Cal Poly Humboldt
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) 532 graduate seminar, entitled “Energy, Environment, and Society,” conducts greenhouse gas emissions inventories for the university. This course is taught by Professor Arne Jacobson. Student teams develop greenhouse gas inventories utilizing annual energy and fuel use data supplied by Facilities Management. The teams analyze results and develop recommendations to curb emissions. These reports are then submitted back to Facilities Management to be used for planning and tracking purposes.

In 2015 Facilities Management and Assistant Professor Kevin Fingerman were awarded a Campus as A Living Lab (CALL) grant from the California State University Chancellor’s Office to us the campus as a forum for the exploration of sustainability concepts and theories. Grant money was used for equipment purchases and to redesign a class (Environmental Studies 370) to teach students how to conduct whole building performance analyses akin to the Building Performance Institute (BPI) methodology. Houses located on campus (originally designed for single family occupancy but now used by university programs) are used to teach students whole building performance analysis techniques. The Energy Detective (TED) electricity monitors provide real-time energy use data to the class, which assists them in measuring the impact of efficiency measures.

The Building Energy Analysis course (Engineering 473), taught by Assistant Professor Peter Alstone, conducts whole building energy analyses and audits of campus buildings. The course works closely with Facilities Management to access meter data, measure specific loads (e.g., motors), model energy efficiency measures (e.g., using DOE 2 and other software), and better understand occupancy and how behaviors effect building utility use. Reports from this class are then submitted to Facilities Management.

Environmental Science Practicum (ENVS 410) is a course that utilizes campus sustainability issues as the context for student capstone experience in the Environmental Science major. The Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management, HSU Dining and other departments propose projects that will provide beneficial information for the campus. Students evaluate the feasibility of developing an educational garden on campus (Sustainable Food for Students: Organic Gardening for HSU), conduct lifecycle assessments of foods sold on campus and make recommendations for alternatives (e.g., HSU Organic Coffee Project), and the utilization of edible landscaping (Edible Landscaping and Permaculture Project at CCAT).

Students in Professor Harold Zald’s Forest Measurements and Biometry class (FOR 210) conduct a census of trees on the HSU campus. Trees are located using GPS, have their species identified, diameters and heights measured, and assessed for damage and age. These measurements are used to estimate how much carbon is stored in campus trees. Re-measurement is used to estimate carbon storage over time and to monitor trends in health of the campus forest. The results are reported back to HSU Grounds and the Office of Sustainability.

Engineering 308, taught by Lonny Grafman, evaluated the effects of to-go cup purchasing in collaboration with HSU Dining Services during the fall 2016. In Spring 2015, Dining services began selling hot drinks in mason jars to reduce single use disposable cup waste (if a customer does not have a personal reusable cup, Dining Services charges them and additional $1.00 to get coffee in a single use compostable cup. They only charge $0.75 to get coffee in a mason jar they supply). To evaluate effects of the mason jar incentive program, the ENGR 308 class formed student teams to analyze the sustainability impacts of Dining’s sale of re-usable mason jars. The group completed lifecycle assessment, waste, cost, GHG emissions and compared results to the impacts from single use compostable cups. The results were then provided to HSU Dining Services to inform their decision on whether or not to continue purchasing mason jars as a more sustainable alternative. Results from the study can be found at http://www.appropedia.org/HSU_mason_jar_comparisons.

Environmental Science Practicum (ENVS 410) is a course that utilizes campus sustainability issues as the context for student capstone experience in the Environmental Science major. The Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management propose projects that will provide beneficial information for the campus. Students evaluate HSU’s transportation and parking infrastructure, conduct assessments and feasibility studies for alternative transportation options, survey the campus population to better understand commuter behaviors, and make recommendations to limit transportation related GHG emissions. Projects include developing a carpool program, evaluating the campus through the Bicycle Friendly University certification, developing educational programs to encourage use of alternative transportation, and conducting a bike share feasibility study.

