| Overall Rating | Bronze |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 43.68 |
| Liaison | Jeane Pope |
| Submission Date | June 23, 2020 |
DePauw University
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 3.00 |
Malorie
Imhoff Director of Sustainability Office of Sustainability |
Is the institution currently a member of a national or international higher education sustainability network?:
The name of the national or international sustainability network(s):
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Does the institution actively participate in a regional, state/provincial, or local higher education sustainability network?:
The name of the regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s):
Indiana Green Campus Network
Has the institution presented at a higher education sustainability conference during the previous year?:
A list or brief description of the conference(s) and presentation(s):
Dr. Jim Mills and Dr. Jen Everett presented about the farmhouse deconstruction project at the 2018 AASHE conference. The Sustainability Director, Asst. Director of the Environmental Fellows Program, and six students also attended the conference.
Presentation description:
What does a university do with a vacant old house that cannot be restored? Ordinarily: bulldoze it and haul it away to a landfill. But what if you were to take it apart, piece by piece, discovering what it's made of, where those materials came from, what secrets they keep, what stories they could tell, and what value they might still hold?
In this presentation, we recount the two-year sequence of courses through which students, faculty, facilities staff, and community members worked together to deconstruct the house situated next to DePauw's campus farm, seeking to maximize not only the materials that could be salvaged for reuse and recycling, but also the educational potential embedded in the structure. We studied the ways places, houses, and objects can matter to people; apprenticed in the green art of rescuing, revitalizing and reusing building materials; and explored scientific research, scholarship, and creative works that reconceive the stuff we produce, consume, and throw "away." Mindful unbuilding taught us to look deeply into physical materials themselves - where they come from, where they go, and how they fit into the global materials economy. It taught us a great deal about the physical construction of buildings as well as the tools and techniques of deconstruction. Perhaps most importantly, it taught us to recognize this house as more than the sum of its material parts - as a hitherto Home, for People of character in our community, with a History, in a Place.
Since all universities engage in renovation projects and increasingly look to deconstruction as an alternative to demolition, we seek to inspire creative high-impact collaborations that connect the liberal arts curriculum with the built environment, building a shared, "concrete" understanding of the social dimensions of sustainability - helping us to reclaim the value of people and places as well as things.
Has the institution submitted a case study during the previous year to an external higher education sustainability resource center or awards program?:
A list or brief description of the sustainability resource center or awards program and submission(s):
Has the institution had employees or students serving on a board or committee of a sustainability network or conference during the previous three years?:
A list or brief description of the board or committee appointment(s):
Does the institution have an ongoing mentoring relationship with another institution through which it assists the institution with its sustainability reporting and/or the development of its sustainability program?:
A brief description of the mentoring relationship and activities:
Our faculty sustainability coordinator, Jeane Pope, is participating in the AASHE mentorship program with Ryan Ihrke from The College of St. Scholastica and part of this relationship is his development of a cross-curricular sustainability program. This mentorship began in 2019.
Has the institution had employees or students serving as peer reviewers of another institution’s sustainability data and/or STARS submission during the previous three years?:
A brief description of the peer review activities:
A brief description of other inter-campus collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year :
Website URL where information about the institution’s inter-campus collaborations is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.