Stanford University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Stanford has made a concerted effort to utilize art created on campus as means of communicating about sustainability. For instance, sustainability-related art created by Stanford students has been showcased at the Celebrating Sustainability Earth Day festival each year.

Other opportunities for ongoing active participation in sustainability-related arts and culture include the Arts Theme Dorm (Kimball Hall), the Art Breaks with Student Guides sponsored by the Cantor Arts Center, and Stanford Arts event and performances at Roble Theater and other venues. See details at these sites: https://museum.stanford.edu/programs/art-breaks-student-guides
https://arts.stanford.edu/for-students/arts-spaces/roble-theater/

Generally, Stanford has also invested significant resources in building out its Arts district, which includes buildings focused on the mindset of the user inside. While these are not directly sustainability-related campus as a living laboratory initiatives, they do help enrich the arts culture here on Stanford's campus and contribute to a well-rounded education for all Stanford students.

From museums, such as the Anderson Collection and the McMurtry Building, to contemplative centers like Windhover Pavilion. These buildings not only incorporated key sustainability features in their construction, but they also contribute to the overall health, wellness, and vibrance of the campus community by providing campus as a living lab opportunities for both staff and students to learn about and experience new elements of religion and culture. For instance, Windhover is an elegant and natural contemplative center located in the heart of campus accessible to Stanford students, staff and faculty that houses a labyrinth based on the 12th-century stone labyrinth installed in the floor of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France. The outdoor labyrinth can be accessed by all Stanford visitors at any hour of day. It offers a looping, spiraling walking path culminating at a rosette at its center. The rhythm and simplicity of following a clear path can quiet the mind, restore balance, encourage prayer, and facilitate meditation, insight, and celebration. The labyrinth has a long past in both cultural and religious belief and practice. Courses at the labyrinth, such as "Walking the Windhover Labyrinth," not only expose students to ancient traditions, but also give them the firsthand emotional and physical experience of walking the labyrinth; allowing the campus infrastructure to directly affect student learning about culture, religion, and identity.

COURSES
Stanford offers many courses that transform the campus into a living laboratory for public engagement. For instance, the quarter-long course "Shaping the Future of the Bay Area," focuses on the complex urban problems affecting quality of life in the Bay Area, from housing affordability and transportation congestion to economic vitality and social justice. This XYZ course series is designed to immerse students in co-production for social change. The course sequence covers scientific research and ethical reasoning, skillsets in data-driven and qualitative analysis, and practical experience working with local partners on urban challenges that can empower students to drive responsible systems change in their future careers. The Autumn (X) and Winter (Y) courses are focused on basic and advanced skills, respectively, and completion is a prerequisite for participation in the Spring (Z) practicum quarter, which engages teams in real-world projects with Bay Area local governments or community groups. See more details here: https://cardinalservice.stanford.edu/opportunities/shaping-future-bay-area-1

In addition, one of the four tenants of Stanford’s Cardinal Service program is Cardinal Courses. Through this initiative, the Haas Center for Public Service works with faculty on campus to provide hands-on service-learning opportunities throughout the Bay Area. Through a group of staff positions focused on expanding community-engaged learning opportunities, the Haas Center is expanding the academic opportunities available to students to partner directly with non-profits, government agencies, and other local organizations while engaging in hands-on learning. See more details here: https://haas.stanford.edu/resources/faculty/support-cardinal-courses

AWARDS
The Haas Center also awards the Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize each year to faculty “who engage and involve students in integrating academic scholarship with significant and meaningful volunteer service to society.” It was created by alumna Miriam Aaron Roland, ’51. In 2021, the prize was awarded to David Cohen, WSD Handa Professor in Human Rights and International Justice, professor of classics and director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice. Cohen is a leading expert in human rights, international law, and transitional justice, as well as one of the world’s leading social and legal historians of ancient Greece. He was recognized for bridging scholarship and service through his courses and hands-on support of students participating in the Human Rights Fellowship and the many research initiatives at the Center for Human Rights. See more details here: https://haas.stanford.edu/about/awards/miriam-aaron-roland-volunteer-service-prize

STANFORD ENERGY SYSTEM INNOVATIONS
Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI), which has currently reduced campus greenhouse gas emissions by 69% and is estimated to reduce 80% by the end of 2022, is an example of campus operations serving as a living laboratory for impact on air and climate. Stanford staff, faculty, and students have worked together since 2007 to design, model, and construct the new energy system. In March 2017, 5 MW of on-campus rooftop solar came online, supplementing the 67 MW off-site Stanford Solar Generating Station (SSGS). Additionally, the student Group Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project directly supported the on-campus installations. Furthermore, there has been a surge in student class projects related to solar energy, and since the new on-campus solar came online, students are able to use actual campus solar data to inform these projects, many of which evaluate the impact of installing solar on additional campus buildings. These types of projects will continue in the future as Stanford brings online a new solar plant in Lemoore, CA that will allow the university to achieve 100% renewable electricity for its core campus in 2022.

