COST
The Community Organizers for Sustainability Transformation (COST) Program was created in Spring 2012 for students interested in learning more about sustainability and who might not have been very involved with sustainability efforts before coming to Connecticut College.
Each semester, the program is structured around several different monthly themes in which students and the campus community are able to dive deeper into specific areas of sustainability. The ultimate goal of having monthly themes is to promote and support the campus community to adopt different behaviors that will foster a culture of sustainability at Connecticut College. Examples of monthly themes are waste minimization, consumption practices, social equity, and energy conservation.
COST Reps learn to use Community Based Social Marketing as a tool to engage the campus community and to promote campus-wide behavior change through programming, events and campaigns. Using Community Based Social Marking will help foster sustainable behavior change across campus because it employs many strategies that go beyond the typical poster campaigns, which fail to encourage changes in community culture.
The Program Leadership Team, comprised of a student Program Manager and four Area Leaders facilitate the COST Program with support from the Sustainability Coordinator. The Program Manager is responsible for coordinating all efforts of the Program and the Area Leaders facilitate their own weekly area meetings for COST Reps that live in their portion of campus. It is during these weekly area meetings that COST Reps learn about sustainability, Community Based Social Marketing and how to foster new behaviors that will promote sustainability on campus.
To support a strong connection to the student body, COST Reps are expected to serve on their House Council and build relationships with other student leaders in their houses. By serving on House Councils, COST Reps can provide student leaders on campus with updates about campaigns and events sponsored by the COST Program.
For a complete overview of COST Program, take a look at our Guiding Document.
