University of New Hampshire
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Various task forces and departments work with students and faculty mentors regularly on projects focused on how to engage the campus community in building a culture of sustainability.

Some recent examples:
Students from the Sustainability Dual Major have done multiple projects for the SDM capstone course focused on campus engagement.
- One in spring 2021 looking at opportunities for better marketing the Sustainability Dual Major to reach a greater number of UNH students. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOm92vpvq4A&list=PLtU7jjAIrRQHdRTZnOEuwJn_Ka-ob3VUw&index=18&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oio4eQmFV0I&list=PLtU7jjAIrRQHdRTZnOEuwJn_Ka-ob3VUw&index=32&t=6s

- Another in spring 2021 in which students refined the campus sustainability tour for UNH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oio4eQmFV0I&list=PLtU7jjAIrRQHdRTZnOEuwJn_Ka-ob3VUw&index=32&t=6s

The students in these SDM capstone projects were from disciplines ranging from marketing to English, to recreation management and policy. Both projects involved worked in teams, with faculty advisors, to formulate those campus sustainability engagement challenges as applied research questions and then address them effectively.

Another example is CMN 662, Public Dialogue and Deliberation, which is part of UNH’s Civil Discourse Lab (https://cola.unh.edu/communication/opportunities/civil-discourse-lab).
This course explores deeply the theory behind the practice of pubic dialogue and deliberation. It considers the distinctions and appropriateness of different types and aims of public discourse, and how to best facilitate conversations important in the public sphere. Students design, organize, and implement a public dialogue on campus, facilitating discussions on a relevant topic. Students marry practice with deep consideration of issues of equity, diversity, voice, representation, neutrality, and power. The course requires outside commitments to facilitate a public dialogue. Students gain bona fide experience as event designers, technicians, and facilitators. In spring 2021, the course focused on Food Solutions and the Racial Equity Challenge. (See https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/21-day.)
Multiple students designed and facilitated three rounds of dialogue on UNH’s own campus about the 21 Day Challenge, which engaged students, staff, faculty and community members in these challenging and vital topics. See https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/calendar-event/63877

A third example is the Treat Fellowship. The Treat Fellowship program was established at the University of New Hampshire in 2018 in memory of the late New Hampshire Judge William W. Treat to provide students platform for engaging in civil discourse around difference.

Treat Fellows draw on an in-depth understanding of their identity (gender, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, ability/disability, etc.) to promote mutual understanding, compassion, and awareness. Treat Fellows are trained to conduct meaningful conversations promoting equity, diversity and shared understanding with individuals from different social identities.

Treat Fellows assist in the design and facilitation of Campus Conversations, Policy Deliberations and Dialogue programs.

As noted above, The Treat Fellowship program was established at the University of New Hampshire in 2018 in memory of the late New Hampshire Judge William W. Treat to provide students platform for engaging in civil discourse around difference. Treat Fellows are trained to conduct meaningful conversations promoting equity, diversity and shared understanding with individuals from different social identities.

Treat Fellows assist in the design and facilitation of the Campus Conversation program, and also the public-facing Policy Deliberations and Dialogue program. They receive a stipend of $1,000 for a semester for the active engagement in the program (100 hours to be completed by the end of the semester) with NH Listens, which is a civic engagement initiative of the Carsey School of Public Policy, committed to creating and sustaining a fair process for public engagement. NH Listens partners with public officials, organizations, and leaders in all sectors to gather broad input that can lead to improved practice and policy--and trains and engages UNH students, including the Treat Fellows, to be part of the process. Recent public dialogues and projects of NH Listens include
- "NH Blue and You: Strengthening Community Through Connection" which works to engage law enforcement and criminal justice professionals working from the inside to create needed change and the activists on the outside demanding change. NH Listens works at the intersection of that work for sustained and just community police relations.
- "Student Voice, Family Engagement and Educational Equity in Schools" which works with school districts to strengthen and integrate authentic engagement of students, families, and community organizations into the life and operation of a school. This includes organizing school board orientations and professional development workshops, engaging with students, and facilitating community-wide dialogues.
Treat Fellows, and students who have been trained in the INCO 620 - TALK TO ACTION: FACILITATING DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY course, participate and support these and other NH Listens projects. See https://carsey.unh.edu/new-hampshire-listens.