Since the new Central Energy Facility came online in April 2015, staff in the Department of Sustainability & Energy Management have provided tours for many classes, student groups and faculty groups, among others, to encourage hands-on learning through this innovative energy system. In fact, many of the spaces within the new Central Energy Facility were built with the concept of campus as a living laboratory in mind, such as amphitheater-style outdoor seating, large windows for easy viewing of the machinery, color-coded piping symbolizing the hot water and cold water supply and return loops, informational signage offering a self-guided tour, and new conference rooms available for use by any campus group. For more information, visit: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sesi

In 2019, Stanford brought a “mini-Central Energy Facility” online at its Stanford Redwood City campus. Known as the Central Energy Hub, this facility mimics the principles of the larger Central Energy Facility at Stanford's historic campus, which uses an energy efficient heat recovery system for heating and cooling purposes. See more details here: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/content/thermal-load-shift-commitment-stanford-redwood-city-campus-central-energy-hub

ENERGY RESEARCH RELATED TO SHELTER-IN-PLACE
In 2020, facilities teams moved quickly to respond to the shelter-in-place restrictions and were able to shut off heating and cooling in 135 unoccupied buildings for several weeks—and in some cases several months. This allowed for significant reductions in energy consumption, as well as the launch of the COOLER program, through which researchers have begun chilled water load experiments in partnership with the Facilities Energy Management team in unoccupied spaces. The program is a collaboration between Stanford Land, Buildings & Real Estate, Dr. Jacques de Chalendar and Professor Sally Benson from the Energy Resources Engineering Department, and senior faculty affiliated with the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy. It entails experimenting with different chilled water load management measures within multiple operating buildings. A unique aspect of this research is the ability to test at the individual room level. This unlocks the potential for much more precise and targeted control strategies, opening the door to gradual demand reductions in non-critical spaces while simultaneously preserving critical zones. See more details here: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/content/cooler-program

ROBLE LIVING LABORATORY FOR SUSTAINABILITY AT STANFORD
The Roble Living Laboratory for Sustainability at Stanford (ROLLSS) initiative epitomizes a living laboratory for buildings on campus by turning a student residence into a living laboratory in and of itself. For example, ROLLSS has its own Organic Teaching Garden and conducted a “zero-waste” competition to reduce the amount of garbage that Roble residents produce. As another example, Roble Reuse is a student-led initiative that started in Fall 2018 and gives the Stanford community a consistent place and time to donate or grab free shoes, clothing items, and dorm essentials. See more details on the ROLLSS initiatives here: https://roblesustainability.stanford.edu/

ENERGY THEMED DORM
In 2021, it was announced a new Explore Energy Dorm is in development and scheduled to open in Fall 2022. This University Theme House-Academic aims to create a vibrant residential community and living laboratory that expands energy and sustainability education through interdisciplinary dialogue, exploration, and action. The dorm will host events, workshops, alumni seminars, student-initiated and led workshops, and more for those that care about energy, sustainability, climate change, corporate social responsibility, social equity, and justice. See more details here: https://energy.stanford.edu/explore-energy/theme-house

INTERNSHIPS
Each year, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program hires interns to work on energy initiatives in Student Housing through Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) and academic buildings through the Cardinal Green Office Program, the Cardinal Green Labs Program, and a variety of targeted plug load programs run through the Office of Sustainability. Stanford's Cardinal Green Office Program enlists intern support to conduct energy audits of volunteer buildings across campus each year.

