Campus Engagement
GOAL: Sustainability engagement score (SES) of 85.
Goal update
Baseline: 45
December 2019: 57
2030 Goal: 85
In 2019, the SES was updated to reflect changes in the understanding of sustainability. This had the effect of making the SES "harder" and resulted in a lower score. If the survey had remained the same, in 2019 the SES score would have been 61, a 2 point improvement from 2017.
The Medical Center seeks to foster a culture of sustainability. To gauge the health and development of this culture, the Medical Center conducted a Sustainability Engagement Survey. The survey combines metrics on knowledge and perceived behavior to determine a single score between 0-100.
The Medical Center last conducted a survey in 2019, in which an improvement over the baseline was recorded. The next survey is planned for 2021.
Recent Efforts
Earth Day.
In 2019 we celebrated Earth Month (our month-long celebration of International Earth Day) in a variety of ways, helping individuals be more sustainable both at work and at home. Activities included a tree planting on campus, three different lunch-and-learn sessions on sustainability related topics, a campus version of the RePurpose It contest, promotion of the Heartland B-cycles, a Keep Omaha Beautiful Park Clean Up, an on-line personal behavior challenge, and our ever-popular personal recycling/paper shredding event. That recycling event diverted 18,777 total pounds of materials while creating an impressive community benefit:
- 24 trees saved
- 255 gallons of oil not used
- 572,686 hours of electricity saved
- 7,752 gallons of water not consumed
- 250 lbs of food/toiletries and $1,450 to the UNO Maverick Food Pantry
- 161 eyeglasses donated to the Truhlsen Eye Institute clinic; ~2000 pop tabs to Ronald McDonald House
- 6 boxes of books for the Little Free Library
LiveGreen Ambassadors.
The LiveGreen Ambassadors support the Medical Center’s mission to lead the world in creating a healthy future for all by fostering a culture of sustainability on campus. With training and support from the Office of Sustainability, the LiveGreen Ambassadors continue to integrate sustainability into the culture of the Medical Center by modeling behaviors, providing colleagues with information, and helping to implement sustainability initiatives.
The number of LiveGreen Ambassadors continues to grow and two training sessions were held last year, as well as several campaigns throughout the year to move forward on sustainability goals.
Sustainability Engagement Survey.
Medical Center employees were asked to participate in a survey in 2019 that was used to gauge sustainability engagement progress against a 2014 baseline.
Upcoming Projects
LiveGreen Ambassadors.
Training sessions will provide LiveGreen Ambassadors an opportunity to learn more about sustainability at the Medical Center, deepen knowledge of key sustainability topics, and plan LiveGreen campaigns to engage colleagues across campus in sustainable actions.