Another, related example: In 2018, Dr Renee Heath and Dr Jennifer Borda created the Civil Discourse Lab at UNH to strengthen the ability of students and community members to conduct meaningful conversations, collaborate and weigh decisions around sometimes difficult, but important, topics to a civil society. Students interested in developing communication skills and participating in community discussions follow a well-integrated program (multiple courses) to teach them about dialogue and group dynamics, train them in note-taking and facilitation, and set them loose to facilitate an actual event in the community. Students learn from faculty members such as Heath and Borda, but also from classmates who have gone through the training and advanced to leadership roles with the lab.

For the past four years more than a dozen students (each year) from the CMN662 Public Dialogue and Deliberation course spent more than half of spring semester preparing for a signature public deliberation--the Stories and Voices Event, focused on critical community issues such as immigration, addiction, and food and environmental justice. Students interviewed stakeholders from within and beyond the UNH community to learn their perspectives and needs related to the given issue. They then prepared and implemented a comprehensive event program designed to engage the UNH community and the public on barriers and solutions to those challenges.
See https://mypages.unh.edu/civildiscourselab

As a result the students' work, we have built broader understanding, trust, and solutions to the issues raised (addiction, immigration, racial equity and sustainable food systems.)

One of the goals of the Energy Task Force is to give UNH students an opportunity to better understand, explore and participate in improving, UNH’s climate and air quality initiatives. Faculty and staff from the ETF have mentored dozens of students in course projects, independent studies, and Fellowships related to climate and emissions at UNH.

For example:
In summer 2021, Michael Pasciuto, an Engineering and Sustainability Dual Major student is working with mentors from the UNH Sustainability Institute as well as mentors from New Hampshire Businesses For Social Responsibility (NHBSR) to develop a “Climate Action Challenge” to educate and create dialog within the community. The program is being designed to be piloted on the UNH campus in Fall 2021.

In spring 2021, students from the Sustainability Dual Major did a team capstone course project focused on "UNH Woodlands and Agricultural Operations as Natural Climate Solutions." The students worked with UNH's Land Use Coordinator, as well as faculty with expertise in forestry and forest carbon sequestration, to analyze the current rates of carbon sequestration from campus forests and farms and to make recommendations for preserving and enhancing the "carbon sink" functions of UNH lands. Their work, which was presented at the Undergraduate Research Conference, was included in UNH's recent climate action plan update (WildCAP 2021: see xxx) and helped inform a subsequent analysis for UNH's host community, the Town of Durham NH, on its own land use changes and policies in respect to climate change and greenhouse gas reductions. For the URC presentation on this topic, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuxyEbp78y0&list=PLtU7jjAIrRQHdRTZnOEuwJn_Ka-ob3VUw&index=33&t=2s

Another climate-related research project was undertaken by senior engineering major Jessica Manning, who worked with Sustainability Institute staff in spring 2021 to explore the potential for UNH to develop or purchase carbon offsets as part of our portfolio of carbon management strategies. The Energy Task Force is actively pursuing some of the recommendations for next steps that were presented in that research. For the URC presentation on this topic, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMskkuHHKvM&list=PLtU7jjAIrRQHdRTZnOEuwJn_Ka-ob3VUw&index=19.

Our Campus Stewardship, Energy and Utilities, and other Facilities departments are primarily responsible for creating and managing our campus buildings, and they often work with and mentor students in using our physical campus as an opportunity to further explore and apply concepts the students are learning in their courses or co-curricular activity.

One example of many: Junior Kendall Grey, an Environmental Conservation and Sustainability major in the College for Life Sciences and Agriculture, worked alongside the UNH Energy Task Force (see https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/sustainability-institute/task-forces) to research high performance building standards and internal carbon pricing strategies. She researched national and international high performance building standards and their integration into policy at higher education institutions. Utilizing this information, she benchmarked the University of New Hampshire’s high performance building standards against those of eighteen other leading American institutions. Ultimately, Kendall developed a series of recommended high performance building standards for new construction and major renovation projects aimed at lowering the University of New Hampshire’s energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. Kendall’s recommendations informed updates to UNH’s Planning, Design and Construction Guidelines (https://www.unh.edu/facilities/unh-planning-design-and-construction-guidelines), and UNH’s recent climate action plan update, “WildCAP 2021” (see https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/operations/air-climate). In this project she learned about energy systems and campus energy systems in particular, the process of adopting, implementing and augmenting campus standards, and the benefits and challenges of standard frameworks and third-party certifications. Because this was done as a Fellowship, Kendall was asked to reflect on her learnings and share them with other Fellows, her mentors and the broader community. For her final report, see https://unh.box.com/s/g08vhh2fie2a6nn42vkd7q1y2qmauubq.

