National Tsing Hua University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

NTHU has been promoting campus as a living laboratory concept and practice. In Tsing Hua College, an entity to champion common and experimental education, a residential college system was established in 2008 to host students from different disciplines to experience social engagement programs to develop their interdisciplinary leadership. Among various programs, some programs are highly engaged with campus sustainability. For example,
1. “Students are Doing Good Society” activity performed in October, 2020 to nominate student teams which had been devoting efforts on sustainability related issues and achieving a certain level of impact for award competition. In total, 25 teams were awarded in the Sustainability Week (https://sdgs.nthu.edu.tw/our-response/collections?execution=student_activity).
2. Hackathon for reusable dining ware promotion was held in 2020 for students from different disciplines to form teams to go through a design thinking process to innovate ideas and create business models for promoting the use of non-disposable dining ware in campus. The competition followed after the design thinking workshop. This two-day event obtained sponsorship from a startup company to award winners from the competition. This event was organized by the sustainability promotion team in the residential academy. The team continues developing campaign to engage students for sustainable campus life (https://www.facebook.com/清松用餐厚永食具-消滅一次性餐具提案競賽-102913634932281/)

NTHU extends sustainability awareness and execution through public engagement. In October, 2020, NTHU held Sustainability Week to engage the university and communities including different universities, industries and NGOs. The exhibition of SDGs achievement updating the progress of university sustainability in research, teaching, campus life and students’ initiatives was held in the atrium of the library to attract the public. In the exhibition, students’ good sustainability practices and their research posts were displayed and evaluated at the end of the exhibition for awards. In the week, a one day forum was held to invite speakers from different key universities which had been doing good in sustainability in research, teaching, and campus management to share their experiences with which the progressive updates of NTHU good practice in sustainability were also shared by responsible administrators. Companies recognized by the society in good practice in ESGs were invited to share their practice, such that faculty and students got the opportunities to engage with industries besides updating the good practice of sustainability done by business.
3. “Bamboo Dragonfly Green market” was formed in 2008 when the high-tech industries in Taiwan were affected by the global recession. Many people in high-tech industries rethought their life goals and gradually found alternative ways to achieve their self-fulfillment. This green market was launched by many young farmers who decided to devote their careers to friendly farming and realized the goal of “from local farms to local dining tables.” Since 2008, this green market has been held on the first and third Saturdays each month in the NTHU campus. It also engages local communities to promote sustainability with many good practices, such as no plastic bags offered with shopping, hands-on workshops for agriculture and food education, and mini-talks to enhance public awareness of sustainability. (https://www.facebook.com/gmart2010.11)

NTHU is located in an ecologically friendly area of Hsinchu City. The campus is adjacent to a city natural park. The campus ground is planted with trees and lawns that circulate clean air and significantly lower the temperature. Besides, to further practice concepts and execution of handling extreme climate changes, a green roof team established in the residential colleges has been practicing farming and gardening on the roof of a building on campus. Recently, the green roof project will be extended to the other building where the gardening and farming zones connect with solar panel for power generation. Several sustainability activities could be held to engage people within and outside the campus to participate in the green roof+ campaign.（https://www.facebook.com/NTHU.GREEN.ROOF/）

NTHU has been bringing maker’s spirit into the residential colleges since it was established in 2008. The basic tools and machines for gardening, woods, metals, etc. are equipped for students to hands on and create spaces and artifacts. Recently, theZhi-Hill project was launched to revitalize two empty spaces in the forest adjacent to the dormitory area to set up T-house for social gathering and BTB+ workshop for makers. These spaces will be used for holding wood works, cooking lessons, and coffee and tea making courses. Besides, the surrounding environment is also the field for students to learn ecological sustainability and practice the integration of landscape for better sustainable architecture.（https://www.facebook.com/nthujhill/）

The roof of the Education Building where Tsing Hua College is located has been used for students to hands-on sustainability practice. A set of photovoltaic power generation systems was set up for student teams to practice. One of the goals for this facility is to equip students’ abilities to set up the photovoltaic systems for rural regions as they serve as international volunteers. The generated power is used for the green roof project for watering plants and lighting.
Moreover, the residential colleges host student groups working on renewable energy-related projects which connect with students’ academic curricula and focus on hands-on practice to real-world problem solving. （https://www.facebook.com/groups/nthurctzaiwu）

