University of Maryland, College Park
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Students in the College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences completed a semester-long project that surveyed food purchasing behaviors of students at UMD and calculated the associated greenhouse gas emissions. The project concluded with the creation of a data story that aimed to encourage sustainable food purchasing behaviors among students.

The Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS) is a campus-wide program that leverages the expertise and ingenuity of University of Maryland students and faculty to tackle specific, sustainability-related issues facing Maryland’s diverse communities. The PALS mission is to provide high quality, low-cost assistance to local governments while creating an active and valuable real-world learning experience for UMD students. Students work with real clients, applying classroom concepts and inventive thinking to complete sustainability-focused projects and develop useful products for partnering cities and counties. Students benefit through the real-world application of course concepts and meaningfully impacting Maryland communities.

Between 2018-2021, the Department of Geographical Sciences has received over $80,000 from the Sustainability Fund to calculate the amount of carbon sequestered in university-owned forests/trees. In this project, students capture the baseline carbon stock of managed forest, identify prime reforestation areas, and develop an innovative carbon offset program for UMD with State and other university partners. Students in doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate programs engage in this program.

The University of Maryland has participated in the biannual U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon five times over the past fifteen years. The competition aims to conceive, design, and build a “home of the future: a renewable, tech-forward, and net zero building that operates completely off the grid.” Beyond participating in this competition on a regular basis, the award winning LEAF house is currently installed on campus, providing students the opportunity to interact with this innovative project continuously via courses and extracurricular activities. Another Solar Decathlon submission, the reACT house, is scheduled for installation on campus as well.

In 2019-2020, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and CITY@UMD received a $27,000 grant to perform energy simulations for 220 UMD buildings. The project aims to establish an energy use intensity target for each building using a database of building characteristics including enclosure properties, mechanical system types, and schedules. These building characteristics will be inputs for energy models for every building, and the model results will form a basis of target energy use, allowing for setting ambitious but realistic target goals for the energy efficiency of buildings at UMD. Students will support faculty researchers completing the project.

Students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources are learning about sustainable farming techniques and growing food organically at Terp Farm, a 2-acre farm that produces fruits and vegetables that are consumed in the university's dining halls and food truck. Patrons of the dining halls and food truck learn about the students and other local farmers who grow their food.

The Community Learning Garden (CLG) is a living classroom that educates students and other visitors on the “importance of environmental stewardship, agricultural sustainability, physical activity and eating a balanced diet,” as well as issues surrounding community, public, and environmental health. The goal of those who manage the CLG is to encourage others to utilize green spaces to their fullest potential in innovative ways. The garden provides many benefits to the campus, including serving as a venue for classes and research, as well as an area for relaxation. More than 12 courses a semester work with the garden to provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities. Students are the main volunteers at the garden, and the produce grown is donated to the Campus Pantry.

Student interns in Dining Services are investigating the university's food purchasing and tracking purchasing by food types including beef, chicken, fish, etc. This data is provided to the WRI Cool Food Pledge and guides Dining Services procurement.

The Center for Social Value Creation hosted UMD’s inaugural Global Goals Jam in 2021, a three-day international design thinking challenge focused on the UN’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Participants were tasked with engaging local leaders to catalyze solutions for a more equitable and sustainable transportation system in our community while learning design thinking techniques.

In 2019-2020, Facilities Management and the QUEST Honors program received $3,000 from the Sustainability Fund to study “Compology Collaboration on Waste and Recycling Sensor Data.” The project could improve waste and recycling on campus through student experiential learning in data science. By installing two Compology Starter Packs on UMD dumpsters, students will collect and analyze real-time data on dumpster contents. Through data analysis, the students can advise UMD on how to better manage waste and recycling on campus. (Robert H. Smith School of Business sponsors the QUEST Honors program, a three-year program for UMD undergraduates studying business, engineering and/or science.)

Student researchers are supporting the “Using the Internet of Things (IoT) and Sensor Technology to Improve Stormwater Management” research project in partnership with UMD’s campus operational units and researchers from across the university. The project seeks to implement an Internet of Things (IoT) framework employing smart sensors to monitor and improve stormwater management on the University of Maryland College Park Campus. The project is sponsored by the Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice Lab in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Students in the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Innovo Scholars Consulting Program are helping the university implement a groundbreaking diversity initiative. Commissioned by the Registrar’s Office, the students investigated critical issues and made recommendations for implementation of the “Policies and Procedures Governing Preferred/Primary Names and Sex/Gender Markers in University Databases.” The policy aims to improve students’ sense of belonging on campus by ensuring critical identity markers like name and gender are correctly represented in university databases and used by faculty and staff. The Innovo Scholars recommended a five-phase roadmap for the policy, including establishing an implementation committee of the primary stakeholders, mapping and correcting how critical data flow through databases, adopting a platform for data propagation, and developing a comprehensive communication strategy targeting students, faculty and staff.

In light of increased social unrest in spring 2020, UMD’s administration reached out to Black students to be in community with them. Based on four years of research and current issues, the group of Black student leaders prioritized 25 critical issues and goals for the administration in fall 2020. Through extracurricular and academic courses, black students partnered with UMD's administration to address the identified issues, recommending campus responses with the understanding that each will need to be reviewed with the responsible office(s). The process for review will be iterative, consultative, and will involve students, faculty and staff. Since then, administration and students have met frequently with the administration noting its appreciation of the students’ work. Administration provides updates while moving forward to address the issues identified, clarify requests, and examine institutional processes and policies. Read more at: https://diversity.umd.edu/black-student-leaders

In recent years, UMD’s students have been active in advocating for divestment of the university’s endowment from companies that commit or profit off of human rights violations, as well as companies involved in production of fossil fuels. Staff at the University System of Maryland Foundation have engaged with students and supported their efforts by sharing some information and responding to questions. Learn more at: https://divestumd.weebly.com/

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is spearheading the “AgroEcology Corridor,” a multidisciplinary initiative that reimagines UMD’s campus as a living-learning environment prioritizing interactive and educational green space. A graduate student in the Landscape Architecture program designed a new therapeutic space for the corridor. The initiative also ties to the NatureRx@UMD laboratory, a burgeoning movement represented by faculty, staff, and students within the UMD community that have come together with a shared passion for the many ways in which the landscape of our campus arboretum and other recreation spaces can heal and preserve the health and well-being of every person.