In addition, students in the ESci 405 course ("Global Environmental Change") take on new projects every year that use the UNH campus as a focus for thinking about energy and climate change solutions. They have been involved in helping UNH buildings apply for Energy Star labeling, worked with the UNH Energy Office assessing building energy use, evaluating possible building retrofits and upgrades, and more.
Sustainability Fellows have also worked with staff and faculty on a number of research and educational projects focused on making UNH facilities more sustainable.

One of the goals of the Energy Task Force is to give UNH students an opportunity to better understand, explore and participate in improving, UNH’s energy initiatives. Faculty and staff from the ETF have mentored dozens of students in course projects, independent studies, and Fellowships related to energy systems and practices at UNH.

One recent such project: Jennifer Hargenrader, junior engineering major, worked with the Campus Stewardship office, Energy and Utilities office, and faculty mentors with expertise in and energy storage and climate change, to analyze the potential for electric vehicles (EVs) as a viable solution for energy storage for a proposed UNH and Town of Durham microgrid. Three different scenarios projecting the number of EVs owned by UNH, Durham Public Works, and Oyster River Schools were developed and ranged from short-term (17% EVs in fleet), to medium-term (39% EVs in fleet), to long-term (66% EVs in fleet). Mathematical modeling of energy stored in EV batteries and energy available to the grid from EV batteries on an hourly basis shows that for the long-term scenario, EVs could offset more than 80% of the electricity currently purchased by UNH. Jennifer presented this research to the Energy Task Force and at the 2021 Undergraduate Research conference. Her analysis is included in UNH’s updated climate action plan, WildCAP 2021. (see https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/operations/air-climate)

In addition, students in the ESci 405 course ("Global Environmental Change") take on new projects every year that use the UNH campus as a focus for thinking about energy and climate change solutions. Students are asked to research and develop feasible energy solutions for reducing the University's carbon footprint, increasing efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and reducing energy costs.

In addition, every summer there is at least one Sustainability Fellow project devoted to campus energy systems.

Students "learn by doing" in a multitude of ways when it comes to sustainable campus food systems. A few examples:

Students in the SAFS679/680: Food Production Field Experience class learn about sustainable agriculture firsthand while producing fresh healthy food for UNH Dining, UNH Dairy Bar and UNH Conferences and Catering. Students work at the high tunnels and fields located by the Fairchild Dairy on O’Kane Rd. They produce a wide variety of crops ranging from lettuce to edible flowers. See https://farmtoyounh.com/

Students in various courses and internships collaborate to understand and reduce food insecurity on the UNH campus. Students in the the CEP 508: Applied Community Development course in 2021 explored the potential for community gardens at UNH and/or in Durham have the potential to be part of a solution. Their final paper offered a set of actionable recommendations and next steps for establishing community garden/s on or adjacent to campus to serve UNH students and employees as well as Durham community members, and they applied to the Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program offered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for seed funding to get the project started. The Sustainability Institute is now in working with the Campus Stewardship department to try to move this project forward.

Student research has also focused and on the impact of campus menus on the overall campus carbon and nitrogen footprints (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGJyzknr8oI), and has led to the consideration of various food-footprint reduction goals, which will be deliberated and decided upon by the Energy Task Force (the steward of UNHs climate action plan) and EcoSystem Task Force (the steward of UNH's nitrogen management efforts) in fall 2021.

Dietetic interns working with faculty and with staff from Campus Dining helping to develop healthy, nutritious recipes served in dining establishments on campus; educate other students about balanced, healthy, plant-based diets, and support UNH's Take Less, Waste Less campaign focused on reducing food waste by doing "plate scrap" and measurement events periodically.

UNH’s beautiful and extensive land holdings are widely used by researchers from within UNH as well as the larger scientific community. Recent surveys showed that there were more than 30 ongoing research projects supported by UNH’s managed woodland properties. UNH’s land use coordinator and faculty have a number of experimental efforts focused on identifying and implementing management strategies that protect and increasing biodiversity on the UNH campus. Student researchers are integrally involved in all efforts.

One example is the Bee Lab: Molly Jacobson, a wildlife and conservation biology major, and Jake Withee , a graduate student in zoology, worked at the UNH Bee Lab, which studies the behavior, ecology and evolution of bees to improve pollinator health. Jacobson’s work was part of a UNH Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF; see https://www.unh.edu/undergrad-research/summer-undergraduate-research-fellowships-surf). Among the goals for this research was to add to knowledge of the diversity of native bees in NH, and to determine the impacts of agricultural practices (mowing, pesticide use, and the subsequent ability to support floral resources) on native bee communities.