In the program of industrial innovation and career exploration hosted by residential academy, one sustainable agriculture team has been working on ecologically friendly farming practices by using the surrounding land adjacent to J-Hill. (https://www.facebook.com/nthujhill/)
The Program of Urban-Rural Revitalization hosted by Tsing Hua College composes courses and projects for students to engage with local city and countryside to develop knowledge and practical abilities for sustainability. One of the required courses, called “Local exploration and field practice—countryside” has been bringing students to reach out to local farmers and explore farming and sales channels for products. One of the activities is for students to set up a market to bring local products to the campus to connect students’ campus needs with local supplies.
(http://curricul.site.nthu.edu.tw/p/406-1208-157526,r1211.php?Lang=zh-tw)
One course called “social innovation and fit technology” offered for students in residential colleges to integrate innovative technologies for social wellbeing. For example, a student team called “Hsinchu Bear” aims to use the ingredients locally to brew Hsinchu Beer, by which students are able to engage local culture, food education, and marketing into their practices.

NTHU is surrounded by a city nature park and the campus was planted with trees and lawns, by which NTHU is by nature an ecologically friendly land. Built upon this natural environment, there are specific sites on campus demonstrating the engagement of land use for sustainability.
1. Butterfly Garden (http://belc-butterfly.vm.nthu.edu.tw). Taiwan was renowned for its abundance and variety of butterfly before Taiwan’s industrialization. Due to the environmental changes, the habitats for various species of butterfly have been grammatically shrunk. The Butterfly Garden located nearby Humanity and Social Science Building preserves the environment and plants for butterfly habitat. It has become a well-known environmental education site for NTHU and also many institutes and communities.
2. Hundred Fern Garden (https://www.nthu.edu.tw/hotNews/content/1002) located nearby the university library. Besides preserving species of fern in Taiwan, which has been one of the most popular regions for fern in the world, Prof. Chia-wei Li from the College of Life Science and Medicine, preserves many precious species around the world and plants them in this site. People can visit the site and guided tours could be scheduled to engage people to know in depth sustainability.
3. Formosa Sika Deer Park, which is under planning to restore the living environment for Taiwan’s origin of deer which was endangered by losing their habitats in Taiwan. Before Han people settled down three hundred years ago, this site where the campus is located was the living environment for Formosa sika deer. By restoring the living environment for the deer and raising their population, it will engage with the public to pay attention to ecological sustainability.

In NTHU, there are several touch points for employees and students to practice green purchase. For example,
1. All shoppers on campus cannot dine in with disposable dining ware, including containers, chopsticks, and straw. For to-go, no plastic bags and straws are offered by food stands or stores.
2. All foods provided in campus are required to fulfill the three certifications and the source information is traceable through QRcode, so that diners are aware of safety sources of foods, which drive the friendly farming and animal husbandry in agriculture.
3. In College of Engineering, students can learn the updated technologies in network and blockchain which can be used for tracking the food chain from farms to dining tables. For example, students in the high speed network laboratory built a blockchain-based production and marketing platform from the place of production all the way to the dining table. The resulting service can collect the environmental microclimate and sensor data of the place of production, and attach the QRcode with blockchain traceability function to the high-quality produced during shipment. When customers make the purchase, they can scan the QRcode on the package using the APP. Through it, they can browse the web page to obtain relevant traceability information and planting conditions (including visualized field planting data, crop harvesting, packaging, transportation and other related data) , enhancing consumers' trust in the products and their willingness to buy.

In moving in campus and between the campus and cities, people can rent a U-bike setup by Hsinchu City Government in many locations in campus and Hsinchu City, and pay in hour by Easycard that is commonly used for Metros in many cities in Taiwan. Thus, people can ride U-bike in campus or commute between the city and the campus. The alternative regular transportation service is the free campus bus within the main campus and between the main campus and Nanda campus. One city bus line goes through the campus for people to easily connect to the city. Students have been working on apps and line apps that serve people to make the best of use of these services. Additionally, a student team has been promoting sustainable campus moving by offering T-bikes free renting service that a student can rent a bike for the whole semester for free, and the T-BIKE team takes care of repair and maintenance. The T-bikes are reused from the disposed bikes each year when students graduate and leave their bikes on campus. After collecting these disposed bikes, the T-BIKE team forms the repair task force to repair and rejuvenate these used bikes for service. (https://www.facebook.com/TsingBIKE/)

There have been several routine endeavors for students to engage in regenerating value from recycled goods. For example,
1. T-BIKE as a service-learning project for students to repair the disposed bikes in campus and rejuvenate them for free rental service.
2. In College of Arts, professor Ming-twen Shiau developed a set of techniques for people to reshape the disposed glass such as window glass and bottles into artistic and functional appliances, such as coffee filters without filter paper, etc. besides artworks. Students take these skills to start up services for the general public to recycle their bottles from which to regenerate value.
3. In Tsing Hua College, two worm boxes are set up to turn leaves from vegetables and trees to fertilizer for plants which sustain the outdoor gardens for the college.

