University of Colorado Boulder
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Program description can be found here: https://living.colorado.edu/ecoreps Peer to Peer Outreach activities include programs like: Clothing swaps Movie / Documentary Nights Local / Vegetarian cooking classes / taste tests Farmers Market Trips Crafts / Upcycling nights Reusable item decoration nights Door to Door education

Incoming first year students apply to be a part of the program over the summer, and are selected based on the quality of their applications as well as their housing placement.

EcoReps is a full year program with a year of curriculum. EcoReps move in early for 1 week of intensive training starting with a 3 day overnight retreat. EcoReps are trained on program development and outreach, and are provided with a 14 chapter manual for the year. They meet every week throughout the year to learn about and apply different aspects of sustainability including Environmental Justice, Water and Food Access, Energy, technology, Personal Health, and more.

Full time staff coordination, annual budget for retreats, training, and programming in the residence halls.

ECO-Visits is a free service for students living off-campus that saves energy, water, and money! The main goal of the program is to help student renters save money on their energy bills while reducing their ecological footprint. We make it easy and even fun by providing them with the tools and information they need in a free home visit. Each home visit, which takes around an hour, is performed by two trained CU student technicians. In this hour we install energy saving devices such as energy efficient LED light bulbs, weather-stripping, sink aerators, window film, pipe insulation and water-smart showerheads - all making students homes more comfortable and efficient completely free of charge. While one technician installs hardware, the other sits down with residents and discusses behavior changes students can make to reduce their carbon footprint-- now and for life. Student renters choose 3 personalized commitments they would like to make to lower their carbon footprint. ECO-Visits technicians then check back in with residents to remind them of their commitments and see how they are doing with their commitments and if they need any additional resources/support.

Students are recruited from across campus and across disciplines. They complete an online application process, and then an in-person interview.

Students are trained in the energy-water nexus, climate justice with a basic overview of community based social marketing practices. They then shadow veteran technicians for several home visits. Then they practice leading home visits, but are shadowed by a veteran technician. After several weeks and checking in with supervisors, they begin conducting the peer-to-peer home visits. Throughout the year, weekly team meetings with the Energy & Climate Justice Manager also serve as further training opportunities and a place to answer questions that have arisen at home visits, etc.

CU Boulder manages and runs the program. We provide student support, training and coordination. Funding is provided for the program manager while a partnership with an outside partner provides funding for equipment, supplies and student staff time.

CU Green Labs Student Assistants are usually undergraduate students hired by the CU Green Labs Program in their freshman or sophomore year to accomplish a wide variety of functions for the program including peer-to-peer outreach in campus laboratories. Student assistants are paid for their time and usually work for CU Green Labs for multiple years during their undergraduate career. Examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities include delivering event and specialized recycling flyers directly to laboratories and discussing these topics with lab members, doing outreach to labs about new opportunities to conserve resources in labs such as offering free waterless condensers for chemical reactions for labs to try, and outreach to labs to line up an “Eco Leader” in each lab who serves as an important point of contact between the lab and CU Green Labs. Though not included here as a stand-alone student educators program, we’d like to mention that CU Green Labs also has four paid Team Leads, which are graduate student peer-to-peer educators. They outreach to some of the same departments targeted by our student assistants. In addition, CU Green Labs Eco Leaders can be students, faculty, or staff that are champions of lab sustainability in within their own labs. We have about 150 Eco Leaders in labs on campus, of 400 total labs.

CU Green Labs Student Assistants apply to work for CU Green Labs. The CU Green Labs Program Manager then interviews applicants, usually at the start of the fall semester, to determine if they would be a good fit for our program. Student assistants must be passionate about lab sustainability, eager to learn, willing to do work all over campus, positive, detail oriented, and should indicate an interest in working for CU Green Labs for multiple years if possible since the work we do has a steep learning curve.

Student assistants shadow student assistants that have been with the program longer to learn about CU Green Labs’ positive, encouraging outreach methods. In weekly team meetings, professional staff may also discuss outreach strategies. Student assistants support other aspects of our program such as hanging outreach posters and helping with recycling in order to better navigate our campus and have greater impact when doing in-person outreach.

The CU Green Labs Program Manager and CU Green Labs Program Assistant are two full-time staff that provide support to this peer-to-peer outreach program and the other facets of the CU Green Labs Program. The CU Green Labs Program has an annual budget of $140,000.

Green Greeks: Greek Sustainability at the University of Colorado at Boulder aims to help the Greek houses become more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. Through this, student technicians install Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs), low-flow shower heads, sink aerators, and weather stripping in the houses. Along with this, houses complete an energy and water assessment to analyze where most of their resource use comes from. Houses learn about everyday steps they can take to minimize their water and energy usage and how they can make a long term impact on their community and the environment. The program is made up of representatives from Greek houses known as sustainability chairs and two Greek Sustainability Coordinators. (#?) Recycling Green Teams: Green Teams conducts energy, water, recycling and waste reduction outreach to student households. Students are hired annually through the EC application process. Students on the Recycling Green Teams are trained by the City of Boulder and CU EC Recycling Program Manager about residential recycling and composting procedures. Students on the Energy Green Teams are trained by the City of Boulder and the CU EC energy Program Manager about residential energy efficiency and energy/water conservation measures.

The basis of the Eco-Reps program is that they are trained and paid to reach all students in the residence halls. Hence, over 4 year, they reach the bulk of undergraduates (minus transfer students and any who opted out of the required year in the residence halls). They Eco-Reps do not reach graduate students normally. The SCORE and green teams programs focus on students living off-campus. Students may receive information at multiple times during their college career but it is geared to specific venues (off-campus housing, family housing, residence halls, campus classroom buildings) or different issues (recycling, energy).