Evaluation of UHV's Green Movement A company shows more than just care for the bottom line when they employ a “go green” initiative. More and more companies are moving towards sustainability practices, and just a few examples from the video include employee volunteer initiatives for earth week, employee education seminars and environmental work days to replace holiday parties. Innovations were also mentioned, specifically a cost conscious invention by one company to initialize a company wide database of office supplies, that way departments can pull from one another instead of ordering a supply that was already available within the company. UHV has joined the ranks of companies around the globe who are making a conscious effort to “go green.” From UHV’s green website, you can gain a clear understanding of the goals of the initiative. There is always room for improvement in any initiative, but UHV is on the right track. The areas of most impact will probably be the administrative practices, simply because saving electricity is probably the area in which the majority of companies need the most conservation effort. UHV will realize a significant cost savings by employing all the techniques mentioned. Just one example would be turning off lights and computers when not in use will make a significant impact on the electric bill. Purchasing supplies that are recyle­able or re­useable will also lower costs in the long run, even though the initial cost may appear more than a single use product, you would spend more buying a single use product many times than a reusable product once. Further, UHV offering online classes is actually a way of “going green.” If you think about it, students who attend online courses are not using gas to travel to school, there’s no electricity used by the classroom, if classroom space is an issue, online classes would even offer

a benefit of lack of real estate costs for an expansion of the campus to meet the student’s demand. UHV is also appealing to prospective students with the green initiative. As stated in the video, more recent graduates are placing a high regard on a company’s green initiatives. If UHV makes “going green” a marketing strategy as well, students who place high importance on environmental sustainability may be more apt to choose UHV over a college who does not employ green initiatives. In summary, UHV’s green initiative seems to compares to most other companies of the same scale, I don’t see anything horribly out of line or a glaring omission. Some of the items seem a little ambitious, such as purchasing carbon offsets for each airline flight. I’m sure that there is a lot of travel required by the staff and executives at UHV and that could add up to be quite a large expense, I’m sure. In my opinion it would be more of a realistic approach to focus on making the buildings environmentally friendly, emphasizing recycling and proper waste disposal on campus as well as including sustainability suggestions and practices in most of the courses offered by the college. Evaluation of UHV's Social Media Movement Social media can either be a fantastic tool for a business, or a mediocre attempt at keeping up with the times. If content is interesting and managed well, frequently updated and easy to access, social media is a fantastic way to connect with the community and send a message. It also allows a company to move away from a mentality of just trying to make a sale, when a connections is made via facebook or twitter, it becomes more than just about the product,

its a way to get to know the company or the personalities of the people that they put in charge of their social networking sites. It’s also becoming a way for companies to address concerns directly with their consumer, to also be available and able to accurately portray a company image. UHV actually goes a step further than most companies who are utilizing social media. UHV connect is a fantastic tool that most companies haven’t gone the extra mile to implement. This is most likely because of the target audience. Because it is a university, and to most college age people, social media is “all the rage” it’s important for a college to put forth the extra effort to participate. UHV connect goes a step beyond facebook or twitter and includes just about everything that a student would need to know. The career section is especially helpful for seniors or new graduates trying to get a foot in the door to the workforce. UHV successfully utilizes social media outlets to make announcements and draw attention to student events. It also fosters a sense of connection between students and encourages interaction, which could have an academic benefit by helping form new study groups or allowing students an easy way to connect to a tutor for a problem subject. Overall, UHV employs a good use of social media and I think students would benefit from the expansion of the existing and inclusion of ads specifically about new or interesting classes at UHV, career fairs or seminars. My UHV email is full of announcements and fliers, it would be much easier to have one place to log into and see everything at once instead of having to go thru several emails at once.