COURSES
There are also many classes offered through a wide variety of departments that teach students about different types of sustainable energy and strategies for implementing and advocating renewable energy on the local, state, and national levels. Many of these courses offer opportunities for hands-on exploration and research in the field of renewable energy, such as projects and on-campus field trips. One of the many examples of courses like CEE 107S: Understanding Energy. Many of these courses also use actual campus energy data to complement the field trips and inform class projects. See details at: http://explorecourses.stanford.edu/search?view=catalog&filter-coursestatus-Active=on&page=0&catalog=&q=CEE107

INTERNSHIPS
Stanford’s Residential and Dining Enterprises hires between 30-50 students annually to perform key research and implement outreach and education initiatives that advance sustainability in both housing and dining facilities. For example, students study why landfill diversion rates differ amongst different student populations, residence types and waste enclosure set ups. Another example is data science students who are studying the relationship between outdoor temperatures, indoor temperatures, building system set points, and building envelope construction and age to recommend settings that will conserve energy during different seasons in residences. Students also assist with researching local, organic and BIPOC farm opportunities for our Dining Halls. Please review profiles of select student interns and their projects here: https://rde.stanford.edu/sustainability-interns

O'DONOHUE FAMILY FARM
In 2014, the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences established the 6-acre O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. The farm is itself a living laboratory offering academic and experiential learning opportunities for the Stanford community and beyond. The farm utilizes agroecological relationships and natural diversity to grow over 200 varieties of vegetables, flowers, herbs, field crops and fruit. Students come to the farm to test new ideas about the biological, social and environmental aspects of farming and gain experience in the practice of sustainable agriculture. On-farm research provides students hands-on learning opportunities. Over the course of a year, the farm harvests thousands of pounds of organically-grown produce, and R&DE regularly purchases produce from the farm. Those crops feed into a new farm-to-campus program, with fresh vegetables featured at R&DE Stanford Dining in the dining halls and campus cafes. See more details here: https://earth.stanford.edu/farm

FOOD PANTRY
R&DE also manages the food pantry program for undergraduate and graduate students and their affiliates who self-identify as food insecure, in collaboration with the Graduate Student Council, the ASSU, and the Stanford Solidarity Network. The program has distributed over 100,000 pounds of food to the Stanford community since its inception in August 2019.

JASPER RIDGE BIOLOGICAL PRESERVE
The Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve offers a multitude of educational programs designed to teach Stanford students, professors, and other community members about sustainable land use and grounds practices. These opportunities include formal classes offered through Stanford University as well as other universities in the area, environmental education programs for teachers, K-12 education programs for area schools, and open community programs such as tours, lectures and continuing education classes. A full list of educational opportunities offered through Jasper Ridge can be found here: https://jrbp.stanford.edu/education/classes

Jasper Ridge also offers a docent training program for Stanford students to become year-long volunteers at the preserve, leading field-based education programs for younger students and community members and participating in projects and research alongside Jasper Ridge staff. This is an internship-like program offered through the Biology and Earth Systems departments to provide Stanford students with the opportunity to learn firsthand what goes into sustainable grounds care by working directly with faculty in those career fields.

Finally, Jasper Ridge has a Ranger Program that draws from the Stanford undergraduate and graduate community, specifically those involved in docent training, Earth Systems, biology, environmental organizations, and/or cycling clubs. A select group of students is chosen from an applicant pool to become Rangers who patrol the perimeter and trails of the preserve two to three times a week by mountain bike. This program provides another avenue for Stanford students to gain firsthand experience with ecological sustainability and grounds care in a preservation setting.

STANFORD CONSERVATION PROGRAM
Stanford's Land Use and Environmental Planning (LUEP) group also sponsors several living laboratory opportunities through the Stanford Conservation Program. For instance, in 2021, LUEP's Diversity and Inclusion Fellow developed a workshop series on how to navigate the environmental field for those that come from marginalized backgrounds. There were over 90 student participants from across the country and over 34 environmental professors that were connected with students as mentors.

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS PROGRAM
Tackling Scope 3 emissions will be critical for achieving the goals laid out last year when Stanford’s Board of Trustees signed a resolution to reach at least net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and endowment by 2050. Sally Benson, professor of energy resources engineering, has been working on measuring Scope 3 emissions produced through growing, producing, packaging and transporting food and goods. She hopes her work will have benefits beyond campus by helping governments, businesses and other universities reach their own emissions goals. Benson’s interest in Scope 3 emissions began more than a decade ago when she had her students evaluate their own carbon footprints.

“Everyone knows flying is really bad,” she said. “But we found the stuff we buy was the biggest part of the footprint and it’s completely invisible.”

These emissions are invisible largely because they are so difficult to quantify. Benson and a graduate student are working on a tool that will make quantifying Scope 3 emissions easier, starting with those produced by the lowest-hanging fruit – food.

