Virginia Tech
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

Membership is available to facility managers employed at Virginia Tech and those that have a formal association with the university. To view the complete membership list, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/members.pdf FMDG Overview: Virginia Tech staff responsible for management of state-owned and leased properties and others with a formal relationship with the University. Program Objectives: 1. To identify and promote opportunities for professional development through enhanced coordination and communication between campus-wide facilities management staffs. 2. To provide a network that enables facilities managers to obtain knowledge and skills to improve efficiencies through a synergistic effort. Purpose Summary: A leadership group comprised of representatives from campus departments, Office of Health and Safety, and Facilities will address specific concerns of, and facilitate communication among, facilities management personnel by: 1. Sponsoring programs of general interest to facilities managers and their staffs. 2. Inviting guest speakers to present topics of mutual interest in the area of facilities management. 3. Providing opportunities for specialized training and problem solving discussions for such topics as OSHA compliance; disaster recovery and emergency action plans; security; working well with contractors; improving purchasing processes; enhancing space planning efforts; and identifying effective approaches to maintenance. 4. Providing information that enables facilities managers to better understand policies, procedures and processes required in maintaining campus facilities. 5. Identifying opportunities to share resources, expert knowledge and skills from different areas of campus and affiliated organizations. 6. Providing mentors for new facilities managers and like personnel. 7. Providing opportunities for affiliation with professional organizations.

FMDG has had many employee educator sustainability training opportunities to date. Sustainability training sessions and presentations have included: the VT Energy & Sustainability Plan Update presentation, Indoor Air Quality training, University Building Code training, Campus Energy & Sustainability Efforts presentation, VT Recycling Program presentation, a tour of campus buildings and the VT Power Plant, VT Energy Conservation presentation, and other additional trainings. To view a complete list of past training programs, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/minutes.html To view the list of training programs for 2011, please see: http://www.fmdg.org.vt.edu/calendar.html

FMDG Chairpersons and Founders: Mike Coleman, Associate Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer, Sponsor Dawn Maxey, Facilities Manager, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Co-Founder Lylah Sartin Shelor, Facilities Manager for Inform. Technology at AISB, Co-Founder

Virginia Tech’s Green Campus Challenge was an online survey conducted in March 2010 as an education, assessment, and encouragement campaign. The survey was focused on departmental and employee sustainability practices. Fifty departments, representing over 4,700 employees, participated in the survey. Departments were asked to appoint a Green Communication Representative to serve on a campus-wide Green Communication Committee. 80% of the departments identified a Green Campus Representative.

During Academic Year 2010-11 the departmental green representatives participated in a sustainability listserv. A Green Representative from the top four scoring department for the Green Campus Challenge were guests of Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger for the September 18, 2010 home football game with East Carolina University. On July 15, 2011 the Office of Energy and Sustainability (OES) sent a “Green Representatives Survey” to the listserv offering a menu of sustainability training courses for Academic Year 2011-2012 and requesting feedback. In addition, the survey requested other topics of interest. OES intends to begin this training program during Sustainability Week 2011 to be held during the period September 18-24.

The Office of Energy and Sustainability will sponsor, coordinate, and fund this program.

For Program #1 - The 3,686 figure for “number of employees served by the program” represents the faculty, classified staff, part-time faculty and wage employees that are members of FMDG. For Program #2 – We have input 0 for the “number of employees served by the program” because the Department Green Representative Training Program is still in the development phase. We are not claiming points for this program, but chose to report our efforts to develop additional employee sustainability educator programs. The total number of employees excluding contractors is 7,575. This number fluctuates with peak employment occurring during the fall and spring semesters. We have excluded contractors who are not on our payroll because we do not have the opportunity to influence what they are paid, with the exception of individuals hired through temporary employment service contracts. Unlike many universities, our dining services is not contracted out so a large number of entry level jobs that might otherwise be contractors at other schools are employees at Virginia Tech.