Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 75.41
Liaison Marianne Martin
Submission Date March 23, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Colorado Boulder
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Marianne Martin
Associate Director
Environmental Center
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Is the institution an active member of a national or international sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the national or international sustainability network(s):
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), Green Sports Alliance (GSA), International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities

Is the institution an active member of a regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s):
PAC12 Sustainability Group, APPA, SCUP

Has the institution presented at a sustainability conference during the previous year? :
Yes

A list or brief description of the conference(s) and presentation(s):
AASHE 2017 San Antonio. Bridging the Gap: Strategies for Sustainability-Athletics Partnerships (Dave Newport) AASHE 2017 San Antonio. Needed: Systemic Change and Collaboration to Confront Shared Challenges – PepsiCo, UC Boulder, and other Universities break new (Dave Newport) AASHE 2017 San Antonio. Athletics as a Resource for Advancing Campus Sustainability Goals (Dave Newport) AASHE Annual Conference. Poster session: Composting in Residence Hall Restrooms.” San Antonio, TX, 10/16/17 (Ed von Bleichert, Rayna Oliker) APPA Institute for Facilities Management. “Sustainable O&M Programs” and “Integrated Pest & Wildlife Management.” Providence, RI, 9/11-9/12/17 (Ed von Bleichert) BayAPPA / Annual mtg. “Community Sustainability & Resiliency / Resilient Infrastructure.” San Francisco, CA, 7/21/17 (Ed von Bleichert) Colorado APPA. Welcome Session “Sustainability Successes Roundtable.” Golden, CO 4/12/17 (Ed von Bleichert) APPA Institute for Facilities Management. “Sustainable O&M Programs” and “Integrated Pest & Wildlife Management.” Dallas, TX, 1/16-1/17/17 (Ed von Bleichert) WaterNow Alliance Annual Summit: Equity and Affordability Panel (Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish) AASHE 2016: “Exploring the Confluence of Race, Class and Gender Issues and our Campus Sustainability Work” (Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish) AASHE 2015: “Bridging the Gap Between Sustainability and Justice” (Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish) AASHE 2015: “Engaging Students in Energy Reduction - on and off campus” (Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, Rayna Oliker) 2017 I2SL. Sharing Equipment and Space Saves Money and Benefits Science: An In-Depth Case Study of the Biochemistry Cell Culture Facility at the University of Colorado Boulder (Greever) 2017 I2SL. Digging Deep Into Options to Address the Mountain of Ice Packs University Research Labs Receive (Ayalew) 2017 I2SL. Implementing a Campus-Wide, On-Line Chemical Inventorying System to Benefit Safety, Chemical Sharing, and Efficient Use of Chemical Resources (Tran, An) 2017 I2SL. Bringing Efficiency to Research Grants (BETR Grants): Why There Is a Need To Connect Efficiency to Federal Funding for Research at Universities (Ramirez-Aguilar) 2016 I2SL. History of Past Freezer Challenges (Ramirez-Aguilar) 2016 I2SL. What Is Going On With Greening Federal Grants? (Ramirez-Aguilar) 2016 I2SL. Slowing the Flow of Water Use in Laboratories at the University of Colorado Boulder (Ayalew) 2016 I2SL. Giving University of Colorado Boulder Labs Money to Be More Energy Efficient! How Is That Possible?! (Vander Muelen) 2016 I2SL. Saving Funding, Resources, and Researcher Time While Utilizing Lab Space Efficiently: The Many Benefits of Shared Lab Equipment in Collaborative Spaces (Ramirez-Aguilar) 2016 I2SL. A Pilot Program at the University of Colorado Boulder to Rent Space in Local, Shared Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers (Greever) 2016 I2SL. Explorations of Landfill Diversion in Research, Teaching, and Clinical Labs (Ramirez-Aguilar)

Has the institution submitted a case study during the previous year to a sustainability awards program that is inclusive of multiple campuses? :
Yes

A list or brief description of the awards program(s) and submission(s):
A group submission was made to the 2016 HHS Green Champion Award on behalf of the steering committee for the North American Laboratory Freezer Challenge which included representatives from CDC, I2SL, My Green Lab, UC-Davis, CU Boulder (Kathy Ramirez-Aguilar) and Genetech. We were selected as one of the winners. CU Boulder also participated in the North American Laboratory Freezer Challenge in 2017 which is a competition between labs at institutions across North America to develop sample management skills and save energy. CU Boulder had 22 lab participate and received Honorable Mention in the North American Laboratory Freezer Challenge for the collective action of those 22 CU Boulder labs.

Has the institution had staff, students or faculty serving on a board or committee of a sustainability network or conference during the previous three years? :
Yes

A list or brief description of the board or committee appointment(s):
Dave Newport, Member, PAC12 Sustainability Working Group Dave Newport, Secretary, Green Sports Alliance Board of Directors Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, founding executive board member of the Just Transition Collaborative Kathy Ramirez-Aguilar chairs the I2SL University Alliance Group which works in collaboration university, non-profit and federal colleagues across the nation.

Does the institution have an ongoing mentoring relationship with another institution through which it assists the institution with its sustainability reporting and/or the development of its sustainability program?:
Yes

A brief description of the mentoring relationship and activities:
Led an External Review of UCCS Office of Sustainability May-July 2017 (Newport) Fort Lewis College representatives spent a day at UCB exploring campus programs, specifically student engagement programs. (Martin) Athletics sustainability Dave has worked with numerous college athletics departments, sustainability professionals, the Pac-12, and the NCAA to help them design and activate a sports sustainability program (Newport). Assisting with EcoReps Program Development at UCCS, as well as intermittent EcoReps Program support as requested from Wellesley College and Western Washington University (Oliker)

Has the institution had staff, faculty, or students serving as peer reviewers of another institution’s sustainability data (e.g. GHG emissions or course inventory) and/or STARS submission during the previous three years?:
Yes

A brief description of the peer review activities:
Reviewed some of UCCS STARS credits in their last submittal (2014) and in their forthcoming submittal (Newport). Provided External Program review of UCCS sustainability program (Newport).

Has the institution participated in other collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year, e.g. joint planning or resource sharing with other institutions? :
Yes

A brief description of other collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year:
ECO-Visits-in partnership with Xcel Energy: have worked with DU and Naropa to help them initiate a similar program. City of Boulder also now providing points for SmartRegs for local landlords renting to students. FLOWS- partnership with Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Xcel Energy, and Boulder Housing PArtners (the local Housing Authority). City of Boulder- co-presented for national consortium of Green Funders on CU Green Teams program. CU has worked with City on City Climate Action Plan particularly on incorporating equity and facilitating low-income community input/feedback. PAC12 sports sustainability network. See above. Worked w/ Univ. of Central Florida students to strategize and advise on a zero waste event as part of their Spring football game in 2017. Multiple e-mails & calls from Sept-Dec. 2016. Students working with Housekeeping & Aramark on a plan. (von Bleichert) CU Green Labs shares expertise, experiences and initiatives with institutions across the nation through our participation (presentations, emailing, conference calls) in multiple groups: International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), Green Labs Planning Google Group, and DOE Better Buildings Alliance. The I2SL University Alliance is currently focused on on “Bringing Efficiency To Research Grants” (or BETR Grants) which is about connecting efficiency to with federal research funding to benefit maximizing the effective use of federal research funding and minimizing the environmental footprint of research. The group is chaired by Kathy Ramirez-Aguilar.

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/greenlabs, http://pac-12sustainabilityconference.com/, https://living.colorado.edu/ecoreps, https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/energy-climate-justice

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.