ECDOI is Green Office Certified!

The ECU Sustainability Program is happy to announce the most recent office to earn the Green Office Certification: ECU Diabetes and Obesity Institute (ECDOI). Our Green Office Certification is earned through participants actively making efforts to improve sustainability in their lives and workspace. The Sustainability Program provides a credit worksheet for guidance through this process. Through their efforts to embrace sustainability, meet with representatives from ECU’s Sustainability Program, and fill out their credit worksheet, ECDOI is Green Office Certified!

Before Starting

Before starting the program, offices need to designate a primary contact person and obtain commitment signatures from 75% of their staff. We also require offices to set up an information center (like a bulletin board or file in Teams) with sustainability materials provided and contact the Sustainability Outreach Specialist to schedule their energy and waste audits. We can also do a presentation for offices before starting to provide information and encourage participation.

ECDOI accomplished these prerequisites after we presented to their office and were enthusiastic to get involved. Even before working with ECU Sustainability, ECDOI made efforts to be a more sustainable workplace. Most of the participants recycled and were informed about materials recycled on campus. Many already strove to reduce their waste, use natural lighting when possible, and several even grew their own food.

As an office, instead of buying new chairs, they decided to reupholster old ones. Not only was this more sustainable than getting rid of the old chairs and buying new ones, but they saved over $41,000 by choosing to reuse what they already had. In addition to this, ECDOI had already taken the initiative to start converting to more energy-efficient freezers.

Getting Certified

Because ECDOI was already aware and making an effort as an office, they scored very high on the initial overview of their credit worksheet and just needed help with a few things. One thing our office was able to do to help them was provide a small recycling bin for batteries with a phone number to call once the bin began filling. They placed this in the room with their shared printer and copier to make sure it was easily accessible to all participants.

Through one-on-one meetings and conversations, our office helped to answer questions and clarify our goals. Some points covered were recycling, when blinds should be closed, and different events our department offers.

Congratulations ECDOI

We enjoyed working with this enthusiastic office to make ECU a greener campus!

If you have questions or are interested in pursuing the Green Office Certification for your office, feel free to reach out to us at foxki23@ecu.edu or 252-328-6652.