Texas A&M University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Fall 2016 marked the 8th ResLife Sustainability Challenge in which residence halls across campus compete to see who can use the least amount of energy over a designated time frame, as well as provide opportunities for students to engage in sustainability themed events across campus for a month long challenge. Utilities and Energy Services (UES), Residence Life, the Office of Sustainability, Transportation Services, and Dining work hand in hand to develop and implement this successful outreach and education campaign. Last year, each residence hall's water bottle filling station numbers were collected by the Aggie Eco-Reps to illustrate diverted plastic water bottles saved, sustainable bulletin boards were created and posted in the residence halls, several new events were sponsored ("Chill and Charge" - using solar panel chargers to allow students to charge their devices while learning about sustainable practice in the residence halls & "Project Clean Plate" - Aggie Eco-Reps in partnership with Dining Services diverted approximately 2,000 lbs. of plate scraps at the Sbisa Dining Hall to compost efforts on campus to illustrate the importance of not overeating/placing uneaten food in the trash). Additionally, we continued our partnership with UES to track energy consumption in each residence hall over the challenge. Finally, the EcoReps partnered with Brazos Valley Recycling to complete a tour of their facility to learn more about the process of collecting, sorting, and preparing recycled goods for reuse. For fall 2017, the Sustainability Challenge began October 1st with the launch of news of a Fair Trade status for our campus and will go through November 17th with Texas Recycles Day. The Challenge is a compilation of opportunities for individual habit development, education about global issues of sustainability sponsored by campus partners, and opportunities for service or experiential learning with stream clean, Howdy Farm and Replant to name a few. A primary focus for this year's challenge is to make students aware of what steps are being taken, how they might get involved, and how to advance the conversation or recommend action.

To measure the impact of this program UES tracked utilities use in comparison to last year’s usage in each hall. Additionally, students received points for their hall by participating in a range of learning activities and service opportunities. Our efforts were featured in the student newspaper and in local media outlets around the Bryan/College Station community. Overall, the utilities consumption for Residence Life managed facilities has gone steadily down from over $10M to just over $7M while square footage has been increased. These results have come with renovations, student engagement, close monitoring for maintenance (via usage trends), and economies of scale in utility pricing.

The Sustainable Office Certification (SOC) Program’s goal is to help make Texas A&M’s faculty and staff more aware of sustainable practices that can be easily incorporated into everyday life, while collectively reducing TAMU's footprint. Each office that participates in the SOC has the opportunity to fulfill qualifications ranging from easy tasks to more in depth responsibilities and be rewarded with a Sustainable Office plaque at the appropriate level. Offices that wish to increase their score can resubmit their application at any time and an audit will be completed before any changes are made to their level of certification. Any office that is willing to participate can submit an application form, found online.

To date, twenty offices have been officially certified, one has been re-certified at a higher level, and eight offices are in the process of completing the certification process.