| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 57.65 |
| Liaison | Michelle Seppala Gibbs |
| Submission Date | March 6, 2020 |
Hope College
IN-47: Innovation A
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 0.50 |
Michelle
Gibbs Director Office of Sustainability |
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Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Urban Tree Canopy Research Project
A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:
During the summers of 2018 and 2019 (and upcoming 2020), an eclectic group of administrators, GIS staff, faculty, and students formed a partnership between Hope College and the City of Holland, MI in order to better understand the benefits of urban trees and to engage the public.
Student researchers, under the guidance of Hope College biology department faculty members Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray and Dr. Greg Murray, inventoried trees on city property and Hope’s campus, and with the help of city GIS staff incorporated them into a common GIS database. Utilizing USDA’s iTree software, they estimated benefits derived from their influence on carbon sequestration, hydrology, air pollution reduction, and energy savings. At the same time, a faculty member and students in Hope’s computer science department developed apps with which anyone could approach a city or campus tree and retrieve all of these data. In the future, citizens will be able to upload their own data into the city database, even from trees on their own property.
This has then led to the development of the Energy Saving Trees Project and the conversations around developing a Tree Heritage Project.
https://blogs.hope.edu/sustainability-institute/smart-energy/living-sustainably-tree-benefits-branch-far-out/
https://blogs.hope.edu/sustainability-institute/smart-energy/living-sustainably-free-trees-can-help-cut-energy-use/
https://blogs.hope.edu/stories-of-hope/natural-and-applied-sciences/for-the-love-of-trees/
All of these articles have also been in our local newspaper the Holland Sentinel as part of the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute's weekly column "Living Sustainably."
Student researchers, under the guidance of Hope College biology department faculty members Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray and Dr. Greg Murray, inventoried trees on city property and Hope’s campus, and with the help of city GIS staff incorporated them into a common GIS database. Utilizing USDA’s iTree software, they estimated benefits derived from their influence on carbon sequestration, hydrology, air pollution reduction, and energy savings. At the same time, a faculty member and students in Hope’s computer science department developed apps with which anyone could approach a city or campus tree and retrieve all of these data. In the future, citizens will be able to upload their own data into the city database, even from trees on their own property.
This has then led to the development of the Energy Saving Trees Project and the conversations around developing a Tree Heritage Project.
https://blogs.hope.edu/sustainability-institute/smart-energy/living-sustainably-tree-benefits-branch-far-out/
https://blogs.hope.edu/sustainability-institute/smart-energy/living-sustainably-free-trees-can-help-cut-energy-use/
https://blogs.hope.edu/stories-of-hope/natural-and-applied-sciences/for-the-love-of-trees/
All of these articles have also been in our local newspaper the Holland Sentinel as part of the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute's weekly column "Living Sustainably."
Optional Fields
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The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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