We're on Twitter and Facebook | Search | Login or Register

Report Card 2011

Northeastern University

Student Survey

With the publication of the College Sustainability Report Card 2011, more than 1,100 school survey responses from over 300 institutions are now available online. In total, these surveys offer more than 10,000 pages of data collected from colleges and universities during the summer of 2010. To access surveys from other schools, go to the surveys section of the website. To see grades, or to access additional surveys submitted by this school, please click the "Back to Report Card" link at the beginning or end of the survey.

School name: Northeastern University

Date submitted: July 6, 2010

For each question, please choose the response that best represents the activities of your student organization. Some questions have additional instructions below the question. If you cannot find information for a particular question, please leave that question blank.

The response to this survey should be only in reference to one student organization. If there are multiple student organizations at a given school, each organization should complete its own survey. Only one survey should be submitted for each student organization at a particular school.

1) Contact Information

The following fields designate the main contact person for your group.

Name: Alyssa Pandolfi

School Name: Northeastern University

Name of student organization: Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT)

Your position or title: Executive Director

2) Student Organization

Please describe the student-run campus environmental/sustainability organization in which you have a leadership role. If you are a member of multiple organizations, you will be able to enter information about their activities on a later page.

Active members attend meetings and help implement the organization’s initiatives. Please describe event or email-listserv attendance under “Additional Comments.”

Number of active members:

Date of last meeting (mm/dd/yyyy):

April 5, 2010

Frequency of meetings:

Note: if you meet more than once a week, please select weekly.

Weekly

Key issues addressed and programs implemented since August 2009:

Use the categories below to help describe your group's initiatives in each area. In the "Describe" field, outline actions taken and elaborate on the impact and degree of success. You may want to compose your descriptions in Microsoft Word or a similar program and then paste them into the boxes provided. Please be detailed in your descriptions, and use the "Other" option to describe additional areas of involvement. You can also elaborate or add clarifying comments under "Additional Comments."

	Addressed	Progress	Describe
Academics Examples: Minor, major and concentration programs, curricular additions, research projects	[X]	Significant	Students are helping to create a Sustainability minor with senior academic figures
Administration Examples: Procurement policies, institution-wide sustainability policy, advocating for sustainability-related staff positions	[ ]
Climate Examples: Climate action plan, greenhouse gas emissions inventory	[ ]
Endowment Examples: Proxy voting guidelines, investment advisory committees	[ ]
Energy Examples: Conservation/behavioral change programs, retrofits and efficiency improvements	[X]	None	The Renewable Energy Fund exists, but it has not yet been used to fund a renewable energy project on campus. When the Renewable Energy Initiative Committee meets in the 2011 school year, HEAT will have a seat on the committee and contribute to the establishment of a renewable energy project.
Food Examples: Advocating for local, organic, or more sustainable food, campus gardening, food purchasing and ingredient guidelines	[X]	Significant	HEAT has students who sit on the Food Advisory Committee to give Dining Services feedback on sustainable dining options. HEAT also contributed to the "Request for Proposal" that Northeastern's Dining Services is compiling to find a new dining services provider. Using data and case studies from past College Sustainability Report Cards, HEAT was able to provide Northeastern's Dining Services with many examples of sustainable dining operations and initiatives.
Green Building Examples: Design or construction policy	[ ]
Grounds and Maintenance Examples: Green landscaping, non-toxic cleaners	[ ]
Student Involvement Examples: Facilitating engagement with students, speaker series, establishing EcoReps program, student guide to sustainable living on campus	[X]	Moderate	HEAT hosted its annual energy saving competition, Do it in the Dark, to get students living on campus to try to reduce their electricity usage and become more aware of how much energy they use each day.
Transportation Examples: Promoting sustainable transportation, campus fleet improvements, connecting students with public transit	[ ]
Waste Reduction Examples: Recycling, composting, reducing consumption	[X]	Moderate	Members of HEAT continually volunteer to take part in the Peer Composting program in the Dining Halls to educate fellow students about composting and encourage new students to compost.
Water Examples: Water conservation, reducing campus pollution, bottled water campaigns	[X]	Moderate	For Earth Day, HEAT built a display housing plastic water bottles that had been collected from on-campus sources. The bottles represented only a fraction of what students produce each day at Northeastern. The event also had information on the environmental, health, social, and sustainability factors related to bottled water usage. Many students walked by the display and talked to HEAT members about bottled water usage on campus and in general.
Other	[ ]

Additional Comments

Our group meets biweekly over the summer since some students at Northeastern remain on campus for classes or Co-op over the summer. During the summer, our membership drops to about 10-15 active members as compared with 35 during the year.

3) Sustainability Competitions and Challenges

This information should describe a campus challenge or competition organized by your group to promote sustainability. To add general information about your group, return to the previous questions.

First competition

Name of competition	Recyclemania
Frequency of competition	Ongoing
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.	2010
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.	Student Government Association

Participants:

Students	[X]
Faculty	[X]
Staff	[X]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Describe how students, faculty, and/or staff were encouraged to participate in the competition. How were they notified and enticed to join the competition? What was the “prize” or reward for which they were competing?

