University of North Carolina, Greensboro
EN-9: Community Partnerships

The UNCG Sustainability Office continues to work with local groups through supportive sustainability partnerships with the following organizations in Greensboro: Environmental Stewardship Greensboro http://www.greenschemesnc.com/esg.html The Office of Sustainability has supported this organization by attending their meetings and events. Environmental Stewardship Greensboro represents approximately 14 different faith groups in the local community.

In 2013, the Office of Sustainability formed a collaborative sustainability partnership with multiple groups in the local community to revitalize Greensboro Green Drinks. (http://www.greendrinks.org/NC/Greensboro). After the kickoff event was hosted on the UNCG campus, the following organizations have each sponsored one of these monthly gatherings: IRC Edible Community Garden http://gsodaycenter.org/ Piedmont Plateau Group of the Sierra Club http://www.ppgsierraclub.org/ Occupy Greensboro Energy Working Group http://occupygreensboro.org/ In 2011, the UNCG Sustainability Office formed a collaborative partnership with Sustainable Greensboro, a local non-profit group, to promote and manage Earth Day. 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. http://newsandfeatures.uncg.edu/uncg-sustainable-greensboro-team-up-for-earth-day-2011/#sthash.Tz9vSulF.dpbs

In 2014, a UNCG Office of Sustainability staff member was appointed to serve as a voting member of the City of Greensboro's Community Sustainability Council (CSC). Participation with this group has resulted in a transformative sustainability partnership between the institution and the local community, which meets the requirements in terms of scope (sub-committees include urban forestry, transportation, economic ), duration (2 years), commitment (staff and community service leave hours), and governance (meetings are open to the public and the CSC invites at least one community group representative to each meeting for presentations and to discuss opportunities for collaboration). In addition, members of the CSC conducted al GHG Audit for the City of Greensboro and the Greensboro City Council has accepted the Sustainability Action Plan created by the CSC. Refer to the CSC website for detailed meeting minutes and specific information about projects and partnerships developed: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/index.aspx?page=4669

Information for this credit was obtained by Chad Carwein, Sustainability Education and Outreach Specialist at UNCG.