University of North Carolina, Greensboro
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

The Office of Sustainability has partnered with multiple sustainability-related groups in the local community to revitalize Greensboro Green Drinks. After the kickoff event was hosted on the UNCG campus, the following organizations have each sponsored one of these monthly gatherings: Piedmont Plateau Group of the Sierra Club, IRC Edible Community Garden, and Occupy Greensboro Energy Working Group. The Office of Sustainability partnered with Sustainable Greensboro, a local non-profit group, to promote and manage Earth Day 2011. Sustainable Greensboro is dedicated to providing proactive leadership, innovation, and creativity to meet challenges related to greening local businesses, restoring urban ecology, and providing community education. This partnership helped strengthen both groups. Sustainable Greensboro was undergoing a major restructuring of its leadership at the time and this gave members an event to galvanize around. In turn it provided a pool of volunteers and community leaders to assist the nascent Office of Sustainability at UNCG in holding the largest Earth Day celebration in the history of the campus. The UNCG Sustainability Office continues to reach out to local groups to work on community issues, including the Interactive Resource Center.