Tools exist that attempt to calculate all the emissions generated by a product’s journey from raw materials to the hands of a purchaser, Benson says. But some calculate based on the weight and others based on cost, and the two aren’t comparable. It turns out goods appear to produce far less emissions when calculated by cost, which is what most tools use because the data is easier to get. And because the tools don’t report how they calculate emissions, the results are inconsistent and Benson and Grekin can’t tell which are correct.

“It isn’t apples to apples,” said Rebecca Grekin, the graduate student working with Benson. Two organizations ordering the same apples could report very different emissions – up to a three-fold difference, according to Benson – depending on the tool they use. In order to tackle Scope 3 emissions, they needed to start with a tool they could trust.

In collaboration with Residential & Dining Enterprises and the Office of Sustainability, Grekin has started from scratch, calculating emissions generated by the food actually served on Stanford campus. She is also coordinating with 10 other universities that have given her their own food data.

Grekin added that Stanford had already made great strides in reducing emissions in the food served, in particular by offering many choices as alternatives to carbon-intensive beef.

“When you compare the food served on campus to the typical American diet they’ve had a lot of initiatives to make improvements,” Grekin said.

Creating a tool to quantify the emissions produced by food served on campus has been the focus of Grekin’s master’s degree, but it’s not her final goal.

“The tool can also be edited to categorize other things,” she said.

For her PhD project, which she’ll begin with Benson next year, Grekin is going to begin looking at other sources of emissions including products like office goods. Eventually, Grekin says, the tool will be used to help Stanford evaluate and then reduce sources of emissions, and be made available for other businesses, governments or universities that wish to do the same.

Many campus organizations have taken pledges to reduce emissions and have done a good job with energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, Benson said. She suggested that organizations with Scope 3 commitments could form a buying group to support emerging office products or food sources that have lower emissions. Benson added that her group’s focus on food and goods is just one part of a multi-year effort Stanford has launched to reduce its Scope 3 emissions, under the leadership of Randy Livingston, vice president of business affairs, chief financial officer and university liaison for Stanford Medicine. The program will be advised by a working group including faculty, staff and an undergraduate and graduate student.

See more details on this Scope 3 research initiative here: https://news.stanford.edu/2021/04/20/hard-quantify-emissions-next-frontier-stanford-sustainability-goals/

COURSES
Professor Michael Lepech's Life Cycle Assessment for Complex Systems course engages partners students with multiple organizations to solve real-world problems. The Office of Sustainability often brings projects to the class as one of the organizational partners. In 2020, students in this class helped the Office of Sustainability better understand the full environmental impact of coffee pods.

INTERNSHIPS
From 2019 to present, Stanford has hired an intern to research and analyze existing food purchases to help provide insights on the Scope 3 emissions related to food. Additionally, Stanford hired a Green Labs Intern in recent years to evaluate lab purchases and subsequently help to create a list of more sustainable lab supply options.

STUDENT GROUPS
In 2020, the Stanford All About No Waste Community was launched. The group is made up of students, staff, and faculty who are interested in the broader topics of waste management across industries, sectors, functions, and geographies. The group provides an avenue for sharing research or passions, and connecting with others who are also focused on zero waste. This program reflects a campus living lab opportunity as students create and receive recommendations from the campus community. The students then create new educational materials or programs, in collaboration with staff where needed. For instance, a Reusable To-Go Boxes pilot program is currently in progress. See more details here: https://waste.stanford.edu/

FOOD WASTE
In academic year 2020-21, R&DE released a new sustainability concierge service. Students can text and get immediate responses on issues such as how to sort a particular item of waste. R&DE is a critical contributor in achieving the university’s zero waste and climate goals. Across its eateries and cafes, R&DE Stanford Dining expanded its food waste reduction initiatives in 2020-21, utilizing multilevel strategies centered on source reduction, food waste monitoring, consumer education campaigns, and food recovery and donation initiatives. In 2019, Stanford Dining formed a Food Waste Reduction Task Force to develop a roadmap for accelerating solutions for reducing food waste. It released a new target in April, building on Stanford Dining’s long-standing initiatives by committing to further reduce its food waste by 25% by the end of 2022. R&DE continues to partner with the Loaves and Fishes A La Carte food rescue program to donate excess food from dining halls, cafes, and concessions to local organizations.

In 2016, Stanford completed construction of a wastewater facility entitled the William and Cloy Codiga Resource Recovery Center (CR2C). The facility dedicated to accelerating the deployment and adoption of water and energy resource recovery systems. Located on the Stanford campus near the Land, Buildings & Real Estate offices, the facility enables pilot testing of promising technologies for the recovery of resources (clean water, nutrients, energy, renewable materials) from wastes. Facility operators partner with Stanford researchers and groups from outside the university to move promising new technologies beyond the lab onward to impact.

