Challenge rewards offices for improving sustainability

The Office of Sustainability (OOS) recently revamped its Green Office Certification Program and held an awards ceremony on Jan. 8 for offices that took part in the OOS' Green Office Certification Challenge, which ran from August to November 2014.

Betsy Byrum, the OOS education and outreach coordinator, explained that the program includes a checklist of sustainable practices in which an office can engage. According to Byrum, these practices are sorted into six categories including energy and water use, waste and recycling, transportation and sustainability planning and leadership. Offices then receive one of four levels of certification—bronze, silver, gold or platinum—depending on how well they fulfill the checklist.

“It gives offices a structured way of tackling environmental issues,” Byrum said. “It gives them ideas of things they can do, and then it also gives offices the idea to improve their sustainability practices, because once they get an initial level of certification, they can work to get a gold or platinum.”

Eleven departments took part in last fall's challenge, including Tisch Library, the Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation and the Office of the President, according to Byrum.

Jeffrey Kaminski, the communications and project administrator for the Office of the President, explained that the program helped spread awareness and promote sustainability within his office.

“Participating in the Green Office Certification Program definitely brought sustainability to the forefront of my daily consciousness,” Kaminski told the Daily in an email. “This was an effective way to approach office practices and behaviors thoughtfully and in manageable pieces.”

Kaminski explained that composting was a new initiative for the Office of the President and that composting bins have now been set up throughout Ballou Hall. University President Anthony Monaco is also “actively composting” at the Gifford House, he added.

Monaco was present at the Jan. 8 ceremony and bestowed a sustainability certificate to ambassadors from each participating office, according to Kaminski.

“The reception was a nice way to acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of the eco-ambassadors,” he said. “Before President Monaco presented each ambassador with a framed certificate, Betsy Byrum highlighted some of that office's key successes in the certification process. This showed me how much the Office of Sustainability supported and celebrated our progress.”

The program was not new this year, but was revamped after researching similar initiatives at other schools, according to Byrum. OOS previously had offices submit a Qualtrics survey and would then tell the offices which level of certification they had achieved, but Byrum said the new method improved feedback from the OOS to the participating offices.

“We replaced the Qualtrics survey with an Excel checklist,” she said. “This way offices get instant feedback, and they don't have to get through us to monitor their progress.”

The challenge was also initiated to further motivate offices to increase sustainability. According to Byrum, the challenge lasted 15 weeks, and offices could opt to receive weekly emails with instructions on what sustainability actions to take.

OOS Program Director Tina Woolston described the revamp program as a success.

“I think it is great, and provides a concrete way for office to get involved in sustainability,” Woolston said in an email to the Daily. “I think it was successful and caused increased awareness among people in the departments that did it and perhaps even nearby offices.”