In Taiwan, under subtropical weather, trees and lawns on campus can benefit from rainwater directly, and the lakes connected through creeks provide water for additional watering. Rainwater is also collected for irrigation on green roof gardens, in which the Green Roof team in residential colleges designed and implemented the system. They will extend their green roof project to the Education Building, where the solar panel facility will generate electrical power for watering and lighting. These practices will equip students with sustainability skills to make the best use of water.

There are many opportunities for students to learn coordination and planning in NTHU as long as they engage with activities and campaigns for sustainability. For example,
1. In October, 2020, NTHU held the Sustainability WEEK. In this week, there are several students’ initiatives in sustainability including research projects and social practices. In order to raise students’ attention to participate in this week’s events, the residential college mentors and students coordinated to plan the marketing campaign to invoke the attention through social media, such as Facebook and Instagram. Their marketing campaign successfully generated internet traffic and physical visits to exhibitions, attendance of forums, and participation in the competitions. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj3LFwZJ-oI) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxT4i01Jb5M) (https://www.facebook.com/SDGSINNTHU/)
2. Students in the residential colleges organized the hackathon to ideate and propose solutions to reduce the use of disposable dining ware on campus. This campaign successfully attracted students from different colleges to form teams to compete for good ideas and solutions through two-day heavy workshops. It also raised the sponsorship from a startup company to offer awards for winning teams. (http://rcollege.nthu.edu.tw/p/404-1103-189799.php?Lang=zh-tw)
3. The Circular Economy Pot (https://www.facebook.com/nthuceg/), a student group initiated in the residential colleges to promote circular economy and sustainability on campus. In December, 2020, it held the circular economy week to engage students’ projects with industries and held the exhibition and seminars by coordinating many resource providers and students’ groups. (http://rcollege.nthu.edu.tw/p/404-1103-192507.php?Lang=zh-tw)
To preserve the algal reef in Taiwan, NTHU Student Associate supported the referendum co-signature campaign held in February, 2021. The joint efforts from many universities in Taiwan with many citizens reached the threshold to hold the referendum voting later in 2021(https://www.facebook.com/nthusa/posts/3747600718649584).

The natural environment of NTHU campus is a living environment for ecological diversity since it takes advantage of the original flora and fauna distribution with the minimum of changes since the campus was established. Thus, the original forest hosting a variety of plants and animals maintains ecological sustainability. Students living in the campus can easily immerse themselves in the environment and learn ecological knowledge. Some education programs have been leveraging the natural environment to learn ecological diversity. For example, a common education course “Ecological Systems and Global Changes” by Prof. Chin-Shou Wang to build owl houses on trees in campus for owls to take care of little owls and also for students to study little owl’s growth (http://cge.nthu.edu.tw/quality10901-17/).

Students are equipped with knowledge and skills for financial portfolio management and investment in sustainability. Courses offered in the College of Technology Management, especially by the Department of Quantitative Finance, cover issues related to financial management for ESG and social enterprise. Specifically, a course in investment offered by Prof. Leh-Chyan So (https://qf.site.nthu.edu.tw/p/405-1366-16626,c5738.php) teaches students to practice investment in sustainability-oriented funds.

In residential colleges, there are student projects aiming to tackle issues involved in aging societies to promote elders’ wellbeing. For example,
1. A project team in the course “Social Innovation and Fit Technology” cooperated with a startup company to develop activities for elders using art therapy, native therapy, etc.
2. Two project teams in the course “Social Innovation Project Planning and Execution” worked for enhance elders’ wellbeing. One team developed a program that allows elders to enhance their physical and social wellbeing while engaging with the activities. The other team developed learning programs for elders to engage with the Palace Museum collections to stimulate their creativity through artworks and gamification. (https://www.facebook.com/theholders10/)

Website of the Residential College:
http://rcollege.nthu.edu.tw