Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 54.91
Liaison Andy Mitchell
Submission Date July 17, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Illinois Chicago
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.16 / 3.00 Cynthia Klein-Banai
Associate Chancellor for Sustainability
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total number of employees (staff + faculty, headcount):
12,473

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting):
675

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
5.41

1st Program 

Name of the employee educators program:
EcoReps

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
450

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:
EcoReps help facilitate communication and implementation from the CCSE and the Office of Sustaianbility to their respective units. We ask each department to designate a staff member to serve as a liaison – an EcoRep – to the Office of Sustainability.

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected:
Deans and Department heads designate an EcoRep via a secure website administered by Academic Computing and Communications Center (ACCC), the campus central IT services. This automatically adds the designee to an EcoRep email list and lists the department's EcoRep on the campus directory.

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:
The Office of Sustainability shares tips and best practices to support greening initiatives in each EcoRep's department. Through the EcoReps email list, the Office of Sustainability and EcoReps communicate and share information, tips, and best practices.

A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination):
UIC Office of Sustainability staff provides the training and resources to support the program and is budgeted to do so.

If reporting employees served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide: 

2nd Program

Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
Building Service Worker Training

Number of employees served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount) (2nd program):
225

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
The Office of Sustainability worked with Facilities Management administration to provide a train-the-trainers program specifically for Building Service Workers (BSWs) and their building foremen. Foremen (approximately 75) were required to attend this training, who then required their staff (totaling approximately 225) to attend subsequent training sessions.

A brief description of how the employee educators are selected (2nd program):
The Office of Sustainability worked with Facilities Management administration to provide a train-the-trainers program specifically for Building Service Workers (BSWs) and their building foremen. Foremen (approximately 75) were required to attend this training, who then required their staff (totaling approximately 225) to attend subsequent training sessions.

A brief description of the formal training that the employee educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
At the foremen training, Office of Sustainability staff were joined by representatives from Rochester Midland Corporation, provider of campus green cleaning chemicals, and a representative from Recycling Services, Inc., one of the UIC recycling providers. The training session included: an explanation of the campus sustainability commitments; information about how the recycling program on campus is designed to function and what the expectation of services workers should be; a presentation on where recycled materials from campus end up; and a presentation on the operational differences between conventional cleaning supplies and the green cleaning supplies UIC now uses. The foremen were then expected to bring this information to their BSWs, and the Office of Sustainability participated in 4 follow-up recycling trainings for BSW shifts on both sides of campus.

A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or paid faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):
UIC Office of Sustainability staff provides the training and resources to support the program and is budgeted to do so.

Additional Programs 

A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of employees served and how employee educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
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Optional Fields 

Total number of hours employee educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.