The Association for Advancement for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and the National Wildlife Federation released a document two months ago detailing how to create an Eco-Reps program on a college campus.
What is an Eco-Rep, you might ask? Eco-Reps (short for Eco-Representative) are student leaders and educators who engage other students on college campuses around sustainability. From its start at Tufts University in 2001, Eco-Reps has grown to include over 60 programs operating on campuses across the U.S. and Canada. These students participate in trash audits, sponsor energy saving competition among campus residents, and encourage fellow students to make changes in their lifestyle to promote sustainability.
The word “eco” originates from Greek, and means “home”, an idea central to the eco-reps program. These students are intended to live in dorms and engage around sustainable living practices – like an “eco” RA.
Quoting the newly published Eco-Reps guide:
The main motivation for the creation of such programs is a desire to extend outreach efforts for issues such as waste reduction and energy conservation to a broader student audience, beyond those students that are already “eco-minded.”
So, if we, sustainability coordinators in higher education, want to reach beyond “the choir” (those students who are already engaged with sustainability), should we be distinguishing between normal residence training and “Eco-Reps” programs?
Colorado State University
Carlos and I have been discussing Eco-Reps since last November, and I am very grateful that this guide has been put together. When I first began researching Eco-Reps programs, I was sifting through Christina Erickson’s p.H.D. dissertation. Interesting, but a lot less user friendly. This guide is very detailed and walks readers step-by step through many considerations for running an effective program – how to compensate, metrics to measure success, fun ideas for events.
This guide also stresses the importance of distinguishing the program – choosing a catchy name, creating a logo, documenting events, which are all very important strategies for organizations seeking buy-in from a community.
But what if this attention-seeking is not accomplishing what we intend?
Although I’ve been dreaming about how great an Eco-Reps program here at the U of A would be, I’ve recently started to wonder if maybe being so branded and special and “eco” is not the way to go.
For example, what if energy-efficiency suggestions, recycling expectations, and sustainability-focused bulletin boards in residence halls were just part of regular Resident Assistant training? What if, instead of focusing energy and time on creating a new program, we work within the existing structure? What if we actually make these behaviors the norm by – institutionally – making them norms?
Yes, it’s important to recognize people for who go out of their way to do good for the environment. And yes, it’s important to talk about why environmental responsibility is so, so important and celebrate when we have successes. But if we really and truly want to reach beyond those people who are already sold on the environment, maybe we shouldn’t be drawing so much attention to all the “green” and “sustainable” things. Maybe we should just call that normal. Because that’s what we want, right? All the “eco” behaviors to be the norm.
George Washington University
I am not criticizing Eco-Reps as an idea or as a program. All the coordinators and participants in Eco-Reps have doubtlessly done incredible things to reduce impact and educate their peers. I’m just curious if it’s possible to save all the time and energy that goes into starting an entirely new program, and instead integrate the same material within a student leadership program that already has funding, authority, and the expectation of interaction with students – RAs.
Another possible benefit of not focusing so much on how “eco” something is might be reaching a broader audience. If some students aren’t already invested in saving energy for the sake of reducing pollution and carbon and the like, then perhaps a person called an Eco-Rep reminding those students how green and eco it is to turn off the lights or unplug their coffee makers is not as effective as we might hope. However, if their RA comes around and says, “Here, these are the expectations for living on this floor – here’s your key to lock your door, here’s your roommate agreement, and here are the recycling bins with a list of what we recycle on campus” then maybe it might stick more – subtly. Maybe those students wouldn’t know they were being so energy efficient and environmental and awesome. Maybe they would just be following the rules.
I don’t know. I don’t know how effective this would be, or even how possible it is to work this into RA training. But I think it’s definitely worth looking into.
I’m asking a lot of questions not to criticize intentions or diminish successes. I think it’s clear that Eco-Reps can be motivating and effective at accomplishing short-term goals. I only wish to have a conversation about possible effects of not fully integrating eco-rep training and ideology into a seamless training and residential assistant experience, in hopes of digging deeper into what it means to actually change behavior and norms.
What do you think? Join the discussion by leaving a comment below.