The study, undertaken with the mentorship of Dr. Sandra Rehan and in collaboration with UNH staff, was performed at four farms owned and managed by UNH—Woodman, Kingman, Thompson, and the Organic Dairy Research Farm—which all differed in their mowing and spraying regimes. The students collected over 4,000 bees, and the associated data was analyzed, to determine the impacts to bee health of these different maintenance regimes. The results of this research will be integrated into the formal management plan for each property, and in the meantime have led to some improvements in management practices at the properties.

Another example is the Marteloscope, a field training tool that forestry students use at UNH’s Kingman Farm to simulate forest stand growth and progression there.

A final example is UNH’s ash reserve program, a project that intends to preserve ash trees from infestation by Emerald Ash Borer, and to do so has established several stands of ash as part of campus grounds, which students help monitor and assess.

Elizabeth Cain, a senior studying Environmental Conservation and Sustainability in the College for Life Sciences and Agriculture, did a project as in her Sustainability Institute internship and presented on it at the Undergraduate Research Conference in 2021: “Fair Trade Certification of UNH Durham Campus.” Elizabeth initially got involved in the project through her participation in Net Impact, which is advised by Sustainability Institute director Dr Fiona Wilson and which began advocating in 2019 for UNH to explore Fair Trade certification. Through the effort to certify UNH, Elizabeth learned about commercial-scale food production, vendor contracts, food service operation, the availability of Fair Trade products, and the complexities of institutional sourcing decisions. She worked with Campus Dining, Conferences and Catering on this project, which ultimately led UNH to become a Fair Trade campus.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-0eELqjW6c

Students engage in applied research and learning focused on the UNH fleet, and on opportunities to enhance active transportation (i.e. the "walking campus" and bike culture at UNH).

One example:
Bailey Jones, a Junior studying Environmental Engineering at the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, did a research project as part of his Sustainability Institute internship and presented on it at the Undergraduate Research Conference in 2021: “How Switching to Electric Vehicles Could Reduce UNH's Carbon and Nitrogen Footprints.” His research analyzed UNH’s current fleet and energy supply, examined different scenarios for UNHs future power supply, estimated the potential carbon reductions based on different levels and rates of electric vehicle adoption in UNH’s transit and non-transit fleets, adopting, and made recommendations for follow-up. To complete this project, he worked not only with the Sustainability Institute but also the UNH Energy Office and Campus Planning office.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTUnwOQGEps.

Reducing waste generation on campus and improving campus recycling and composting is an area of high student interest, and many course projects and research projects have contributed to waste reduction at UNH. A few of the most recent examples are below (all of which will be utilized in the creation of a campus-wide Zero Waste Plan, as part of a comprehensive 10 Year Sustainability Plan, during ‘AY 21-22 by the UNH Sustainability Task Force):
Chloe Gross, a sophomore Environmental Conservation & Sustainability major in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, was awarded funding from UNH’s Research Experience and Apprenticeship (REAP) to work with a staff mentor at the Sustainability Institute, as well as members of a Regional Compost Working Group, on a project “Assessing Opportunities for Regional Collaboration to Reduce the Impacts of Organic Waste.” Chloe is exploring the current “landscape” of compost program successes and challenges on the UNH campus as well as at the local school district, the Town of Durham (UNH’s host community” and the neighboring Town of Lee. Based on stakeholder interviews and case studies of successful programs in other places, she is developing recommendations for how all four of those entities can advance their composting and waste reduction goals—ideally through collaboration that will increase impact for all UNH, the school district and the local communities. Chloe’s work will inform a set of formal recommendations that will be presented to the UNH Sustainability Task Force, the town councils for both communities, and the school board, in fall 2021.
Sustainability Dual Major students did a capstone projects on “UNH’s Recycling Crisis: An Assessment of Recycling Knowledge in Relation to Behaviors” in which, through surveys, observation, and physical waste audits on campus, they explored three questions: 1) What is the general base of knowledge on recycling between students, faculty and staff? 2) What are the most prevalent types of contaminated waste are in recycling at UNH and how much of the total recycling mass does this account for? 3) Does knowledge on recycling affect the amount of contaminated waste in our recycling on campus?
See https://mypages.unh.edu/sites/default/files/sust750/files/zero_waste_poster.pdf

