Missouri State University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Campus Garden is operated by students. They give tours of the garden and train student volunteers on best gardening practices. The produce is donated to the campus food pantry and local non-profits.

The Live Life Green student green team for Residence Life performs annual tours of the campus energy plant. The tours are guided by the campus Utilities Manager and designed to inform students on how energy is provided across campus and how they can help reduce consumption.

Dining partners with res life each year to put on a food waste display to educate the campus about food waste and how everyone can do their part to reduce food waste.

Student interns operate the hydroponic grow room for dining services. They host tours for several campus classes and local high schools to teach them about hydroponic and local growing methods that conserve water and other resources.

The Grounds Dept. and Forestry Club give regular tours of campus trees and plants for public groups to educate on biodiversity and native pants on campus.
https://missouristateuniversity.mytreekeeper.com/. The mytreekeeper site is incorporated into various classes.

In addition, the campus garden in located next to residential neighborhood. The student campus garden leaders and administration regularly engage with the community on plans to expand the garden. In 2020, the group approved the construction of a garden shed that will be installed in 2021.

A student intern worked with the Sustainability and Facilities departments to review, select, and administer a proper Greenhouse Gas Inventory program for measuring the campus GHG levels. The GHG inventory tool selected was SIMAP. MSU now subscribes to the program in order to support ongoing bench marking and performance metrics.

Our Construction Management program incorporates the campus energy plant into courses on HVAC systems. The program has also constructed rooms in Kemper Hall with different HVAC systems for students to evaluate and do research.

Planning, Design & Construction discusses how they utilize LEED components into new building construction and renovation projects on campus through presentation to faculty and staff like the University Staff Ambassadors program. https://www.missouristate.edu/USA/

The recreation center is a LEED Silver facility and uses signs and a walking tour inside the facility to highlight waste reduction and energy efficiency components as a way to educate students, faculty, staff and other visitors. https://www.missouristate.edu/recreation/sustainability.htm

Students developed project proposals that were funded and implemented through the Student Sustainability Fund to reduce energy consumption. Projects included LED lighting retrofits for parking lots.

Students in the College of Agriculture intern with Chartwells, our dining services vendor, in the ZipGrow Towers Grow Room using aeroponics and hydroponics. It gives students the opportunity to gain real world knowledge and experience with this innovative, sustainable technology.

Student Campus Garden leaders developed a proposal to build a garden shed using the Student Sustainability Fund in order to further improve gardening practices, support growth of the garden project and support student education. The project was funded and construction began in 2020.

In 2020, MSU dining services rolled out a new Fair Trade commitment.This support looks like co-ops formed between the micro farms and ensure living wages are offered. It also includes supporting small, female-owned businesses in these countries and ensuring equal opportunity and pay. Chartwells hopes to reduce economic disparity for everyone involved in global food production.
The fair trade agreement also increases options for micro loans for these farmers to develop the economy and help businesses grow. This growth will improve living conditions for communities surrounding micro farms as well.
Chartwells understands that micro farms have little to no negotiating power, so they use their platform to support equal pay for all.
For students, there is no increase in cost. Products are available across campus and support these micro farms when purchased. As far as Sustainable Development Goals go, this fair trade initiative is a great example of the overlap that occurs in sustainable development. This agreement satisfies the goals of economic growth, reduced inequalities, gender equality, sustainable cities, and responsible consumption.

MSU has developed a My Tree Keeper web page that shows campus trees and environmental benefits. This site is used by MSU students and the general community during campus tree tours. https://missouristateuniversity.mytreekeeper.com/
The Forestry program at MSU is also working with the Grounds Dept. to develop a seed bank for Chinkapins on campus.

A campus waste audit project was approved to performed a campus waste audit to classify waste and identify opportunities for further recycling and waste reduction. Although the "hands-on" audit has been postponed until Spring 2021 due to Covid-19, students have been engaged in the project as part of the new Waste Management Team and participated in preliminary work including; contracted waste services reviews, discussions on current waste and recycling receptacle locations and types on campus, and awareness and education opportunities.

