinator

Agenda UCCS Profile Sustainability at UCCS Scope of STARS at UCCS Management of STARS project Results of STARS at UCCS Challenges of STARS Benefits of STARS

Campus Profile Founded in 1965 8000+ students, ~900 faculty and staff Over 900 students live on campus Medium Masters Level Institution 85% commute, most single-occupancy vehicles 520 acre campus, 400+ acres not yet developed Aggressive growth plan Fastest growing elective university in Colorado Up to 15,000 students by 2021; 30,000 by ? Residence halls filled for the first time – waiting list. Fastest growing CU campus (Colorado public university).

Sustainability Vision To be a recognized leader in sustainability, integrating social, economic and ecological values into institutional policies, programs and practices.

Sustainability Organizations 1 April 2004 Sustainability Organizations Office of Sustainability Sustainability Council Sustainability Committee Students for Environmental Awareness and Sustainability (SEAS) Club Office since 2005 Council: Staff, Faculty, Students Committee: Faculty, Students, Staff SEAS: Students, Faculty Advisor

Goal: Become a Sustainable Campus Strategies: Provide leadership, knowledge, and communication Create a living laboratory for sustainability Support campus innovations leading to sustainability As defined in the Strategic Plan.

Project Scope 104 credits, 253 points, 104+ data items 1 April 2004 Project Scope 104 credits, 253 points, 104+ data items Policies, Programs, Practices: qualitative & quantitative data Involves all departments on campus: buildings, energy, food services, transportation, recycling, investment, administrative policy, diversity, educational curriculum, academic research, … Public Institution: Part of CU and state system STARS: Pilot vs. V1.0 ~ Quality ~While there is a finite number of credits, institutions considering participating in STARS should consider that there are decidedly more data items – oftentimes credits require multiple data items, and Kevin estimates there are over 100 specific data items. ~Similarly, credits may cover more than one topic which can require gathering data from multiple sources in order to get all the information for that credit. ~Another factor when considering data gathering is whether your institution is public or private. Example: private universities may have no problem getting information regarding the institution’s sustainable investment, where as public, especially state institutions must report data at the system-wide level. 7 7

1 April 2004 Project Management 3 Major Sections: Administration & Finance, Education & Research, Operations Student managed Size of staff (5-6 people) Student employees: part-time, classes, breaks  continuity Numerous collaborators: administration, staff, faculty, vendors Long-term: 7 months Ensure that project can be completed annually Documentation Institutionalizing STARS ~Organization: STARS lends itself well to be divided into three as it has three sections – Operations, Education and Research and Administration and Finance. Each of our student staff took one section; however, please note that sections are not distributed equally!! One student ended up with the bulk of the work (Operations) ~ Logistics: We tried to standardize data gathering by making forms that can be used year after year ~Communication: We used spreadsheets to communicate with each other and the Director of Sustainability, to track progress, sources, etc. ~ Participating in the STARS program is a huge amount of work the first year, when considering how you’d like to set up the organization, logistics and communication methods for the project. The more people you have working on STARS, the better the communication and organization you’ll have to have. Additionally, if your institution will have students working on STARS, consider making the process as transparent as possible so that supervisors will have to spend a minimal amount of time reviewing and approving the data. Additionally, UCCS had 3 part-time (10-15 hours/ week) students dedicated to this project. Time management/ balancing other projects will be essential if your institution does not have additional support. 8 8

Process Flow Not Started In Progress Ready for Review In Revision Research Credit In Progress Data? Outside Contact No Yes Supporting Documents Write-Up Credit Ready for Review Review Credit In Revision OK? Revise Credit No Yes Ready for Submission Final Review Submit Credit 9 Submitted Finish

Tracking and Auditing 10

7 months and 400 work-hours later… now what? Goal: Improve and institutionalize campus sustainability Organize, summarize and communicate STARS data  sustainability knowledge Audience: Leadership team, department faculty and staff, students

First Step: Classify Credits 1 April 2004 First Step: Classify Credits Classification of findings: Green: credit achieved Yellow: close to achieving/near additional points Red: difficult or expensive to achieve Gray: not possible to achieve or not relevant to UCCS’ policies, programs and practices

Education and Research Results

Next Step: Evaluate/Report Results Cost Short-term vs. long term Relation to university vision, strategic plans In-house vs. external resources Value to students, potential students Qualitative, symbolic benefits Report to leadership

Challenges of Participation A lot of work! Data not collected or not in the form needed Collaborators are busy – different priorities Sustainability covers everything: Each student became an “expert” in their section – difficult to transfer duties/ help each other out

Benefits of Participation 1 April 2004 Benefits of Participation Collect and analyze real data -- measure hard-to-define sustainability concepts AASHE brand increases cooperation Greater awareness of sustainability - Sustainability issues, strengths and weaknesses on campus - Office of Sustainability on campus and within CU System Living sustainability laboratory Real world sustainability education for student employees, faculty, and staff ~ The Office of Sustainability is more widely known on the UCCS campus and within the CU System as a result of participating in the STARS program. We simply had to spread our net far and wide in order to get the data, so now many staff and faculty members have a better idea of who/ what our growing office of sustainability is. Kevin’s example of a recent facilities cleaning supplies order – Jimmy went to Kevin to ask… “What’s the difference? Why should I order this v. that?” ~ The Office of Sustainability staff learned a HUGE amount about campus protocol, purchasing, etc, and campus faculty and staff learned about different aspects of sustainability. ~ Having the backing of the AASHE name lent our office credibility, increased timeliness of responses, and gave us a place to send people if they had additional questions. The fact that this was a larger project, rather than just our office gathering data for it’s own use, gave people more incentive to get back to us with information. ~ Many concepts in sustainability are rather abstract, and the STARS project allowed us to put real numbers to these abstract concepts. We will be better able to track status and progress now that we know how to measure particular ideas.

www.uccs.edu/sustain or sustain@uccs.edu Questions? www.uccs.edu/sustain or sustain@uccs.edu