Miami University
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

The Sustainability Champions (Champs) program is open to all employees, and is an outgrowth of an existing Building Points of Contact (BPOC) program. Started in Spring Semester 2012, Champs are volunteers who were made aware of the program through bottom-up email messaging through the BPOC communication chain and top-down messaging to academic units and the Housing, Dining, Recreation and Business Services division by the Provost and the VP for Finance and Business Services, respectively. Additional in-person recruitment by the program's two coordinators took place in the Fall 2012 semester at the Employee Wellness Fair. While all employees are welcome to volunteer, not all of them will be active. In Spring semester 2013, volunteers were given the opportunity to define their level of involvement as an active participant, a newsletter-only participant, or a non-participant. By casting a large net, we are able to remain in contact with those who are interested but not able to be more involved at this time.

Champs decided to meet a couple of times per semester. The coordinators establish the agenda to inform and update the Champs on a specific topic, then provide related materials and actions for them to take.

No significant financial support has been required to date. Materials have been provided by the Physical Facilities Department's sustainability office. The coordinators of the Champs are the University's Sustainability Coordinator and the Director of Sustainability in the Physical Facilities Department.

Lean is a waste reduction process improvement method that has been tailored at Miami to support 5 breakthrough objectives: Cost Avoidance, Cost Reduction, Revenue Generation, Productivity Improvements, and Go Green. Departmental steering committees generate and receive suggestions of candidate Lean projects and participants. The steering committees decide which projects to "lean" and who should be involved.

Formal Miami Lean training for project participants takes place on campus, and has evolved to a 2 day training. During the training, participants are introduced to Lean, it's tools, and how the process supports the breakthrough objectives, with the intention of creating a Lean culture. Across campus, Lean Leaders are selected to receive additional formal training to bolster cultural change. All who have taken any Lean training learn that it is about people, and they are taught how to solicit and share information that supports any of the breakthrough objectives.

Miami has hired a Lean expert on a limited timeline to customize and perpetuate the program on our own. The university additionally supports staff participation time and an on-campus Lean team meeting room. Many Lean projects yield significant savings to the university. Go Green initiatives are not required to yield savings, although many do.

Led by a Grad Assistant, who was hired by the Physical Facilities Department's Director of Sustainability as the Sustainability Education Coordinator, four part time undergraduate employees were hired specifically for sustainability outreach programs. This group of five works with the entire campus, as well as employees in the Physical Facilities Department.

Training is provided through weekly team meetings led by the Grad Assistant. Initiatives and training details are established by the Grad Assistant and PFD's Sustainability Director.

The Grad Assistant and undergraduate student employees and their programs are primarily funded through the Physical Facilities Department. Additional funding is provided by an annual grant from the county.

Total Oxford campus employees (full and part time) as of Fall 2011 (most recent available) were reported. Champs were counted as follows. Only Oxford campus champs were included. Each who self-identified as actively involved was assigned a sphere of influence score of 5. Each who was a newsletter only participant was assigned a sphere of influence score of 1. As of January 2013 over 400 employees had received some type of Lean training. The most recent Green Team project, February 2013, involved approximately 50 PFD employees. While it is likely that the people touched by these three programs overlap, the nature of the outreach is different, so all were counted.