Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 73.04
Liaison Troy Goodnough
Submission Date March 30, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Minnesota, Morris
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Troy Goodnough
Sustainability Director
Office of Sustainability
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Air & Climate 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Air & Climate?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Air & Climate:
Students are working to educate the campus and public about climate change. Working together with campus and community partners, they are bringing people together to plan for community resilience. Students assembled a Morris Community Resilience Plan. UMM is part of the climate protection agreement signed with Saerbeck, Germany and students help facilitate this international partnership. Student also help prepare information about the campus carbon footprint and present to campus audiences. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c432de_263be1abe58440c8be7aa0058619018d.pdf http://environment.umn.edu/grant/climate-smart-municipalities/ https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/mcap-2017

Buildings  

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Buildings?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Buildings:
Students partner with Facilities Management to reduce energy usage in campus buildings. Students work with FM to improve and understand air-handling-unit (AHU) scheduling to decrease energy consumption. Students present results of their building studies to FM staff and administrators. Students also take a leadership role in providing information into the State of Minnesota B3 Benchmarking system for buildings. https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/sustainable-index-2017

Energy 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Energy?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Energy:
Students in Computer Science courses extract data from the solar PV systems at UMM. Students work with Facilities Management on peak demand reduction strategies. Students produce daily reports to FM staff to help them better understand the electricity consumption patterns on campus over the year. https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/conserve-and-save

Food & Dining 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Food & Dining?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Food & Dining:
Students work in the on-campus student organic garden (called Crocus Valley), the Native American garden, and host several bee colonies at UMM. Food produced in the gardens is purchased by food services. Students work on influencing food procurement policies at UMM. The program Live to Garden provides an opportunity for students to spend the summer at UMM working in the garden and engaging with the public to build local food infrastructure.

Grounds 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Grounds?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Grounds:
Student are engaged in grounds and landscaping efforts at UMM. Students participate in ongoing campus tree planting and tree survey initiatives. Students supported implementation of several edible landscaping installations at Morris, including fruit trees outside of the Green Prairie Community residence hall and AeroGarden installations inside of GPC. Students prepare Tree Campus and Bee Campus submissions and coordinate activities related the submissions. Students working at the Morris Ecostation pursue independent research projects (in consultation) with UMM faculty.

Purchasing 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Purchasing?:
No

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Purchasing:
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Transportation 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Transportation?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Transportation:
Students work on transportation and mobility issues opportunities at UMM. Student are developing an electric-bike program. UMM has one of the first fully-electric cars in west-central Minnesota. Students coordinate educational outreach activities to teach residents about electric vehicles. https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/first-bolt

Waste 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Waste?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Waste:
Students work on-campus, with the city, county, local schools and community partners to grow zero-waste initiatives. Students document the campus composting process and sharing this information in written reports and presentations with the community partners. Each year, students organize a Zero-Waste Summit to bring together campus and community partners. Presentations are shared about advancements made in our zero-waste efforts. At the Biodiesel Summit -- a student presented research information about biodiesel efforts at other colleges in the U.S. and presented research about campus opportunities for biodiesel synthesis.

Water 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Water?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Water:
Students are engaged in water stewardship education at UMM. Students supported the execution of Governor Dayton’s Water Summit at UMM. Students run an ongoing Water Ethic campaign on-campus. Students work with community and campus partners to bring water education to K-12 schools in the city of Morris. https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/water-summit-registration-open https://www.facebook.com/MorrisWaterPledge/

Coordination & Planning 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Coordination & Planning?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Coordination & Planning:
Students are engaged in campus sustainability planning efforts. Students led the planning effort for the Morris Sustainability Snapshot document, which outlines some of UMM's goals for making sustainability progress. The Snapshot was modeled on the Bioregional Planning Principles. Students met with campus stakeholders and assembled the document into a coherent whole, including conceptualizing the document design.

Diversity & Affordability 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Diversity & Affordability?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Diversity & Affordability:
Students are engaged in diversity and affordability efforts at UMM. UMM has a large population of Native American students. Students lead the planning of the annual Pow-Wow at UMM. Students led the conference planning and execution of the 2018 AISES conference at UMM -- with the theme of sustainability. Students conduct educational campaigns to educate students about Dakota and Anishinaabe language. Student prepare and lead ESL activities on-campus for Spanish-speaking newcomers. Students are engaged in food insecurity efforts on-campus. Students lead several efforts focused on improving opportunities for GLBTQA2S+ students and allies.

Investment & Finance 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Investment & Finance?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Investment & Finance:
Students are engaged with the Morris Green Reinvestment Fund. Students screen and select projects that will use GRF funding. Students have approved projects that include a compost sifter, LED lighting, and more. https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/new-theatre-lighting https://news.morris.umn.edu/news/morris-improves-composting-process

Public Engagement 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Public Engagement?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Public Engagement:
Students are engaged in several public engagement efforts that connect to the campus as living laboratory. Students are working with statewide partners to conduct community-meetings around climate adaptation and energy planning in rural Morris. Students lead organizing public engagement events focused on climate education. Students are working with local schools on a variety of sustainability-related engagement work, including water and waste reduction work.

Wellbeing & Work 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to Wellbeing & Work?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Wellbeing & Work:
Students are engaged in wellbeing improvement opportunities at UMM. A student launched a project to get students outside in winter, called the Morris MicroAdventure project. The project connects the campus and Regional Fitness Center.

Other Impact Areas 

Is the institution utilizing its campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in relation to other areas (e.g. arts & culture or technology)?:
Yes

A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to other areas:
Multiple students have worked to develop theater performances and creative works on campus that increase sustainability literacy for students and the public. Examples of this work include: The theater production Sophie and the Adventures of Ice Island, which several hundred children attended. And Fashion Trashion, a recurring fashion show using reused/recycled and repurposed items. For example, in 2014, a student discussed sustainability in relation to scenes from play she directed. http://www.morris.umn.edu/newsevents/view.php?itemID=12179 http://www.morris.umn.edu/newsevents/view.php?itemID=7837

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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