Michigan State University
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

MSU provides life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community and pushes the boundaries of discovery to solve the most pressing global challenges.

The university has made progress in incorporating sustainability and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a variety of formal education and co-curricular approaches. This comprehensive approach ensures that all Spartans gain an awareness and understanding of the principles of sustainability as a part of their Spartan Experience and have the opportunity for more intense experiential learning and engagement as well. All undergraduate students are exposed to sustainability principles through Integrated Studies courses and any undergraduate student may elect to minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies through the College of Natural Science. MSU’s commitment to sustainability in teaching and learning is also reflected by the number of sustainability-focused majors, minors and certificate programs available for both undergraduate and graduate students. Flagship sustainability degree programs include Environmental Studies and Sustainability (BS) and Community Sustainability (MS, PhD), along with 20 other undergraduate degree programs, 21 master’s degree programs and 16 doctoral programs focused in sustainability or sustainability challenges. Undergraduate and graduate students can further enrich their studies by taking advantage of over 800 sustainability course offerings across 75 academic departments.

MSU has also made significant strides to facilitate experiential learning opportunities for students, often leveraging the university’s expansive infrastructure as a living learning laboratory. The living-learning Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) program gives roughly 60 students each year the chance to live in the LEED certified Bailey Hall and partner with campus operations to improve sustainability practices and processes. Across the university, nearly 37,000 students participated in community-engaged learning projects both in and outside of the classroom. The Center for Community Engaged Learning, which tracks these opportunities, is now organizing all community-engaged learning efforts around the SDGs. Through My Spartan Story, the university is also formally recognizing the learning outcomes associated with co-curricular experiences of undergraduate students.

MSU faculty continue to explore ways to further integrate sustainability and the SDGs in the broader curriculum. This is exemplified by the Office of Study Abroad which is aligning all of its courses with the SDGs and has conducted trainings for faculty members on best practices for embedding the SDGs into courses. Within Integrated Studies, multiple faculty development efforts are ongoing to incorporate global and social justice topics into the classroom dialogue. This includes instructors within integrative studies in the biological sciences (ISB) working to embed the SDGs for their ISB courses and helping organize a teach-in on this topic for other faculty. MSU is also a founding member of the Global Challenges University Alliance 2030, which offers a global learning forum to provide professional development, networking and resources for PhD students and young researchers. The Office of Sustainability has promoted the increased number and successes of MSU's academic innovation centers that address elements of sustainability through campaigns such as SDG Week, World Environment Day, and Earth Month.

Our current STARS report shows that over 500 tenure-track faculty members that have conducted research in sustainability or sustainability challenges, often through interdisciplinary teams that are working diligently and in collaboration with communities around the world to solve global problems. The university is home to internationally recognized leading sustainability scholars such as Dr. Jack Liu, who received the World Sustainability Award from the MDPI Sustainability Foundation and the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science from The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters for his teaching, service and scholarly contributions in sustainability. For MSU’s research, education and outreach in agriculture, food systems, and food security, MSU was also ranked number 4 in the world for addressing SDG 2: Zero Hunger through the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings on Earth Day 2021.

MSU continues to build upon these successes, with sustainability firmly rooted in the university’s strategic plan, which will guide institution for the next decade. The strategic plan positions the university to be a leader in developing transdisciplinary solutions to ecological and human problems affected by social, economic, political, climate and environmental changes. This includes increasing interdisciplinary research in global grand challenges priority areas such as food security, climate change, and health equity while subsequently extending knowledge and resources to individuals, communities, and businesses locally, regionally and globally. It also supports implementing sustainable actions that leverage the university’s expansive infrastructure as a living learning laboratory for teaching and research. This includes engaging students and researchers in enhancing the stewardship of our resources through green building design and maintenance, using principles of sustainable and regenerative agricultural across our farmland, and increasing sustainably sourced purchases and the amount of campus-grown and locally sourced food. The strategic plan also focuses on sustainable health, identifying actions that will enhance quality of life for people everywhere by comprehensively leveraging expertise and research activity to improve health and the systems that affect health.

