University of Notre Dame
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

The Green Ambassadors are a network of individuals interested in implementing sustainable practices within their own offices and departments. The program connects staff members with sustainability resources on campus and also develops ideas to improve campus-wide engagement. Brown bag lunchtime discussions throughout the year provide a great opportunity to network and keep Ambassadors abreast of sustainability developments on campus and opportunities to incorporate best practices. Each Ambassador is expected to use what they have learned to educate their coworkers and implement new sustainable practices in their offices. We will also be presenting our STARS report to them in order for them to understand where we can improve, and for them to enact many of those improvements through educating their peers.

They essentially sign themselves up by going to our website and filling out a Google form.

They begin receiving monthly newsletters keeping them abreast of sustainability news on campus. The quarterly meetings with the Office of Sustainability offers them the opportunity to discuss concerns and solutions to sustainability issues in their offices and across campus.

This is run by the Office of Sustainability, and all events for the Green Amabassadors come from the Office's budget.

The Green Office Certification helps offices and departments to adopt best practices and achieve greater sustainability engagement through a simple audit program. The Green Office Certification is an audit process customized for Notre Dame offices interested in becoming more sustainable workplaces. The Green Office Certification program is designed to recognize the positive efforts of faculty and staff. The Office of Sustainability works with an office representative to guide them in sustainable practices. That representative then educates their office about those practices and enacts behavioral change. The Office of Sustainability then does a walk through audit to confirm that the education and changes have taken place. Upon completion of the audit, the entire office meets with the Office of Sustainability to receive a certificate and be acknowledged on the Office of Sustainability’s website for their positive efforts.

They reach out to our office and make a request.

They have meetings with an Office of Sustainability employee to prepare for the audit, consulting services as they go through the audit, and a wrap up meeting to award the certification and go over their audit results.

This program is funded through the Office of Sustainability budget, all employees are able to participate in the program during regular office hours.

The University Comprehensive Sustainability Strategy set up Small Working Groups during the 2016-17 school year. Each of the groups is comprised of faculty, staff, and students (both undergraduate and graduate). There are 55 faculty and staff members on the groups. Members are selected based upon their expertise and/or nomination by other members. As detailed in the published Strategy - 'These working groups will be collaborative, interdisciplinary teams that will set specific, measurable benchmarks in order to achieve the long-term goals set in each strategy area. The smaller working groups will report at least once every two years to the Standing Committee on their progress and to document the new measurable goals that are envisioned in the five-year action plans.' As part of their work these employees must meet with others on campus to educate others about the Strategy and to gather meaningful data so appropriate measurable goals may be set.