All members of the Wesleyan Sustainability Office commit to:

• Challenging and dismantling how the Sustainability Office and Wesleyan University maintain ties between environmentalism, racism, and systemic inequities.
• Using hiring, training, and internal conversations to dismantle economic, social, cultural, and racial barriers to sustainability, including training for students involved in office hiring that address internal bias on ways that racism and prejudice manifest in interviewers (ex: unprofessional, unengaged, unprepared).
• Centering and pursuing equity and justice in our long-term project planning and day-to-day work.
• Ensuring that office-sponsored programming is diverse and inclusive in pursuit of equity.
• Supporting and attending events and conversations that reach beyond the Office that recognize the inherent intersectionalities in sustainability.
• Practicing self-reflection regarding how unconscious bias manifests in past or present actions to create harm, and pursuing appropriate restorative action.
• Inviting anonymous feedback from the greater community regarding instances of harm, and pursuing restorative action appropriate to the circumstance.

These are the specific and actionable goals that members of the Wesleyan Sustainability Office are committing to for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Sustainability Director

• Integrating environmental and racial justice into ongoing implementation of Wesleyan’s Sustainability Strategic Plan.
• Advocating for the integration of sustainability and environmental justice courses in every discipline, and the continued expansion of the Sustainability & Environmental Justice Course Cluster.
• Ensuring that all Office staff application materials, recruitment and hiring processes integrate antiracist language and address internalized barriers and biases that prevent BIPOC students from applying to work or remaining in the Office
• Soliciting anonymous feedback from Office staff and partners to better support equity, outreach, and intersectionality.

Office Coordinators

• Leading the yearly review and approval of this document at an all-office meeting and ensuring that office interns are adhering to their commitments as set forth in this document.
• Holding conversations with anyone conducting hiring within the office to talk through equitable hiring practices.
• Co-host an event with the Environmental Solidarity Network (ESN) on institutional barriers to sustainability

Environmental Fellows Coordinators

• Annually revisit the Sustainability Office Fair Hiring Document to build an application and interview process that accounts for and addresses bias.
• Conduct effective outreach and marketing outside of the Sustainability Office and environmental departments’ channels to ensure we allow for a diverse and equitable hiring pool for new EFs. 
• Create and implement project-specific accountability for EF groups to ensure that office and group Commitments are met throughout projects via check-ins.
• Ensure that EF projects consider the long-term impact on custodial staff, physical plant, or student groups through meaningful discussion with all external actors involved, directly or peripherally.
• Review and update orientation and onboarding training annually with the full Office to avoid saviorism and talking down to others.
• Annually foster relationships with the Resource Center, ESN, Sunrise, and other groups on campus to ensure a diversity of thought and the inclusion of outside perspectives by establishing official liaisons to these groups and collaborating on leadership and projects.

Environmental Fellows

• Social Media
  • Highlight events/projects that promote/practice environmental justice
  • Avoid savior narratives, harmful trends, audios, or songs
  • Boost events and projects that help FGLI community members and BIPOC community members
  • Collaborate with other offices on campus and repost their events, especially JCCP, Resource Center 
  • Explain acronyms and terms that might be new to folks
• Physical Plant Environmental Education
  • See Social Media commitments
  • Make language around projects accessible for audiences unfamiliar with technical terms and processes
  • Prompt larger institutional conversations among the Wesleyan community
  • Remain mindful surrounding conversations of privilege and opportunity
• Matchbox
  • Reach out to active clubs and departments, especially people who have demonstrated that they care about anti-racism and intersectionality as well as Middletown research.
  • Connect with staff who work with underserved groups and prison education
  • Make sure there is Wesleyan and public access to the Matchbox once it is completed 
  • Highlight people doing anti-racist work and other intersectional work on the website/database
  • Use respectful language and treat community members as equals
• Pollinator-Friendly Gardens
  
