Indiana University Bloomington
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Several projects in the Office of Sustainability's internship program use the campus as a lab, where students use applied behavioral science to encourage sustainable behavior. All of our interns develop and utilize both print and electronic outreach materials to engage and promote various events throughout campus.

The Environmental Resilience Institute's McKinney Climate Fellows (MCF) advance sustainability in communities across Indiana. MCF connects undergraduate and graduate students interested in climate, sustainability, and community resilience with career experiences. The program partners with Indiana-based private, public, and nonprofit organizations to host student fellows and provide solutions-based sustainability expertise. Climate fellows gain valuable experience working full-time in a professional setting; partners receive assistance in sustainability and climate planning from talented students; and Indiana benefits from this critical sustainability work. More: https://eri.iu.edu/climate-project/climate-fellows/index.html

IUB's undergraduate research program in sustainability (Sustainability Scholars), class groups, as well as our engagement, communications and marketing, and campus farm interns have also worked with the wider campus and Bloomington community.

Office of Sustainability Interns are engaged in work related to greenhouse gas emissions, facility operations, tree inventories, along with carbon footprint segments related to the university.

Office of Sustainability interns are instrumental in Real Food programs such as:
-Re-starting the Real Food Challenge tracking with IU Dining post-COVID
-2 tabling events on Real Food and products available to students
-Engagement with the student community through Real Food postcards, posters, and Real Food Week social media campaign via Instagram stories

An Office of Sustainability intern works to connect the campus with the needs of IU Landscape Services, which works to maintain and enhance the beauty and function of the Bloomington campus landscape. The intern is expected to assist in the coordination of campus tree inventories including supporting the analysis, evaluation, and preparation of reports from GIS data from IUB and IU's 5 regional campuses. The student also has the opportunity to carry forward IU's efforts to contain non-native invasive plant species and reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides in campus management. Opportunities to coordinate tree plantings and invasive removal events for Earth Month and campus service days are also available. This requires planning, marketing, and recruiting volunteers for service learning experiences.

Sustainable Food Systems Interns, working with campus dining partners, plays a critical role in strengthening sustainable, healthy, and ethically-sound food system initiatives across IU campus food service operations. This extends to supporting IU’s procurement evaluation, sourcing strategy, and vendor relationship initiatives. Interns have opportunities to inform IU community members on sustainable dining practices and both inform decision-making and implement changes towards sustainable food system best practices at Indiana University.

In FY22, the Sustainable Food Systems Intern was instrumental in engaging with dining partners to improve the availability of Real Food served on campus and investigating challenges that may impair additional adoption of Real Food.

Sustainable Transportation Interns, working with campus transportation demand management (TDM), parking, bus, and fleet partners, play a critical role in strengthening sustainable, safe, and accessible transportation system initiatives across IU. Interns support ongoing and new campus data tracking, evaluate changes in commuting / fleet data, and contribute to campus sustainability reporting. This may extend to engaging with Bike Friendly University requirements, inventorying campus infrastructure, vehicle usage, parking patterns, and other relevant areas. Students also showcase and increase awareness of active transportation resources, bike & pedestrian safety, and commuter programs to the university community. This includes campus engagement across major events / breaks, parking, campus bus, intercampus travel, and/or web resources. Interns have opportunities to inform IU community members on sustainable practices and both inform decision making and implement changes towards sustainable transportation system best practices at Indiana University.

In FY22, the Sustainable Transportation Intern worked with the City of Bloomington to promote an “E-Bike Curious Showcase” event to the IU community, supported CALSTART fleet certification efforts in partnership with IU Fleet Services staff, and developed efficient driver training pilot program resources for distribution across university approved drivers.

The Sustainable Waste Management Intern assists with waste reduction and diversion efforts, including launching and coordinating programs, developing education and outreach campaigns, data analysis and tracking. This individual focuses on improving waste diversion infrastructure across IU campuses which includes inventorying and updating waste bins, signage, implementing composting in dining halls, and other waste-related initiatives.

In FY22, the Sustainable Waste Management Intern was instrumental in completing an update to waste bin signage that clearly articulated to users which items were appropriate for recycling, compost, and landfill bins around campus.

Students are involved in all aspects of sustainability at Indiana University. The Campus Sustainability Advisory Board has several student representatives, who often are working with a large, broad advisory body for the first time. Our Sustainability Working Groups, although mostly comprised of faculty and staff, are organized and run by student interns.

Students also participate in newer initiatives related to "statewide sustainability" - the effort to bring people together and begin collaborative conversations around sustainability at all of the IU system's regional campuses.

MoneySmarts U—Indiana University's financial education platform that can teach you what you need to know about money, when you need to know it. MoneySmarts U is a financial education platform created by Indiana University and financial wellness expert Peter Dunn (aka Pete the Planner®). Our goal is not to have you just be able to define new financial terms but instead help you understand the ins and outs of personal finance to guide you toward making informed financial decisions. The IU Money Smarts Team are IU student Peer Educators led by the IU Office of Financial Literacy. Here are some of the financial topics they can help you with: Budgeting and saving money, Managing credit cards, Handling student debt, Building and establishing credit, Dealing with identity theft, Tackling student loan repayment, and Preparing for graduation.

Since the inception of IU Money Smarts, there has been a $126.4 Million reduction in student borrowing since 2011 and a 19% Decrease in Student Borrowing across all IU campuses.
https://moneysmarts.iu.edu/index.html

The Office of Sustainability interns are expected to search and apply for external funding opportunities both for project implementation and career development opportunities. Funding opportunities could be internal to the university or available via entities outside the university.

Healthy IU employs several graduate students who are actively engaged in campus research surrounding active transportation and employee incentives for health programs.

Healthy IU employees are consistent contributors to the Office of Sustainability's transportation efforts and help guide the work of our transportation intern.

Various well-being and health fairs and public health-focused class/research work are also common on campus through respective campus units (IU Health, Healthy IU, EHS, EAP, etc) and schools (IU School of Public Health, IU School of Medicine).