Bates College
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Since 2014, Bates has had a Green Office Certification program - met at level 1, 2, or 3 by meeting certain criteria. The Green Office Certification is a tool for promoting environmental awareness at Bates. It recognizes departments who commit to sustainable policies and practices, challenging staff and faculty to reduce our collective environmental impact. We train office liaisons via the Green Office Certification that become the face of sustainability for that department. They are educated in the fields of heating, plug loads, types of controls, and recycling practices. As an added benefit, we have found that these sustainability liaisons become conduits for information about possible opportunities, or occasionally challenges that departments are facing. They become a go-between for departments and the sustainability office. Each office is encouraged to participate in this program on campus, and currently, there are no major departments on campus that do not have at least one office that is Green Certified. The Green Certification Program asks that the sustainability liaisons conduct regular updates with their departments, so that there is a strong, ongoing message of sustainability in each office.

Though we reach out to different departments regularly, employee educators are often self-selecting - essentially, whoever has the time and drive to accomplish the monitoring of the certification checklist. We send announcements and reminders out via our Bates Today - an all-campus newsletter - asking for interested applicants to the sustainability liaison and office certification program. Word of mouth is most likely the biggest driver for new applicants.

The employee educators meet with the sustainability office to receive training on office-pertinent aspects of sustainability. The training has been designed to focus on things that office workers can actually control. So while we go over the concepts of district heating and thermal envelopes, we spend the majority of our time talking about lighting, heating and AC controls, plug loads, and what can and cannot be recycled. After they've received their training, they are supported with a office certification checklist (attached below), to help them assess their department offices. We go through the checklist with them to explain the impact of each category, and the thinking and rationale behind its importance.

The Sustainability Office purchases stickers for the certification, and helps coordinate meetings with the peer educators. We also employ an EcoRep for help with the logistical coordination of the training program.