A transportation committee was created to evaluate improvement opportunities that include ride sharing incentive options, use of electric scooters on campus, and evaluation of campus vehicles to plan for future opportunities to purchase additional alternative fuel, or fuel efficient campus vehicles. The committee is made up of faculty, staff, and students.

In addition, students developed a proposal to replace the student bike rental program with a bike share program. This new program will partner with an outside vendor to install bikes and racks on campus. The City of Springfield is also planning to work with the same vendor to install bike stations in downtown Springfield. The proposal was approved for funding. However, delivery of equipment has been delayed due to Covid.

The university also started a new bike share program on campus.

Students submitted a proposal for a campus waste audit and development of an Integrated Waste Management Plan to work toward zero waste. The project began in 2019 and includes waste audits of over 15 campus buildings. Students, faculty and staff will participated in the audit. The physical audit has been postponed until spring 2021 due to Covid-19. However, students have been engaged in the preliminary work.

Dining services conducts food waste assessments each year, with student and staff volunteers, to educate students on amount of waste generated in dining halls and opportunities for reduction.

Each year students from the Green Student Alliance, Live Life Green, Bears for Sustainability, and Student Government Association coordinate an "Ecopalooza" event on campus. This event usually is on or around Earth Day. The event includes presentations from campus faculty, or student groups, and local community organizations that relate to sustainability. In 2019, the event included presentations on local air quality, conservation discussions from Dickerson Park Zoo, and various sustainability-focused student research projects. The students also coordinate local vendors and entertainment for students. In 2019, vendors included local and sustainable crafts, plant give-away's from the MSU Agriculture program, and a pet adoption event from the Humane Society. Educational sessions also highlighted and discussed student research projects that addressed sustainability.

Students also participate eon each of the Sustainability subcommittees (Academics, Engagement, Operations and Planning & Administration). By participating on these committees, students contribute to project/program and policy development.
The student sustainability fund is chaired by a student. All projects must be student developed and presented for approval. Members include:
1. One student who shall serve as Chief Sustainability Commissioner
2. Six students at-large
• No more than two of whom shall be from the same academic college
• One shall serve as Vice Commissioner
• One shall serve as Administrative Coordinator
3. The Vice President of Administrative Services (or appointee)
4. The University Architect and/or Campus Planner (or appointee)
5. Vice President of Student Affairs (or appointee)
6. Director of Facilities (or appointee)

The non-student members of the Sustainability Commission listed above shall have voting rights. Other non-student faculty and staff members may attend meetings, but they will stand as ex-officio members with no vote.https://www.missouristate.edu/Sustainability/student-sustainability-fund.htm

In the 2018-2019 academic year, a graduate assistant collected data about the University's women's soccer team and discrimination they encounter.

In the 2019-2020 academic year, a different graduate assistant collected diversity related data with presenting vignettes with similar scenarios but different actors representing different races to students on campus to collect data to determine bias.

In the Spring 2019 semester, Missouri State University administered the 29-question Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Diversity and Equity Climate Survey. This survey was administered to students, faculty, staff, and administrators.

The new passport program was used during the health and wellness week. Students who participated in any of the activities during the week could pick up a passport, complete the dimensions of wellness on the card, and turn it in at the end of the week to be entered in for prize drawings. The passport had the eight dimensions of wellness listed and students needed to visit 4 out of the 8 in order to be entered into the prize drawings. Environmental Wellness was one of the dimensions students could visit and gain more knowledge. These environmental areas included Missouri State Sustainability Project and had the website missouristate.edu/sustainability for students to visit and learn more on how they can help the environment at Missouri State.

Theta Chi fraternity and GEP courses participated in the Ask Listen Refer suicide training program. https://blogs.missouristate.edu/health/2020/06/01/ask-listen-refer-suicide-prevention-training-program/

The Masters Degree in Health Promotion and Awareness utilizes the campus Wellness program for implementation examples and internships. Also, several Dietetics courses integrate the campus Wellness program including student-led cooking demonstrations, student led educational seminars and food service planning.

Students can also participate in Cooking Talks and Nutrition Talk events through the Wellness program where they coordinate, facilitate and present materials.