Teaming up for Campus Sustainability:

Programs that Cultivate Student-Staff Cooperation

Background & Context	Art of the Entrepreneur	Green Living Program	Student Internship Program	Conclusion

 

Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships

There are a multitude of roles that intersect to form a green living program (GLP). Recognizing the relationships among them and the associated responsibilities will help you configure your own GLP structure. The key roles include the following:

• Program Host

A GLP is usually not a department unto itself. Most likely, it will be situated in a "host" organization. Whether this is an office with an existing environmental focus or a department with an operations or student orientation, your GLP's host partner should be able to provide administrative, mentorship and ideological support for your efforts.

• Steering Group

Representatives from your partner organizations should meet with GLP staff regularly to provide program oversight and development, management, mentorship and ideas on past, present and future campaigns. These experienced members of the college or university community are essential to the success of your GLP, and the degree to which they become engaged in your program can affect the spread of sustainability efforts across campus.

• Coordinator

The GLP player with the greatest time commitment and most responsibilities is the coordinator. How this person fills the role determines the efficacy of the program, from the greenhouse gas emissions prevented to the amount of money the college or university saves to the professional skills the student employees take from their GLP experience. 

• Captains

While the coordinator is responsible for ensuring that the many different parts of the GLP machine are functioning and interacting effectively, the student captains are running meetings, managing the reps, sharing the student perspective with the steering group and much more.

• Reps

The greatest force in a GLP are the students who drive home the resource efficiency message to their peers in the campus residence halls. Generally energetic, outgoing and passionate about their world, they inspire and educate their friends and acquaintances to think twice about how their daily habits affect the environment.

• Volunteers

What a GLP aims to do is build a community of support and action around the idea of sustainable living. Over time, your program will attract people curious or inspired by what you are trying to do. You may even find that you have a following of people committed to your mission and who want to participate on a volunteer basis. Their involvement will help build momentum for your cause and is therefore an asset that deserves attention, encouragement and appreciation.