Since the founding of MSU in 1855, Spartans have nurtured and cultivated the campus arboretum. This stewardship was emphasized by Professor William J. Beal who increased the diversity of the campus trees to support teaching, research, and outreach demonstrations encouraging the citizens of Michigan to plant more trees. Today, as a certified Tree Campus Higher Education institution with over 20,000 trees in MSU’s campus arboretum, this legacy of stewardship continues.

Today, any tree at MSU begins its story at the Beaumont Nursery, just south of MSU’s main campus. Trees are propagated through seeds and cuttings, and even trees that are purchased off-site are raised at the nursery until they are the desired size for planting. Through the MSU Heritage Tree Program, anyone can purchase a tree grown from seeds of historic campus trees. MSU’s dedicated Landscape Services crews and campus arborists care for campus trees throughout the year. In addition, students and researchers use the campus arboretum for teaching and research purposes. For example, every year students in the Forestry Department conduct tree measurements. At the end of a tree’s life, trees are carefully removed and repurposed into mulch or handmade collectibles through the MSU Shadows, a joint program of IPF and MSU’s Forestry Department. MSU Shadows not only helps reduce the waste stream, but also provides a means to sequester carbon. A student research project found that by repurposing the trees and keeping carbon sequestered, MSU Shadows reduced carbon emissions by 50.15 metric tons over a two year period. To complete the cycle, MSU has established a comprehensive tree replacement policy that requires a one-to-one replacement as a means of preserving the tree canopy. Roughly 300 trees are removed from campus each year, and despite the challenges of the pandemic, IPF Landscape Services was successful in planting over 300 trees in 2020.

Beyond contributing to a sustainable and resilient campus, trees play an important role in the culture of MSU. The trees of MSU contribute to the unique sense of place that Spartans experience on the East Lansing campus. The university is finding new ways to explore and celebrate this legacy, including designating Spring 2021 as the Semester of the Trees, which culminated in the inaugural Spartan Arbor Day 5K to support and raise awareness of the campus arboretum.

MSU has taken a 360 approach to investing in sustainable transportation and mobility solutions while using the campus as a testbed for innovation, research and teaching. We take a multimobility approach to transportation that encompasses connected, automated vehicles, bicycles, scooters, pedestrians and smart infrastructure, operating within a diverse campus validation environment.

For its efforts to enable safe, accessible bicycling, the university was recognized as one of 15 actively certified Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Universities in spring 2021. MSU has made substantial improvements to bicycling infrastructure, such as finishing the first east-west Complete Street along Wilson Rd and installing a pilot protected bike lane on Bogue St, a key campus border road. The MSU Bikes Service Center also plays a critical role in educating and encouraging the Spartan community to engage in safe and sustainable transportation.

MSU has made other significant investments to further encourage the use of sustainable transportation options. The university began offering free bus fare for campus routes in partnership with the Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) in 2018, which resulted in an increase in ridership of 40%. Based on this success, MSU has continued to support free fare rides in partnership with CATA. In addition, MSU introduced e-scooters to campus in 2019, an important micro-mobility solution. MSU also expanded the number the number of EV charging stations to 13 locations, offering free charging for users, until a car is fully charged. Additional improvements to sustainable transportation at MSU are discussed by the All University Traffic and Transportation Committee which provides annual recommendations to the Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police.

The university has undertaken steps to better understand how thousands of people traverse the campus each day. MSU has installed permanent counting equipment at all campus signalized intersections for the first time, which will enable better tracking of pedestrian, bicyclists, and motorists on campus. In addition, the university conducted the Spartans Sociomobility Centennial Survey in spring 2019, which was distributed to the entire campus community. The survey collected data to better understand the travel behaviors of Spartans and perceptions related to autonomous vehicles. Results from the survey indicated that over 77% of students and 18% of employees use sustainable modes of transportation for their daily commuting. Research in this area continues through MSU Mobility, a community of roughly 40 faculty engaged in interdisciplinary mobility research and technology development related to sustainable transportation. An area of focus is sociomobility, which brings together social and engineering sciences to understand the human behavior side of transportation innovation such autonomous vehicles. The College of Engineering is also a host site for a Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) in Sociomobility.