Kayla Conway completed a Sustainability Fellowship in 2019 working with the UNH Zero Waste Task Force and the Post-Landfill Action Network. Kayla focused on exploring the feasibility of developing a cost-benefit assessment tool to support the advancement of zero waste on UNH's campus, attempting to answer the common question of, "I agree zero-waste is a good idea, but how much will it cost?" Working with this question consisted of meetings with stakeholders to gather data and insight, drawing systems diagrams, and building financial profiles. The outcomes of the fellowship resulted in recommendations for the path towards zero-waste at UNH. See https://posters.unh.edu/gallery/view/6288/
They also furthered the development of the “ATLAS” assessment now used by PLAN with other campuses around the country. See https://www.postlandfill.org/atlas/

In spring of 2018, Megan Gordon, a wildlife and conservation biology major in the College for Life Science and Agriculture, worked with the Sustainability Institute to analyze the levels of contamination in campus recycle bins, the factors that influenced contamination levels, and strategies to reduce that contamination.

As part of the Sustainability Fellowships program, UNH students have worked for the past three summers on projects to support UNH and the Town of Durham, NH, (UNH’s host community) in their respective climate and sustainability efforts:
- conducting a joint resilience assessment for the Town and UNH see https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/energy_committee/page/46171/2019-durham-climate-resilience-assessment.pdf
- undertaking municipal and community greenhouse gas inventories (https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/energy_committee/page/46171/assessing-durham-climate-impact-2020.pdf)that incorporate UNH's emissions as an element of community emissions
- and developing recommendations for specific greenhouse gas reduction measures (which have been adopted) and public engagement strategies necessary to inform and enact plans and goals (e.g. content for the Town’s website, presentations at Town Council meetings and for the local public access television station: see https://durham.vod.castus.tv/vod/?video=3786fa5d-b43e-4521-b12f-3c93cd25139a&nav=playlists%2Fplaylists%2FTown%20Programming%202019%20-%202021.m3u8.)
All of this was undertaken with joint supervision and mentorship from the Durham mayor, and faculty and staff from UNH. The Fellows learned about climate action planning and Town-Gown relations and collaboration.

As noted above, The Treat Fellowship program was established at the University of New Hampshire in 2018 in memory of the late New Hampshire Judge William W. Treat to provide students platform for engaging in civil discourse around difference. Treat Fellows are trained to conduct meaningful conversations promoting equity, diversity and shared understanding with individuals from different social identities.

Treat Fellows assist in the design and facilitation of the Campus Conversation program. See https://carsey.unh.edu/new-hampshire-listens/about/treat-fellowship

Matt Oriente, a sophomore studying Business Administration, at the Paul College of Business and Economics, and a Sustainability Dual Major, undertook an evaluation of sustainable investing by ESG principles for the UNH Foundation as part of his semester-long fellowship in SITC@UNH (see https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/student-education-engagement/sitc-unh). Working with the UNH Treasure and with members of the UNH Committee on Investor Responsibility, he compiled ESG-specific information from each investment manager in UNH’s total portfolio, to determine what percentage of UNH’s existing investments is aligned with sustainable investing principles. Matt’s research, which found that 42% of UNH’s current portfolio is invested sustainably, was presented to the UNH Foundation Investment and Finance committee, and has helped educate and further dialogue about UNH’s investment strategies and opportunities . Mat also presented his research at the Undergraduate Research Conference in spring 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJ7qisko9w.

A few examples of wellness research utilizing UNH’s campus:
Recreation in College Woods as a Contributor to Health: In 2019, UNH graduate student Krista Rodrigues, a recreation management and policy major in the College for Health and Human Services, began working with faculty member Mike Ferguson, on a one-year study of UNH’s College Woods to, among other things, assess the extent to which visitors use the approximately 250 acres of woods, streams and small fields and what health outcomes visitors derive from that use. The goal is not only to get insight into people’s experiences in College Woods to contribute to management strategies, but also to learn about the physical and mental health outcomes visitors perceive from their experience.
This information has public health, recreation management, and land management implications that UNH and others can utilize in developing programs in the future. https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2021/01/woods

Examining the Use and Perception of Harm of JUULs by College Students: A Qualitative Study: Kendall Dapprich, a student in the College for Health and Human Services, convened focus groups of over 400 UNH students to examined the use of electronic nicotine devices, perceptions of safety of such devices, and why students continue to use them despite risks. The findings were shared with UNH Health and Wellness staff and helped are helping inform outreach related to UNH’s newly-adopted prohibition of e-nicotine devices. See https://posters.unh.edu/gallery/view/6119/