| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 49.78 |
| Liaison | Sarah Rykal |
| Submission Date | Nov. 4, 2015 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Wisconsin-Stout
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.60 / 4.00 |
Sarah
Rykal Sustainability Coordinator Sustainability Office |
Is the institution utilizing the campus as a living laboratory for multidisciplinary student learning and applied research in the following areas?:
| Yes or No | |
| Air & Climate | Yes |
| Buildings | Yes |
| Dining Services/Food | Yes |
| Energy | Yes |
| Grounds | No |
| Purchasing | No |
| Transportation | Yes |
| Waste | Yes |
| Water | Yes |
| Coordination, Planning & Governance | Yes |
| Diversity & Affordability | --- |
| Health, Wellbeing & Work | --- |
| Investment | --- |
| Public Engagement | Yes |
| Other | --- |
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Air & Climate and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office works with a number of courses to engage students in research projects that will eventually help to result our greenhouse gas emissions as a campus. These include projects in waste reduction, water, transportation, buildings, energy, food, and more. Students present their findings to the Sustainability Office and any other campus departments that are stakeholders in the particular project. The departments typically then work to implement the projects. Many of our biggest sustainability successes at UW-Stout have be spurred by these student projects.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Buildings and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office works with a number of courses to engage students in research projects that help to make our campus buildings more sustainable. Students in the Sustainability Capstone courses and the Built Environment courses have especially done a lot to enhance our campus buildings and provide research and data to make enhancements to our buildings. This includes energy assessments of buildings, looking at lighting replacements and payback, researching and suggesting green roof and sustainable furnishing options for residence hall renovations, researching greywater systems for buildings, assessing solar panels on our student center, and much more.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Dining Services/Food and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office works with a number of courses to engage students in research projects that help to make our local food systems stronger. Students in the Sustainability Capstone courses have performed three projects that have been integral to our food system at UW-Stout:
1. Researching and providing a proposal for a new campus garden, including costs, payback, and much more. This resulted in the creation of the 1/5-acre UW-Sprout Campus Garden, which serves as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) garden providing sustainably grown food to campus shareholders.
2. Auditing local and third-party certified food purchases made by our Dining Services, to provide baseline data for improving our sustainable food purchases as a campus.
3. Increasing sustainable food purchases at our campus' Child & Family Study Center.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Energy and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office works with a number of courses to engage students in research projects with the goal of reducing our energy consumption as a campus. Students in a number of undergraduate and graduate courses have done projects looking at LED lighting in campus buildings and parking lots, lighting censors in our library stacks, audits of energy use in campus buildings, social norming campaigns encouraging people to turn lights off, solar panels for campus buildings, and much more.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Grounds and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
In the past, students have researched a number of Grounds-related topics including native planting cost-benefit assessments, rain gardens, stormwater management, tree species identification to promote native trees, and more. However, to date, none of these projects have been implemented by our Grounds Department.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Purchasing and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
N/A
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Transportation and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office and Parking & the Transportation Services Department work with a number of courses to engage students in research projects with the goal of increasing alternative transportation options for our campus. Students in the Sustainability Capstone courses, the Built Environment courses, the GIS courses, and Cross-Media Graphics courses have researched covered bike storage options, improvements to our bikeshare program, bike parking options, solar-powered lighting for walking paths, bus system signage and shelters, and marketing for our bus system. These projects have resulted in increased bike infrastructure and improvements to our bus system.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Waste and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office works with a number of courses to engage students in research projects with the goal of reducing waste at our campus. Students in the Sustainability Capstone courses have performed audits of waste in all campus buildings, which provided important data for our revamped waste reduction system that greatly decreased our campus' trash rates. Students have also researched and proposed other waste reduction programs such as Terracycle, a program we now offer on our campus.
The Sustainability Office also worked with students on a grant-funded research project assessing trash levels of each of our campus dumpsters on a daily basis. This has given us important data in assessing our reduced needs for trash dumpsters as our compost and recycling programs become more popular.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Water and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
The Sustainability Office and the Memorial Student Center staff have worked with students in the Built Environment courses to research the potential for a greywater system for the student center.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Coordination, Planning & Governance and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
UW-Stout provides students with the opportunity to join the Sustainability Steering Committee (SSC) and the SSA Sustainability Council. Both of which provide opportunities for students to apply their sustainability knowledge, skills, and abilities actively on campus to promote sustainable change in governance, planning, and coordination.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Diversity & Affordability and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
N/A
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Health, Wellbeing & Work and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
N/A
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Investment and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
N/A
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory for Public Engagement and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
Students in the Sustainability Capstone have also perform sustainability-based research projects for the City of Menomonie and Dunn County. They've engaged with people outside the university to perform research that is then utilized by these people to make sustainable change in the surrounding community.
A brief description of how the institution is using the campus as a living laboratory in Other areas and the positive outcomes associated with the work:
N/A
The website URL where information about the institution’s campus as a living laboratory program or projects is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.