Students who are "caught recycling" can get T-shirts. Events that go on during the competition also have various prizes.

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[ ]
Waste reduction	[X]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe	Increased recycling on campus

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

Describe both the raw savings, and the savings as compared to use before the competition. For example, an electricity-saving competition may have encouraged a dorm to conserve 6,000 kW/h of electricity for the month of April, a savings of 5% from the same month last year.

Lasting effects of competition:

Describe other impacts and effects. What are observable changes in campus behavior even after the competition’s completion? Have other efforts towards sustainability been given added momentum? Has the competition inspired other campaigns or initiatives?

More recycling bins were placed in central on-campus locations with lots of student traffic to make recycling more accessible to students.

Website:

Second competition

Name of competition	Do It in the Dark
Frequency of competition	Annually
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.	2007
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.	HEAT, Resident Student Association

Participants:

Students	[X]
Faculty	[ ]
Staff	[X]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Each year, the winner of Do it in the Dark receives a party in their dorm with food of the residents' choice. To encourage students to "do it in the dark" glow in the dark condoms, yo-yo's, frisbees, and other paraphernalia have been handed out in past years of the competition. Events like movie showings, sustainability themed jeopardy, and vegetarian BBQs during Do it in the Dark help to encourage and remind students to reduce their electricity usage.

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[X]
Waste reduction	[ ]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

To find out how much electricity was being saved, our Facilities Department, specifically our Energy Manager Joe Ranahan, calculated how much electricity each residence hall was saving. The winning dorm, at the time of the competition's end, reduced their total electricity usage to 88.47% of their pre-competition electricity usage.

Lasting effects of competition:

Students learn behaviors and everyday practices they can use to reduce their energy usage. They become more aware of how their everyday actions add up because they are forced to look at their lifestyle and choose to make more energy efficient decisions.

Website:

Third competition

Name of competition
Frequency of competition
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.

Participants:

Students	[ ]
Faculty	[ ]
Staff	[ ]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[ ]
Waste reduction	[ ]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

Lasting effects of competition:

Website:

4) Sustainability in Student Government and Other Activities

Please describe the role of Student Government and other groups.

Does your student government include a specific position or committee dedicated to campus sustainability issues?

Yes

If yes. Please describe below:

Include the following: How many students are active in the committee? How often does it meet? What kinds of power and decision-making ability does it have? What impacts and initiatives has it undertaken? What kind of working relationship does it have with other student groups and the administration?

Our Student Government Association (SGA) has a position called Director of Sustainability Initiatives. This Director oversees initiatives in SGA that are focused on sustainability, interacts with other student groups, faculty and staff at Northeastern to forward sustainability initiatives, and propose new sustainability ideas to SGA.

Please describe any additional campus sustainability activities or projects that you or your group has initiated at your school:

Describe any activities that your group or yourself, as a leader on campus, have undertaken that are not already included in your survey responses. If applicable, also describe off-campus and community efforts that relate to institutional sustainability at your school.

Trash2Treasure - a move out/reuse project intended to divert all of the usable waste that is discarded during move out from the landfill to a new owner. The clothes, food, and furniture is collected, stored over the summer, and sold at cheap yard sale prices during the fall semester Welcome Week. The money from the sale is donated to a local environmental charity.Campus garden - after the student group Students for Environmental Action disbanded this past year, HEAT continued the student garden of fruits and vegetables in a nearby park. HEAT members, along with past SEA members, maintain the garden.Mary Cummings park - HEAT collected petitions and had a campus event to help raise awareness about a plot of land that Northeastern University owns and is planning to develop on a satellite campus. The land contains many vulnerable species, vernal pools, and is an important resting ground for New England migratory birds.Scott Brown - HEAT members wrote and directed a small film encouraging newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown to go "green"

Please Note: The following is for informational purposes only; your response will NOT be included in the Report Card evaluation process.

Please list any regional or national networks with which your group is affiliated (e.g., Energy Action Coalition/Campus Climate Challenge, Sierra Student Coalition, a state PIRG, a state student sustainability coalition):

Energy Action Coalition/Campus Climate ChallengeStudents for a Just and Stable Future

______________________________

School name: Northeastern University

Date submitted: May 20, 2010

1) Contact Information

The following fields designate the main contact person for your group.

Name: Roxanne Meuse

School Name: Northeastern University

Name of student organization: Engineers Without Borders

Your position or title: Newsletter editor and Uganda Cultural Committee Chairperson. Also active in other campus sustainability efforts

2) Student Organization

Active members attend meetings and help implement the organization’s initiatives. Please describe event or email-listserv attendance under “Additional Comments.”

Number of active members:

Date of last meeting (mm/dd/yyyy):

May 18, 2010

Frequency of meetings:

Note: if you meet more than once a week, please select weekly.

