Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 68.35
Liaison Jessica Bast
Submission Date Aug. 9, 2022

STARS v2.2

North Carolina State University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Jessica Bast
Sustainability Program Coordinator
University Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Natural Learning Initiative

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
Not Sure

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:

The purpose of the Natural Learning Initiative is to promote the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children, through environmental design, action research, education, and dissemination of information.

The Natural Learning Initiative (NLI), founded in 2000 with the purpose of promoting the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children, through environmental design, action research, education, and dissemination of information, is a research and professional development unit at the College of Design, NC State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.

The Natural Learning Initiative team is composed of committed professionals with diverse professional and personal backgrounds. Our team has expertise in landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning, geographical information systems (GIS), early childhood development and policy, and play.

Clients include public and private daycare centers, schools, after-school programs and community institutions that run programs for all children such as churches, parks and recreation departments, special education centers, zoos, botanical gardens, and nature centers.

http://www.naturalearning.org/


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
People-First Tourism

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):

People-First Tourism is a marketplace for buying and selling genuine tourism experiences. This project links entrepreneurs trying to pursue dignified and sustainable livelihoods through tourism with adventurous and conscientious tourists interested in unique off the beaten path experiences and in making positive impacts on the communities they visit.

People-First Tourism is a project of North Carolina State University and of North Carolina Cooperative Extension. The project leverages the work and insight of an eclectic group of committed faculty and students from almost every College in the university including technology development by the Institute for Next Generation IT Systems in the College of Engineering. As the project grows, the list of partners and collaborators has been expanding to include numerous academic institutions, community development organizations and businesses - in the US and internationally.

This project originated from the scholarship of select project founders, who have extensive research records on the ways individuals and communities respond to opportunities and challenges posed by tourism development. The project is proposed as a solution to the amply documented shortcomings of tourism to engender improved wellbeing and sustainability in destinations. People-First Tourism is a social venture, as it aims at maximizing social profit while breaking even financially. People-First Tourism is also a research paradigm focused on the study of tourism micro-entrepreneurship, of its role in the self-determination of individuals with vulnerable livelihoods, and of the desire for local genuine tourism experiences.

Ultimately, through this online marketplace, local communities are encouraged to own their tourism valuable resources and earn income that stays locally, while travelers enjoy more authentic interactions within the local community and environment.

https://www.peoplefirsttourism.com/


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Coastal Dynamics Design Lab

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Sustainability-focused

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):

The Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) aims to organize and lead trans-disciplinary research and design teams to address critical ecological and community development challenges in vulnerable coastal regions and shoreline communities, with a concentrated focus on Eastern North Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain. Recent efforts undertaken by the CDDL have provided various Eastern North Carolina communities with technical assistance focused on design and programming strategies for both short-term rebuilding activities and long-term resiliency planning. These efforts have successfully contributed to increasing local capacity related to aspects of community development, recreation and heritage-based tourism, management of public landscapes, navigating disaster recovery processes, and identifying and leveraging funding sources. Outcomes of these efforts include citizen engagement activities, policy and programming recommendations, planning reports and design plans, and construction and installation of numerous community amenities.


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
---

Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.