Hope College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Our Engineering Department is connected with our Physical Plant Department and Office of Sustainability and have worked on the following projects together from freshmen coursework, independent studies, senior research project, and teams competing at the national level. A few examples include: designing a solar-shed for our landscape equipment and golf carts; students as part of our LEED team for the student center education committee and credit verification; designing a energy and water conservation device for the campus cottages; studying, inventorying, and recommending efficiency upgrades to cottages; "Permeable Vanderplex" a redesign of an area of campus with permeable pavers; and designing plans for our Cook Villages Apartment complex as part of the Race to Zero Energy Competition.
Our Biology Department is also connected with our Physical Plant, Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute, and City of Holland through our Urban Tree Project Inventory Project (see innovation credits for more details).
A biology student and a communication student have also developed a campus tree map brochure highlighting special trees around campus.
The same biology student has also been helping us to develop a calculation for our future carbon off-set GHG land project.

Another student in a media production class created a video about sustainability on campus and interviewed key personnel and faculty.

We have welcomed students from departments all over campus to help make Hope more sustainable, we strive to give them resources and support for projects they see as important.

Students interning with the Hope College Sustainability Advisory Committee and the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute learn from our unique "town-gown" relationship the ability to plan and host sustainability related public engagement events, e.g., the "Living Sustainably Along the Lakeshore" lecture series (www.hope.edu/sustainability-institute).

Our Biology Department is also connected with the City of Holland through our Urban Tree Project Inventory Project (see innovation credits for more details).

A new project just launched is connecting with inclusion "“Our guiding objectives include celebrating diversity and cultivating unity,” said Dr. William Pannapacker, a professor of English who as senior director of Mellon programs at Hope wrote the grant proposal. “What does it mean to be home? How do we expand that vision? How do we educate our students and prepare them for lives of leadership and service in a changing local community? And how do we as a community address the challenges that prevent Holland from being even more inclusive, welcoming and oriented towards the flourishing of everyone? We anticipate projects focused on local challenges such as inclusion, housing, health care, environment, technology, infrastructure, education, incarceration, employment, social mobility, entrepreneurship, economic development and civic culture,” he said. “But the form that they take can involve nearly anything, as long as they weave together the needs of the community with our faculty and students and engage with the liberal arts mission of the college, especially including the humanities and arts.”
https://hope.edu/news/2020/academics/grant-funds-program-to-foster-college-community-partnerships-because-theres-no-place-like-home.html

An air quality research and education project is in its third year. It involves faculty, students, and staff from Hope College and area k-12 teachers and students to bring together real-time air quality data from around the community.

Students in course such as Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to do research and/or in-class projects on various aspects of the campus ecosystem, e.g. energy, transportation, waste, and water.

Refer to the tree project up above as well.

Our new buildings are designed to be more sustainable and while some of our historical buildings have been updated to save electricity and gas. For example, The Jack H. Miller Center Center for Musical Arts was completed with a LEED Silver certification and the Bultman Student Center currently under construction is aiming for LEED Gold.
The Director for the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute worked with the Director for Physical Plant, Student Life Office, a faculty member, and group of students to complete Department of Energy Home Energy Star Assessments on college owned cottages. Students living in these homes were encouraged to participate in the assessment and were also surveyed about their basic understanding about energy usage.
Hope College has also partnered with a group of colleges in the Great Lakes College Association on an Environmental Dashboard Project. The Environmental Dashboard (www.EnvironmentalDashboard.org), developed at Oberlin College, is a communication technology that combines real-time display of water and electricity use in buildings, organizations and whole communities with photographs and words contributed by community members that celebrate positive thought and action. Using electronic signs and websites, Environmental Dashboard employs compelling graphics to reconnect people with the natural world by making flows of resources visible and promoting sustainable behavior. For more, so to http://www.hope.edu/news/2015/02/11/glca-grant-partners-five-campuses-in-using-environmental-dashboard.html

Also, students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.