Environmental Science Practicum (ENVS 410) is a course that utilizes campus sustainability issues as the context for student capstone experience in the Environmental Science major. The Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management and other departments propose projects that will provide beneficial information for the campus. Student projects have included a feasibility study for transitioning to compostable to-go ware (Compostable Utensil Evaluation and Feasibility Report for Humboldt State University), waste audit with recommendations (Solid Waste Audit: Humboldt State University Residence Halls), and increasing electronics recycling (Electronic waste at Humboldt State University).

Environmental Science Practicum (ENVS 410) is a course that utilizes campus sustainability issues as the context for student capstone experience in the Environmental Science major. The Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management propose projects that will provide beneficial information for the campus. Student projects have included evaluating HSU’s storm-water runoff (Campus Stormwater Runoff Assessment), conducting water audits and recommend conservation measures (A Study of Water Conservation at Humboldt State University), and studying the feasibility of rainwater collection and re-use (Rainwater Catchment Proposal).

The Master of Business Administration in Strategic Sustainability includes a course entitled, “Strategic Sustainability Foundations.” Students take on HSU as a client to draft a Sustainability Report, designed to communicate HSU’s sustainability planning, performance and impacts. Students meet with the Office of Sustainability, HSU President, and other departments, analyze and chart historical utility and purchasing data, write narrative and compile into a report. The report is submitted to the Office of Sustainability and HSU Marketing & Communications for final review and addition of aesthetic elements before being published.

Courses in Social Work (e.g., SW 255, SW 355, SW 455, and SW 649 Wellness & Sustainability) involve active participation of students in addressing food insecurity on campus. Students participating in these courses study emerging patterns at Humboldt State, which suggest that 53% of HSU students sacrifice nutrition and/or skip meals because they don’t have enough money for food. Students then demonstrate and practice theory discussed in class by utilizing the Oh SNAP! food pantry on campus as an in vivo social laboratory. Through the food pantry students learn about and participate in food distribution, identify and test solutions to food insecurity and measure the impact of food insecurity on academic, behavioral, physical, emotional, social and spiritual development. Professor Jennifer Maguire teaches courses in this program and has been the Principal Investigator for the HSU Food Security Project. She is also co-facilitator of the Oh SNAP! Campus Food Pantry.

In Environmental Management and Protection (EMP) 353, also known as Environmental Education and Interpretive Graphics, the Office of Sustainability works with student teams to develop interpretive signs for the campus. The intent of these signs is to generate awareness and participation in the campus’ sustainability programs. Through this process the class learns about waste reduction, climate protection while applying interpretive design techniques taught in the class. Signs are then mounted (in many cases permanently) across campus.
EMP 309 (Environmental Communication) works with the Office of Sustainability and other campus groups to develop PSAs, radio spots, and articles about campus sustainability efforts. Students research the sustainability program (for example, the campus composting program), and then gain marketing development skills utilizing that sustainability program as the context.

University Police officers are research subjects for Professor of Kinesiology and Human Performance Lab Director Young Sub Kwon and his team of student assistants. Their goal is to identify methods for better managing the physical and emotional demands of first responder’s jobs. Using equipment to measure everything from cardiovascular endurance to flexibility, the researchers get a detailed picture of subjects’ level of physical health so they can develop tailored fitness programs for each first responder.

The Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT), located on the HSU campus, hosts for-credit classes on green building, herbalism, organic gardening, urban homesteading and others. The CCAT house itself incorporates green building and appropriate technology attributes and is thus used as a centerpiece for instruction. Green building courses build structures on the CCAT grounds. Gardening and herbalism courses use the gardens at CCAT for instruction.

Go to this link to see Campus as a Living Lab projects completed by the ENVS 482 and Sustainable Campus courses: http://www.humboldt.edu/sustainability/projects.
Go to this link to see the work done by Engineering 308 on an analysis of HSU Dining selling mason jars as drink containers: http://www.appropedia.org/HSU_mason_jar_analysis. Go to this link to learn more about CCAT sustainable living courses: http://www2.humboldt.edu/extended/special/ccat.html.