University of Texas at Austin
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
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4.00 / 4.00 |
Jill
Parrish Program Coordinator, Green Fee Office of Sustainability |
Campus Engagement
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Campus Engagement:
Undergraduate students in College of Communications in class ADV 378 – Environmental Communication partner with a different campus operational unit every spring semester.
Excerpt from Spring 2024 syllabus:
This course combines discussions of current environmental events with hands-on agency/client experience to help students understand how to develop authentic communication strategies and tactics that can protect the environment and advance cutting-edge sustainability technologies.
In Spring 2024, Environmental Communication will be centered around an established collaboration with our clients at UT’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Department. Your primary task for the semester: Publicize the newly established Longhorns Don't Litter (LDL) Club, with the goal of building awareness of the need to protect the Waller Creek Watershed on and around campus.
Environmental Communication students will work as an advertising and PR agency with the EHS clients while managing a budget with funds from a Green Fund grant. Tactics will include establishing and growing the new LDL student organization, and promoting the LDL campaign leading up to Earth Day 2024 (April 22). You’ll also enhance the LonghornsDontLitter.org website.
This course is ideal for students of all disciplines who may be interested in focusing on sustainability and the environment in their careers–no matter if they’re in communication, the arts, sciences, business, engineering, liberal arts and more. All students will exit the class with significant real-world experience for their portfolios and resumes.
Public Engagement
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Public Engagement:
Climate Leaders Program:
The UT Office of Sustainability launched the UT Climate Leaders Program (https://sustainability.utexas.edu/get-involved/ut-climate-leaders-program) in of Fall 2022. The Climate Leaders Program (Climate LEAP) offers a cohort of ten undergraduate interns hands-on, practical experience developing a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan for a UT college, school, or unit. Climate LEAP is a year-long, paid internship program open to undergraduates of ALL majors. Climate Leaders work in interdisciplinary pairs, with one student acting as a Climate Data Analyst and the other as a Climate Engagement Specialist. Each pair works with a single college. Climate LEAP cohort meetings include presentations, workshops, and discussions led by experts in diverse fields, providing students with the broad knowledge base needed to be successful as future sustainability and climate professionals. Each Climate Leader earns a Carbon Footprinting Certificate from the University of New Hampshire. At the end of the program, Climate Leaders utilize all their newly developed skills to present a final emissions reduction plan to the dean or leader of their college, school, or unit.
Project Advance Austin:
UT’s Project Advance Austin (https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/leadership/projectadvance.php) program is a yearlong project management program partnering with local nonprofits where students can utilize their newly acquired skills to manage real projects for the community. For instance, student teams in previous years have collaborated with AGE of Central Texas, focusing on programs for the elderly; Caritas of Austin, addressing homelessness and poverty; Creative Action, advocating for arts education; Out Youth, supporting LGBTQ+ youth; and Women's Storybook Project of Texas, aiding incarcerated mothers and their children through literacy initiatives. See website for current year community partnerships. These partnerships underscore the program's commitment to addressing a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and environmental challenges. By working closely with these organizations, students gain hands-on experience in project management while making meaningful contributions to their community.
Air & Climate
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Air & Climate:
Students in Dr. Misztal’s lab will utilize the Vocus Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass-Spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) to quantify concentrations and source emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in various university spaces, including classrooms, laboratories, corridors, and some outdoor environments. An accompanying suite of smaller instruments will measure other compounds such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone, and relevant factors like temperature and relative humidity.
Buildings
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Buildings:
Supervised by faculty member Dr. Fernanda Leite, in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. Leveraging augmented reality (AR) technology, this project attempts to raise public awareness and comprehension of sustainable systems around campus, initially highlighting one specific campus building — the Engineering Education and Research Center (EER). The Sustainable Systems Virtual Tour application will be available to all UT students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors. Users will be able to access information on sustainable systems’ features implemented in EER by scanning QR codes located throughout the building. This will lead them to an interactive augmented reality application that will run on smartphones, for broader accessibility. The project consists of two phases: the development of the AR application and launching the application. This project's ultimate goal is to highlight campus sustainability-related innovations, making our campus a living laboratory. Each innovation can be a learning opportunity for our community on sustainable solutions in the built environment. In addition, it will serve as an example for institutions interested in using technology to educate the public about sustainability.
Energy
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Energy:
The “Digital Twin” energy project, a research project led by Dr. Zoltan Nagy, was published and completed in 2023. The project created a virtual representation of campus to display past, present, and future energy usage in buildings across campus. The point was to start a discussion of energy usage on campus and potentially find ways to reduce consumption. The team included graduate students, faculty, and staff.
