Campus Compact EnviroCorps Partnerships to Reduce Energy Costs/Use and Improve Nature Conservation

This article focuses on a new federally funded environmental sustainability partnerships that deepens local engagement in environmental stewardship in various geographic and economic settings in the United States. Campus Compact EnviroCorps (CCEC) is the first nationwide AmeriCorps program solely dedicated to campus-based and community-led environmental stewardship. CCEC builds the capacity of colleges and their community partners to create change that leads to increased energy efficiency and improvements for ecosystems by implementing local solutions with households and communities. CCEC is focused on supporting campus/community partnerships that lower energy use and costs for households, raise awareness, and address nature conservation issues in communities. Host sites include a variety of campus and community partner organization types. CCEC program evaluation demonstrates statistically significant improvements via community education training pre- and post-tests at 14 host sites in 8 states with varying environmental ecosystems. AmeriCorps member pre- and post-surveys provide evidence of increased knowledge and skills in program areas, which increases the number of trained workers focused on energy efficiency and improvements for ecosystems via community partnerships.