“Including campus community members in institutional strategic planning for sustainability introduces fresh ideas, builds trust across campus, and ensures that resulting sustainability plans and initiatives reflect the priorities of the entire community. This webinar explores opportunities for engaging your campus community in sustainability planning and initiatives, particularly focusing on connecting with frontline staff members. Participants will learn from a case study at Emory University in which community feedback sessions and other outreach for an upcoming sustainability plan were specifically tailored to the needs of Emory’s Campus Services Division—a division of over 900 employees, many of whom are housekeeping, maintenance, and customer service personnel.

This webinar highlights Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where sustainability staff worked to intentionally engage frontline employees in its upcoming sustainability plan: Sustainability Vision 2036. Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives (OSI) hoped to improve upon past community input campaigns to ensure that Sustainability Vision 2036 would represent and honor the priorities of the entire Emory community. OSI felt that past community input campaigns, including one for its 2023 Climate Action Plan, did not reach key members of the Emory community, particularly frontline employees in the Campus Services Division. This case study highlights OSI’s work with partners across campus to redesign its community outreach and feedback solicitation process to better engage Campus Services staff, employing strategies including hosting late night community input sessions, working with a campus inclusivity leader, translating resources into Spanish and Arabic, and offering meals and giveaways. The webinar will also expand upon OSI’s wider campaign to gather community input; over ten months, OSI held eight community inputs sessions, created an online Community Input and Conversation Guide, distributed an online input survey, and solicited submissions of sustainability-themed artwork to drive engagement.

After hearing about Emory OSI’s process, methods, and results for increasing engagement with frontline employees in its sustainability planning process, participants will separate into breakout rooms to reflect on and discuss the groups they most want to engage with on their own campuses. Participants will be invited to consider which communities on campus they are trying to reach, what they would like to learn from that community, and what logistical and communications-oriented steps can be taken to increase engagement. This session will be most applicable to sustainability staff and faculty who are involved in campus engagement and strategic planning.”

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Presenters

Anna Brachey, Climate and Sustainability Program Coordinator, Emory University Anna Brachey is Climate and Sustainability Program Coordinator in Emory University’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives. In her role at Emory, Anna facilitates the completion of Emory’s annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory, coordinates student and community sustainability engagement on campus, and supports Emory’s research into climate mitigation and adaptation innovations. Before coming onboard at Emory, Anna earned a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Georgia in 2020, then graduated in the inaugural class of Columbia University’s Climate School with an M.A. in Climate and Society in 2022. In her research and work, Anna uses her background in social and environmental sciences to better understand how climate and sustainability solutions can be most effective and just in practice on collegiate campuses.

Ed Lee, Senior Director for Inclusivity, Emory University Ed Lee III, EdD is the Senior Director of Inclusivity for Emory College of Arts and Sciences. With an emphasis on organizational communication, culture formation, and enhanced collaboration, Ed works directly with academic unit chairs to develop and facilitate department/program-level programming and discussion on inclusivity across Emory’s College of Arts & Sciences. This work is driven by a commitment to cultivate workplace and campus encounters that are more participatory, productive, and engaging. Ed frequently lends his skills as a facilitator, communicator, and inclusivity thought leader to Emory’s sustainability planning efforts, where he incorporates the principles of open dialogue and inclusivity into Emory’s sustainability-focused campus engagement. Ed is also the Emeritus Senior Director of Emory’s Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue, and is a relentless advocate for public debate and dialogue.

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