Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.92
Liaison Mat Thijssen
Submission Date Oct. 26, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Waterloo
EN-7: Employee Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.03 / 3.00 Mat Thijssen
Sustainability Manager
Sustainability Office
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Part 1. Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program

Total number of employees:
6,472

Total number of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
2,300

Percentage of employees served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
35.54

1st program 

Name of the employee educators program (1st program):
Green Office Program

A brief description of the employee educators program (1st program):
Champions within departments register to participate, and then help evaluate their department’s current practices, get members to complete a participant pledge, and implement new practices. Ambassadors often set up embedded Green Teams or committees within their department, depending on the unit’s size, to advance actions and initiatives. The program is anchored by a Green Office scorecard, which provides a list of ideas for recommended actions that could occur at the department/unit level and serves as both a brainstorming and evaluation tool. In 2020, there were approximately 54 departments on campus participating in the program and more than 80 ambassadors supporting action. This list of actions is a mix of process, office-level infrastructure, and communications/events/encouragement to their team members that advance various sustainability topics like waste, energy reduction, sustainable procurement, and more.
Employees have an introductory meeting with a member of the Sustainability Office to introduce them to the program, walk through the scorecard, and address any department-specific questions. There is also an Ambassador Guide and resource toolkit that provides best practices on setting up green teams, steps to take, and other questions about the program. In addition, the Sustainability Office tries to host at least one event or meeting of ambassadors each term to share learnings, challenges, and common questions between participating departments. Lastly, ambassadors are encouraged but not required to complete the Sustainability Certificate training program, which provides >10 hours of dedicated training on core sustainability issues and topics, solutions, and institutional policies, programs, and directions.

A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (1st program):
The Green Office program is targeted at employees at the University of Waterloo, including main campus, satellite campuses, and the affiliated University Colleges

Number of trained employee educators (1st program):
80

Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (1st program):
50

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (1st program):
1

Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (1st program):
4,000

Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (1st program) :

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

2nd Program

Name of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the employee educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the employee educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
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Number of trained employee educators (2nd program):
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Number of weeks the employee educators program is active annually (2nd program):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (2nd program):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (2nd program):
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Website URL where information about the employee educators program is available (2nd program):
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If reporting employees served by more than two programs, provide:

Additional Programs 

A brief description of all other employee peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
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Number of trained employee educators (all other programs):
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Number of weeks, on average, the employee educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained employee educator (all other programs):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all other programs):
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Part 2. Educator hours per employee served by a peer-to-peer program

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained employee educators (all programs):
4,000

Hours worked annually by trained employee sustainability educators per employee served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.62

Optional Fields

Website URL where information about the employee sustainability educators programs 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.