SUNY Brockport has adopted a variety of green initiatives on campus, including a reusable mug program, solar powered parking pay stations, textbook rentals, carpooling programs, and newly constructed buildings meeting LEED certification. Although SUNY Brockport has made progress in becoming more environmentally friendly, the general education program does not include a component on environmental awareness, and freshmen orientation fails to inform students of green initiatives on campus. Students are unlikely to participate in green initiatives without information specific to the SUNY Brockport campus. This was illustrated during the fall 2014 semester when the Honors College almost had to suspend the free printing privilege in the Honors Lounge. An estimated 35,000 sheets of paper were consumed and the cost of printing was much higher than the allotted budget. A required interactive workshop given at freshmen orientation would introduce students to green initiatives on campus. We have designed a workshop titled, “Going Green on Campus” to pilot at the 2015 Honors College Orientation for Honors freshmen. The objectives of the workshop will be to inform students on (1) recycling on campus, (2) carpooling on campus, (3) printing consciously, (4) what the college is doing to make campus more sustainable, and (5) what students can do to make campus more sustainable. There will be a section to address each objective, consisting of a series of modules, videos, and follow-up assessments. To determine if the workshop is successful we will compare paper consumption in the Honors Lounge before and after the workshop is implemented. Data collection began during the fall 2014 semester and will continue through spring 2016. We hope a formal introduction to living environmentally consciously will increase student participation in green initiatives, which will be demonstrated by a decrease in paper consumption in the Honors Lounge after the workshop is given