  • Ensure that community events are open to all, especially marginalized members of the Wesleyan community
  • Hold free flower picking events
  • Provide all event supplies (painting, beehouse making, etc.) for free
  • When labeling, consider the cultural and historical relevance of certain plants to Indigenous groups and include that information
  • Be mindful of savior dynamics in the way we educate
  • Respect the opinions and the work of our groundskeepers
• WILD Wes
  • When labeling plants, include culturally relevant information 
  • Reach out to people who may not have experience in maintaining natural spaces
  • Using accessible language for those who may not have experience with permaculture or Wesleyan organizations
  • Develop and lead a tour and explanation of Wild Wes during New Student Orientation (NSO), placing emphasis on accessibility for First Things First (FTF)
  • Communicate that the space is for everyone, not just people interested in sustainability
• Environmental Education
  • Consider the diverse linguistic, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds of students when designing educational curriculums meant for the classroom.
  • Coordinate with teachers and educators on the specific needs of children with regards to learning strengths with considerations afforded to individual backgrounds.
  • Respect the wisdom and experiences of students to avoid marginalizing educational experiences specific to the local Middletown area.
• Amazing Grace Food Pantry
  • Increase check-ins with Amazing Grace, COE, and JCCP to ensure their needs are being centered and to maintain ongoing conversations
  • Conduct discussions of savior dynamics in volunteer work
  • Remain mindful of the dynamics of privilege

Compost Interns

• Collect feedback and data from our educational initiatives and residential composting programs to assess gaps in outreach
• Engage with on campus groups, other areas of the Sustainability Office, and Middletown-based organizations to expand compost education initiatives specifically for those who may not have had previous compost-related experiences
• Create materials to incorporate compost education into International Student Orientation and First Things First
• Workshop infographics and signage to increase accessibility of information and resources
• Revise the job description to better advertise our enthusiasm for a diverse range of skill sets and interests among applicants and remove unnecessary barriers (US Driver's License, for example)
• Expand our outreach through educational programs and feedback collection to reach more students and broaden inclusivity in the hiring and retention process
• Acknowledge structural barriers to engaging with compost in the job description and hiring process

Sustainable Middletown Interns

• Center and engage intentionally with Middletown residents and groups, especially those in marginalized positions or working to address issues of environmental injustice and broader social injustices (ex: Katal Center/Cultivating Justice)
• Recognize that Wesleyan as an institution has caused harm to marginalized communities in Middletown and establish relationships that serve them through collaboration
• Focus on the equity component of Sustainable CT, thinking about environmental justice issues in Middletown and how to collaboratively address needs (ex: tailoring communications to effectively reach the target audience) 
• Get Middletown residents and Wes students involved in local politics (ex: support legislation and initiatives that uplift marginalized communities and promote environmental justice, partner with local organizations that serve marginalized communities, etc.)

Sew What Coordinators

• Mend with longevity and reliability in mind
• Continue brainstorming services or events to use sewing skills and material resources for the benefit of our communities in need
• Sustainably offering access to modern fashion and trends without over consumption

WesThrift Coordinators

• Advertise all WesThrift events in the Resource Center 
• Hold a gender affirming clothing special hours at least semesterly 
• Continue FGLI/CPE/ISO/veterans’ preview in the fall

Waste Not Coordinators

• Ensure that Waste Not is accessible to the Middletown community by advertising the fall sale in English and Spanish via downtown flyers, handouts
• Continue discounted FGLI, ISO, CPE, veterans’ preview sales in the fall
• Hold an annual discounted sale for Wesleyan custodial, childcare, and grounds workers as well as targeted Middletown community groups in the Spring

Data Analyst

• Ensure data collection and analysis are designed to avoid bias, Eg.  disaggregate data when looking at energy usage across residential buildings, especially program housing and community based living
• Look at demographics when analyzing participation in sustainability activities
• Use data to advocate for policies and initiatives that promote equity

SSP Ambassadors

• Consistent conversation reflecting on the commitment outlined above throughout all steps of all projects. For example, asking if all perspectives are being included/heard, are impacts being considered (ex. How does this affect Wesleyan students, Wesleyan staff, and Middletown residents)