University of Pittsburgh
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Every Fall semester, the University of Pittsburgh recruits ~50 first-year student volunteers who function as the "Pitt Green Team" during move-in and orientation activities. These students receive specialized training on campus sustainability practices, including recycling and food waste composting.

Pitt Green Team students work in teams and serve as sustainability ambassadors at the residence halls during Fall move-in.

Pitt Green Team members who apply to serve are selected based on their answers to several essay questions focused on gauging their interest in campus sustainability. They receive a several days of training, networking, and tours prior to serving. Throughout their first-year, Pitt Green Team students then continue to participate in sustainability-focused events and service; in future years, many go on to become Pitt Sustainability student leaders in other roles.

The University financially supports all Pitt Green Team activities.

The audience for Pitt Green Team is two-fold:
1) All first-year students
2) Students living in University of Pittsburgh residence halls.

Pitt EcoReps are paid student leaders committed to making life in residence halls more sustainable. They work with members of the Pitt community to integrate sustainability into the culture of our residence halls by reducing energy and water use, increasing recycling and composting, and advancing other sustainability initiatives.

Pitt EcoReps also administer the Pitt Green Resident program:

The University of Pittsburgh's Housing department established the Pitt EcoReps program in academic year 2019-20 to promote a culture of sustainability within residence halls.

>> Pitt EcoReps program – https://www.bhas.pitt.edu/ecoreps
>> Pitt Green Resident designation program - https://www.sustainable.pitt.edu/get-involved/students/pitt-green-residents-floors/

The target audience for the Pitt EcoReps program are all students living in University of Pittsburgh residence halls.

The University of Pittsburgh's Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) administers the University’s First Year Sustainability Presentations. While select Pitt faculty and students offered sustainability presentations to First-Year Seminars for at least a decade, MCSI standardized and centralized these offerings in 2019. Since then, MCSI-trained student and staff instructors have provided campus-wide Pitt Sustainability presentations to first-year and other departmental seminar courses, helping introduce undergraduate students to Pitt Sustainability initiatives and how they can engage with sustainability on campus. Almost all First-Year Sustainability Presenters are paid student sustainability leaders and interns.

MCSI faculty and staff annually trains sustainability-driven students to give a variety of sustainability informational presentations to first-year classes. These presentations teach students how to get involved in sustainability on campus through a variety of avenues ranging from student organizations, about current initiatives, and introduces them to academic opportunities for students interested in sustainability.

In 2022-23, Pitt’s First Year Sustainability presenters engaged 1,555 students across 52 classes in 9 different academic departments. From 2019 through 2022, over 4,028 students from a wide variety of academic departments have experienced these presentations.

>> 2018-22 Progress Report on Pitt Sustainability Plan, Teaching & Learning section, which includes First-Year Sustainability Presentation section - https://www.sustainable.pitt.edu/progress-report/teaching-learning-2018-22/

The target audience for the First-Year Sustainability presentations are all first-year students -- to raise their awareness about what sustainability is, how Pitt is working on becoming more sustainable, sustainability-focused educational offerings, and how to get engaged to help advance sustainability on campus.