Weekly

Key issues addressed and programs implemented since August 2009:

	Addressed	Progress	Describe
Academics Examples: Minor, major and concentration programs, curricular additions, research projects	[X]	Moderate	Senior engineering students at Northeastern are required to complete a capstone project, and this year, two civil/environmental engineering teams designed possible sustainable water storage and distribution systems that would utilize the boreholes that we are already planning on putting in place in Uganda.
Administration Examples: Procurement policies, institution-wide sustainability policy, advocating for sustainability-related staff positions	[ ]
Climate Examples: Climate action plan, greenhouse gas emissions inventory	[ ]	Moderate
Endowment Examples: Proxy voting guidelines, investment advisory committees	[ ]
Energy Examples: Conservation/behavioral change programs, retrofits and efficiency improvements	[X]	Moderate	Several EWB students are researching forms of renewable energy that are being considered for use in third world countries. The next step will be to apply this knowledge to a village in Honduras, where water will have to travel 300 vertical feet.
Food Examples: Advocating for local, organic, or more sustainable food, campus gardening, food purchasing and ingredient guidelines	[X]	Moderate	Several EWB students are researching electricity-free ways to keep food cool, which would be helpful for families without regular access to power. This research has been done both on campus and in Honduras.
Green Building Examples: Design or construction policy	[X]	Moderate	Several EWB students have been researching rain-water catchment systems. They have looked into various methods, the technical details and measurements, and how these two things can be applied to the specific types of buildings that are in the Ugandan village we are working in. Also, EWB students have researched and narrowed down various types of latrines that would be best for the environment and best for the culture in the villages in Uganda and Honduras that we are working in. With one of them, the excrement would be composted and then used as fertilizer.
Grounds and Maintenance Examples: Green landscaping, non-toxic cleaners	[ ]
Student Involvement Examples: Facilitating engagement with students, speaker series, establishing EcoReps program, student guide to sustainable living on campus	[X]	Moderate	In the Spring, we held a water scarcity demonstration, where students could carry around a jerry can filled with water in a loop around campus to experience what it is like to be in a third world country where this is a common way to carry water from a water source back to a village. There was a large amount of participants; T-shirts with a jerry can on them were given to the first 100 student participants, and we ran out of these.
Transportation Examples: Promoting sustainable transportation, campus fleet improvements, connecting students with public transit	[ ]
Waste Reduction Examples: Recycling, composting, reducing consumption	[ ]
Water Examples: Water conservation, reducing campus pollution, bottled water campaigns	[X]		All of our chapter’s projects have been based on giving villages better access to cleaner water. During the recent trip to Honduras, the travel team began construction on a 6,500 gallon water storage tank for the water system that we began last year. They also had follow-up meetings with nearby communities where we have built water systems in years past. During the recent mini-trip to Uganda, the travel team planned with the villagers, established a village water board, met with potential drillers, and selected potential drilling sites for the boreholes we plan to have drilled in August.
Other	[ ]

Additional Comments

3) Sustainability Competitions and Challenges

This information should describe a campus challenge or competition organized by your group to promote sustainability. To add general information about your group, return to the previous questions.

First competition

Name of competition	RecycleMania
Frequency of competition	Annually
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.	2010
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.	Student Government Association, Northeastern Facilities, and the Sustainable Service Committee of the Department of Residential Life

Participants:

Students	[X]
Faculty	[ ]
Staff	[ ]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Advertisement & Encouragement: A poster was designed that incorporated our school's logo with recyclables. Facebook event page. T-shirts given out for participating in events.

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[ ]
Waste reduction	[X]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

The recycling rate increased by about 10%.

Lasting effects of competition:

I did not notice any large impact, but it's hard to tell based on how large the student body is.

Website:

http://www.sga.neu.edu/initiatives/recyclemania.html

Second competition

Name of competition
Frequency of competition
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.

Participants:

Students	[ ]
Faculty	[ ]
Staff	[ ]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[ ]
Waste reduction	[ ]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

Lasting effects of competition:

Website:

Third competition

Name of competition
Frequency of competition
Year initiated Even if the competition has not been held continually each year, enter the year it began.
Groups involved in coordinating If your group conducted the competition alone enter your group's name. Otherwise, enter other student groups, administrative offices, or faculty departments that assisted in implementation.

Participants:

Students	[ ]
Faculty	[ ]
Staff	[ ]
Other. Please describe.

Incentives/Rewards:

Goals of competition:

Describe the sustainability-related goal of the competition (e.g. conserve electricity, water, reduce waste, increase recycling rates).

Energy conservation	[ ]
Waste reduction	[ ]
Water conservation	[ ]
Other. Please describe

Percent of energy/water/waste reduced (describe):

Lasting effects of competition:

Website:

4) Sustainability in Student Government and Other Activities

Please describe the role of Student Government and other groups.

Does your student government include a specific position or committee dedicated to campus sustainability issues?

Yes

If yes. Please describe below:

There is a student representative to the Sustainability Committee, which works to implement the recommended steps set forward by the ACUPCC. There is also the Renewable Energy Initatives Committee, which is part of the Student Government Association.

Please describe any additional campus sustainability activities or projects that you or your group has initiated at your school:

Please Note: The following is for informational purposes only; your response will NOT be included in the Report Card evaluation process.

Engineers Without Borders USA

<< Back to Report Card