To reduce HVAC energy inefficiencies, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) have become a growing field of interest. In particular, air handling units (AHU), devices that circulate air and regulate room temperature and humidity, are the primary focus of most HVAC FDD systems. A data-driven FDD for AHUs on a university campus would fill a role in reducing HVAC energy consumption, which remains one of the main drivers in total building energy use and consequently impacts the total global CO2 emissions. Fault detection and diagnostics for HVAC systems can potentially reduce 10-40% of total building energy consumption. https://www.ie-lab.org/project/data-driven-energy-savings-estimation/
Food & Dining
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Food & Dining:
University Housing and Dining joined the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. Students in class NTR 334, a Nutrition Sciences class in the College of Natural Sciences taught by Diane Papillion, paired up with the registered dieticians of Housing and Dining to create menus and recipes which focus on Menus of Change. They focused on ways to decrease food waste through well-written recipes and local ingredients.
Here is the project description:
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Objective: At the completion of the project, student(s) will be able to:
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Apply entry-level dietetic and food service management skills to develop menus and/or recipes.
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Understand the primary elements of food allergens.
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Recognize the advantages of utilizing a collaborative approach in management decision making.
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Assignment tied to dietetic knowledge requirements:
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KRDN 3.6 Develop nutritionally sound meals, menus, and meal plans that promote health and disease management and meet client’s/patient’s needs.
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KRDN 4.1 Apply management theories to the development of program and services.
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KRDN 5.5 Promote team involvement and recognize the skills of each member.
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Spring 2024 Project: develop a cycle menu and recipe designed for a UT student
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Background: You are the RDN for UT-Austin Housing and Dining. Your supervisor has received complaints from a local UT-Austin chapter of the Teen Advisory Group (TAG) that the Fresh and Simple Tastes (FAST) line does not serve breakfast. TAG has mentioned this may be a violation of the Americans with Disability Act.
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Your supervisor has tasked you with creating an appropriate breakfast cycle menu and one new recipe to get the culinary team started. The culinary team will further develop your recipe and others based upon your cycle menu.
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This is a team-based project with three parts to it:
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1. Assessment Quiz
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2. Menu Development
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3. Presentation of Final Project and Recipe
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Grounds
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Grounds:
The Brackenridge Field Lab consists of over a dozen distinct habitat types that are largely related to the site’s land-use history. Each habitat, whether it is a result of quarrying, farming, or flooding, has its own unique community and successional trends. Since the year 2000, undergraduate students have biannually collected survey data from these habitats that provide canopy and sapling tree density and species information on over 3000 trees. These long-term records allow us to predict how the composition of tree communities is shifting due to stresses like drought or disease. Student surveys have also identified which areas have experienced invasion by exotic shrubs and how these shrub populations responded to varying levels of deer herbivory. This data informs our management decisions, suggesting target areas to test restoration techniques and evaluate their effectiveness.
Undergraduate students conduct ecological research on the turtle population in the UT Austin turtle pond.
Purchasing
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Purchasing:
Transportation
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Transportation:
Waste
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Waste:
Dr. Chris Rausch is utilizing student researchers to gather data related to the Erwin Center demolition and hopefully create a blueprint for reusing building materials beyond the core ingredients like concrete and steel. An innovative partnership between Texas Engineers, The University of Texas at Austin's Office of Sustainability, and the construction team on the $25 million Erwin Center demolition project has led to the mapping and cataloging of reusable materials in the building, such as doors, chairs, tile, carpet, electronics and more.
This partnership will result in a set of policy recommendations that the University will apply to future capital projects, creating a more sustainable construction process. It will allow future project teams to improve methods for salvaging materials.
UT Resource Recovery student interns conduct waste audits on select campus buildings and report their findings to building occupants. Data is used to create targeted zero-waste educational materials and outreach.
TRecs Desktop Support Services provides gently used computers at a deep discount to our customer departments. These Depot laptops and desktops find renewed lives while providing both performance and technical support at great savings. Both Dell and Apple computers have wide variety of specifications to suit the needs of departmental student workers, interns, and staff. The program hires undergraduate students to clean the devices, imaging, and deployment preparation.
Water
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Water:
The Freshman Research Initiative regularly conducts water quality testing on the segment of Waller Creek that travels through campus.
Coordination & Planning
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Coordination & Planning:
Diversity & Affordability
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Diversity & Affordability:
Students associated with Project Advance Austin, a yearlong project management and leadership development program, are working with the campus food pantry (UT Outpost https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/utoutpost.php) to develop outreach materials. The goal of the initiative is to provide resources to help students better utilize the food pantry and make healthy choices. https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/leadership/projectlead.php
(These programs have been reviewed and are in compliance with SB17. See additional note below.)
Investment & Finance
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Investment & Finance:
Wellbeing & Work
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Wellbeing & Work:
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Reporting for this credit reflects the current state of activities as of summer 2024. See note in PRE-1 regarding impact of Texas Senate Bill 17 on our STARS submittal.
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.