Active projects as of 2021 include scale-up of the SAF-MBR, an anaerobic secondary treatment system that generates energy, at the Silicon Valley Clean Water wastewater treatment plant; and wastewater-based epidemiology to track public health indicators in the sewer. CR2C trains Undergraduates and Graduates in operations and maintenance of real industrial wastewater treatment systems. Student operators then help keep water flowing 24/7. Lastly, CR2C staff have provided over 200 tours of the facility to date to researchers, students, regulators, consulting engineers, public officials, and members of the general public.

See more details here: https://cr2c.stanford.edu/

COURSES
The "Sustainable Finance And Investment" course aims to equip the Stanford community with the knowledge and networks required to undertake significant future work on sustainable finance and investment. The course is given in a seminar format, which explores multiple disciplines of sustainable finance with talks by researchers associated with the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy's Sustainable Finance Initiative and visiting speakers. The course features three highly interactive modules: (1) risk and opportunities of sustainable finance, (2) business and financial innovation toward sustainability, and (3) sustainability assessment and advanced data technologies. The contents covered by this course include but are not limited to systems and theories in sustainable finance and investment such as active ownership, carbon markets and policies, climate finance, environmental disclosure and reporting, divestment, engagement, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), green banks, green bonds, green benchmarks and indices, impact investing, public-private partnerships, responsible investment, stranded assets, and green taxonomies.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS SOCIAL IMPACT FUND
The Stanford Graduate School of Business Social Impact Fund provides MBA students with hands-on experience in generating a beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. The program provides funds to give students a hands-on experience with philanthropic “impact investing." Faculty, alumni, and expert practitioners provide strategic guidance to students on co-investing, sourcing, structuring deals, measuring impact, portfolio allocation, and exits. The fund is geographically flexible and invests in early-stage for-profit ventures in the following areas: (1) education; (2) environment and energy; (3) fintech; (4) food and agriculture; (5) healthcare; (6) justice; and (7) urban development. Student investment managers gain: (1) hands-on experience in impact investing; (2) preparation for a future career in impact investing or as social entrepreneurs, understanding how investors work; (3) application of classroom knowledge to real-world impact investing; (4) a deeper understanding about issues in particular fields; and (5) a stronger network of alumni, social entrepreneurs, and investors focused on impact in industries of interest. See more details here: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/learning/social-innovation/experiential-learning/stanford-gsb-impact-fund

COURSES
In the "Contemplative Competence for Sustainability of Public and Planetary Health and Well-being" course, students' capacity to take skillful action to address climate change is cultivated. Effective engagement with the daunting complexity inherent in the climate crisis requires calm contemplative competence. The science of mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and compassion are explored in terms of their roles in supporting pro-environmental behaviors, policies, and programs for personal, public, and planetary health and wellbeing. Emerging research at the intersection of contemplation and climate science calls for individual insight and transformation to strengthen/restore/heal the human-earth relationship. Contemplative practices (including but not limited to nature-based centering, resilience-building mindfulness and loving kindness meditations, forest bathing, qigong, reflections on human-earth interconnectedness, and gratitude journaling) can provide the foundation necessary for sustaining altruistic behaviors that enhance mutual flourishing of people and the planet. Through study of contemplative neuroscience and behavioral science, students will develop/deepen their abilities for awareness, self-modulation, equanimity, self-transcendence, and compassion in caring for Earth. These skills are discussed and applied to public health and climate change for effective behavioral action in a final class project. Modes of inquiry and class activities include contemplative, scientific, indigenous, artistic, verbal, visual, kinesthetic, sensory, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, and relational. Through diverse learning experiences, students will develop the empathy, discernment, and wisdom necessary for initiating and implementing solutions to the climate crisis. Authors of many course readings will be guest speakers during Stanford's Contemplation by Design Summit, providing students interaction with several leaders in the emerging field of contemplation, public health, and sustainability.

VADEN HEALTH CENTER
Additionally, the Vaden Student Health Center operates the Well-Being at Stanford: Student Health and Well-Being initiative. Well-Being at Stanford offers courses, workshops, discussion groups and student internship opportunities to examine the research-based knowledge and skills to flourish at Stanford. It offers academic courses, workshops, web-based tools, and promotes connections with many student groups. See more details here: https://vaden.stanford.edu/well-being