Washington and Lee University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Office of Sustainability actively encourages the use of operational initiatives and goals in student research and classwork and students from a range of departments regularly employ sustainability topics and related campus data in class projects, research and senior thesis or capstone projects.
Recent examples include:
1. Applied Behavior research project. Students in the class were tasked with fixing a campus problem using Nudge Theory. One project was based on signage campaigns for compost, recycling and landfill, examining how different ways of presenting signage would improve their effectiveness in influence user behavior. The student investigator provided a copy of her final report, including suggestions for improving signage, to the Office of Sustainability.
2. Strategic Communications research project. A student in this journalism class looked at campus sustainability communications in a review of how to effectively engage audiences in environmental topics. The student investigator included an interview with the director of sustainability about challenges in communications as part of this project.

Environmental Service Learning is a one credit class through which students engage in sustainability or environmental issues in the Rockbridge Area community. Projects taken on during the course of the class include partnerships with local conservation organizations, the Boxerwood Nature Preserve, and the Natural Bridge State Park, among others. Community work is combined with academic instruction in sustainability issues.

W&L's Climate Action Plan and annual greenhouse gas report are made easily available on the university website and students are actively encouraged to use related documents and data in classwork. The Office of Sustainability frequently creates student accounts on SIMAP to allow for full and transparent review of institutional emissions reporting as part of class and research projects.
Additionally, Earth and Environmental Geoscience courses (including EEG 102 Sustainable Earth and EEG 141 Global Climate Change) incorporate tours of the campus power plant and discussion of on-campus energy delivery and consumption as part of the classwork on GHG emissions.

University buildings are used in student learning in various ways, including:
1. Courses including EEG 102 Sustainable Earth and EEG 141 Global Climate Change incorporate a Sustainability Tour with the director of sustainability into their syllabus. This tour includes "unseen spaces" like mechanical rooms and loading docks in detailed discussions about the sustainability impact (good and bad) from operations at the building level.
2. Students are given access to the university’s EneryCAP database -and every utility bill since 2010 - for each campus building, allowing for in-depth analysis of building performance and the contributing factors.
3. Practical studies in benefits and challenges of the LEED certification process and examples of outcomes in LEED buildings. This was the focus of a recent student project on the business case for energy efficient buildings in real estate development.
4. The Office of Sustainability, the Real Estate Society and the Student Environmental Action League are collaborating on programming to connect these student groups, the Sustainability Office and Capital Projects staff for tours of LEED certified buildings on campus and discussions of value and challenges of certification.

W&L's live electricity dashboard, the PowerTrip (go.wlu.edu) is used by various courses in lab exercises and class projects designed around energy data and behavior-change inputs. In EEG 102, Sustainable Earth, students are given operator level login access to the dashboard, allowing them access to detailed information and analysis tools not publicly available. Students complete various lab exercises based on energy data on the dashboard and end with a final project that connects them with students living in one of the apartments for which they have studied interval data. Students in the class interview the residents about their energy use and develop a document detailing electricity conservation strategies specific to the apartment and residents they were assigned.

The Campus Garden is used by many different classes and for different types of research on campus. Students have used the campus garden as a living laboratory to learn more about nutrition, growing food, regenerative agriculture, and engaging in a sustainable food system. Recent classes have included politics classes focused on food policy, service-learning classes, and introductory Environmental Science classes.
The Office of Sustainability employs several Campus Garden interns who, in addition to performing physical work in the garden, contribute to initiatives to maximize opportunities to get fresh garden produce to the student food pantry and to develop simple recipes that encourage students to cook for themselves using fresh, local ingredients. The interns also train other garden volunteers.
The garden is also an important living lab for students working with the Campus Kitchen program, which delivers food - including garden produce grown for this purpose - to local food-insecure residents.

Applied Environmental Science courses use W&L's extensive campus, which includes acres of dense woods, open fields, and a creek, in applied fieldwork. In the last two years this work has included projects on invasive species (autumn olive, garlic mustard, and Japanese stiltgrass), including cataloging of invasive plants, extensive plant research, and mitigation recommendations. This unit includes discussion with the W&L Grounds Supervisor who shares University Facilities' operation approach and provides perspective on how cost and staff constraints impact the viability of removal strategies. The final report from this class is shared with the director of sustainability and the grounds supervisor, as well as with the University Sustainability Committee so that student research can be actively considered in developing operational policy.

The W&L Exchange, our campus re-use resource, was created as the direct result of needs identified by Office of Sustainability Interns. In addition to developing the concept, the interns participated significantly in setting up the physical space and creating promotions, and they are responsible for staffing and maintaining inventory.
Sustainability Office Interns also contributed research in the development of our Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines and are engaged in our current efforts to elevate those guidelines to offer department specific tools.

Washington and Lee Student Consulting is co-curricular student organization that provides pro bono consulting services to businesses and not-for-profits, as well as to units within the University. Experiential learning draws from business fields, such as marketing, finance, accounting, e-commerce, database management, business strategy, and human resources. In addition to working on various projects, students gain experience managing the organization.
For their Spring 2023 project, students examined strategies for accelerating W&L's transition to an electric vehicle fleet. Their work included extensive research as well as interviews with sustainability and university facilities staff, including the fleet manager and vehicle operators. Their work produced a useful report that added to staff efforts on this initiative.

Sustainability Interns track campus waste from compost, recycling, landfill and E-waste streams and regularly analyze data for trends and trouble-shooting. The Office of Sustainability makes this waste data available to all interested students for use in class projects and independent research.

Office of Sustainability Interns track water use in campus residence halls using monthly utility data and use it to add water consumption information to the electricity dashboard, flagging trends and engagement information opportunities as they arise.
Additionally, student members of the University Sustainability Committee worked with the director of sustainability to develop the recommendation to eliminate bottled water from campus dining and retail venues. They have worked to extend this effort by proposing the student government adopt policy that restricts the use of student organization funds for single-use plastic water bottles at student organization events.

Two to three students are appointed by the student Executive Committee to represent the student body on the University Sustainability Committee (USC). This is an excellent opportunity for students to engage in planning and administration as equals with faculty and staff representatives, and understand first-hand what is required in developing good policy and seeing it through to implementation. This year, one of the USC sub-committees, which includes the Executive Director of University Facilities as a member, is chaired by a sophomore student.

We also involve sustainability interns in gathering data for the STARS report.

The University Committee on Inclusiveness and Campus Climate (UCICC) reports to the President and is charged to provide guidance to the President and other members of the university as we build a supportive, inclusive and diverse community and create a climate open and welcoming to persons from diverse backgrounds. The committee represents the views of students, staff, administration, and faculty and was created to help the University fulfill its institutional values that stress the importance of the individual and respect for others. Each year the committee produces an annual report on our campus climate, especially with respect to inclusiveness and diversity, that charts the university's progress on key longitudinal measures.

Investment club may be designating some funds towards "green" investments.

Every year the Office of Human Resources hosts a campus Wellness Fair, inviting university departments and local and regional organizations and vendors to come to campus and share their messages, services, products etc. with W&L employees. It is an extremely well-attended event and draws faculty and staff from across campus constituencies.
This year the Office of Sustainability was invited to host a table sharing information about the wellness benefits of sustainable living, and ways to make those connections in the workplace - often for the benefit of workplace performance. A Sustainability Office intern researched these benefits and provided key findings and resource references that were used to develop the Office's presentation at the Wellness Fair.