Our new buildings have been designed to be more sustainable and while historical buildings are updated to save more electricity and gas.
Lighting projects such as ones completed at the Dow Center are promoted and used as an educational example about the importance of energy conservation. For more go to http://www.hope.edu/news/2016/campus-life/lighting-replacement-in-devos-fieldhouse-a-bright-idea.html

Students in the Engineering Department have been working on a solar energy shed for charging our landscape equipment and electric golf carts. The has included sourcing products and working on the permits.

The Director for the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute worked with the Director for Physical Plant, Student Life Office, a faculty member, and group of students to complete Department of Energy Home Energy Star Assessments on college owned cottages. Students living in these homes were encouraged to participate in the assessment and were also surveyed about their basic understanding about energy usage.
Hope College also partnered with a group of colleges in the Great Lakes College Association on an Environmental Dashboard Project. The Environmental Dashboard (www.EnvironmentalDashboard.org), developed at Oberlin College, is a communication technology that combines real-time display of water and electricity use in buildings, organizations and whole communities with photographs and words contributed by community members that celebrate positive thought and action. Using electronic signs and websites, Environmental Dashboard employs compelling graphics to reconnect people with the natural world by making flows of resources visible and promoting sustainable behavior. For more, so to http://www.hope.edu/news/2015/02/11/glca-grant-partners-five-campuses-in-using-environmental-dashboard.html

Students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are encouraged to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.

Creative Dining Services, owned by Hope College, offers a wide variety of food options for students, faculty, and staff. This includes vegetarian and local food options. They created initiatives such as "totally-trayless," energy/water conservation practices, composting, herb garden, and supported the summer 2016 campus garden. By educating dining hall customers about these types of practices they demonstrates how easy it really is to eat more sustainably.

During the 2019-2020 acedmic year one of our student has been working with our Dining Services team on developing and implementing "Meatless Mondays." This is set to roll out in April.

Students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.

Students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.
Hope College received a certified environmental steward certificate through the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program. For more information visit http://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-1599-216431--,00.html and https://www.mtesp.org/
Students have been involved in permeable paver projects, inventorying trees across campus, water conversation strategies, and working with us on a GHG landscape project development.

While purchasing policies have changed in a more sustainable direction, we are not doing much on this topic by way of using the campus a living laboratory, but it is certainly something we are looking into. It is a potential topic for a student to work on this summer as part of a research project (it will be up to the student to select the project).

Students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about transportation alternatives around and the greater Holland area. In part because of this work, in the past 5 years we have reduced the total number of campus vehicles and purchased vehicles with higher fuel efficiency. Some summer research students have been working with a local bicycle group, Pedal Holland, to make our campus more bicycle friendly.

An English Department class in fall 2019 also had to research and share information about new technologies and one student worked on electric vehicles and another looked into our campus fleet.

Yes students from a variety of departments (biology, environmental science, communications, etc...) have been working on evaluating our waste infrastructure and education.

Students in courses like Earth and Ethics and some First Year Seminars are required to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.
Also, for the last 8 years faculty and students have been helping with research on our local watershed, the Macatawa River Watershed, as part of the 13 million dollar project called Project Clarity (http://www.macatawaclarity.org/).

Day 1 Research Project: Watershed is a year-long program that offers you the opportunity to engage in the efforts of our local community to improve the water quality of the greater Holland area and larger Lake Michigan ecological systems.
https://hope.edu/academics/day1/watershed.html

HAS interns - students in 2019 proposed a switch of the their focus from residential halls only to a broader impact. This created a switch in their reporting structure and they now report to the Director for the Office of Sustainability.

Students in the Race in America course are encouraged to research and connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative.

Students through the Center for Diversity and Inclusion also help to organize events for the entire campus and some for the greater Holland community.

In 2017 the City of Holland Human Relations Commission recognized the
Latino Student Organization
Hope Democrats
Hope United for Justice
with the 2017 Youth Social Justice Award on recognition of advocacy and awareness around the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Students in the Earth and Ethics course complete research projects and are required to connect with staff on campus to learn about this initiative. This has also been an initiative of the Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee (aka The Green Team).

We have also had students looking into divestment and also sustainable investment opportunities through our retirement program.

In the summer of 2018 a student had a research project to connect sustainability and health & well-being. She created a video that was created for our health dynamics courses.