Williams College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Zilkha Center academic year and summer internship program includes a range of projects and learning opportunities for students that include or focus on campus engagement. Examples include working with Dining Services and creating outreach campaigns to reduce the climate impact of our food procurement, preparation, and waste management, using building and campus energy use data to better understand and communicate such patterns and ways to conserve energy and reduce GHG emissions (e.g., one student is currently researching Williams solar PV systems to help inform our community and others about the different options available and their economics), and students developing signage and a management plan for our on-campus gardens, meadows and other pollinator-friendly spaces (e.g., one student is developing a proposal for becoming a bee-friendly campus). Students also participate in sustainability learning and community engagement as members of the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC), which meets monthly during the academic year to advance campus sustainability by developing guidelines (e.g., our carbon offset purchasing guidelines) and policies (e.g., travel GHG emission reductions and landscape management). The popular Environmental Planning course taught every year by faculty from the Center for Environmental Studies always offers a range of community-based, community-centered projects addressing sustainability topics (transportation, housing, environmental justice).

Various courses, volunteer opportunities, and college-funded research projects encourage positive and productive student engagement with the local community. Examples include the Environmental Planning course offered through the Center for Environmental Studies (CES), which provides local sustainability research, problem-solving and engagement opportunities, the programming offered by Center for Learning in Action (CLiA) (see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfSSusxZcJo), the Zilkha Center's partnerships with community organizations such as the Williamstown COOL Committee (CO2 Lowering Committee), experiential Winter Study courses, and more. Another example is the new Community Engagement internship position created by the Zilkha Center starting in the 2021/22 academic year. The intern selects a community engagement project, researches and designs its goals and develops and implemented the strategies for achieving it.

Several student research assistants contributed in the spring of 2021 to academic research into Williams College's historic greenhouse gas emissions. The work included diving into the archives, interviewing former employees and local businesses and museum directors to chart more than 100 years of energy consumption using wood, coal, heating oil, natural gas and increasingly renewables.

In the summer of 2021, a student researched green building initiatives on campus, such as dorm thermal comfort, sustainable building planning, and designed templates for post-occupancy surveys.

In the summer 2021 a student researched the history of energy use by the College, including the central plant and several selected buildings as an energy and climate lens into the College's history and impact on local communities and the world.

In the summer of 2021 students researched and partnered with Dining Services to study the adoption of the Cool Foods Pledge and the Real Food Challenge. Additionally, other students worked on developing composting systems for food waste at the College's dining halls and in employee kitchens.

In the summer of 2021 and in the fall of 2021 students researched and developed proposals for making sustainability more visible on and around campus through signage, consistent messaging, and to create more livable, community-oriented spaces at and inside the Class of 1966 Environmental Center building, which is the home of the academic environmental studies program and the sustainability office (Zilkha Center).

In the summer of 2021 students researched possibilities to bring more environmentally friendly and socially conscious personal hygiene products to campus by purchasing from Generation Conscious (GenCo). The students assessed the interest and potential for distributing GenCo products (laundry sheets and toothpaste tablets) and conducted a pilot that yielded helpful data for a potential future expansion (e.g., yes to laundry sheets, no yes yet to toothpaste tablets). As part of the College's Zero Waste Action Planning (ZWAP) process, students are also involved with the Zilkha Center in identifying preferred products and vendors and associated guidelines to advance green procurement at Williams.

Students involved with the Purple Bike Coalition did a lot of research and planning over the past 2 years for the purpose of proposing an expanded bike shed that would support a larger number of bicycles, tools, and bicycle repairs by the Coalition. There services are important to Williams students in part due to the rural character of the region and the limited access to public transportation and the desire to reduce reliance on cars.

The Zilkha Center's Zero Waste interns are leading exemplary efforts to research, design and implement a Surplus Goods Storage and Management system as well as other strategies to help Williams become a Zero Waste campus. The annual Give it up! campaign (https://learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/give-it-up/) involves students to collect, sort, reuse and repurpose as well as donate unwanted items at the end of the academic year.

In spring 2021 students reached out to the Zilkha Center and participated in a study on the need for more and improved drinking water and bottle refilling stations on campus. It was identified that such stations are unevenly distributed around campus and in some cases their locations are not widely known by students, which results in the unnecessary purchase of bottled water and associated plastic waste and petroleum consumption. The outcome of the survey contributed to several new "goose neck" water dispensers and hydration stations being set up on campus.

Student representatives with the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC) as well as students serving on the Strategic Plan working groups on sustainability, land use and DEI have, over the past two years, learned about and engaged in meaningful planning, design and coordination efforts to develop the Strategic Plan with sustainability and DEI as cross-cutting themes and the travel GHG reduction policy proposal, which is currently under revision.

Every summer, before the academic school year begins, Williams college organizes freshman orientation trips. One trip is called "Root", which is co-led by students, aims to connect with grassroots community organizations to foster informed change-agents on campus and beyond, and explore Soul Fire Farm, where students interactively learn and participate in workshops focusing on environmental justice. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Affordability are also topics that Zilkha Center interns learn about and discuss in mentored weekly sessions.

Williams College has an active group of students studying and advocating for divestment and/or impact investing. Through courses in the economics department, a dedicated Winter Study course "Impact Investing" offered by members of the College's Investment Committee, student activism and other channels, students gain an understanding of the structure of Williams' endowment, its management and opportunities for incorporating impact and ESG goals and metrics.

Ultimate Wellness: Concepts for a Happy Healthy Life is a course that provides an opportunity to drastically improve one's life by introducing concepts that can start making a difference in the way one feels. The class approaches nutrition, lifestyle, and happiness from a holistic perspective. Students will learn how to tune out mixed media messages and look within to find ultimate health and wellness. Topics include: Ayurveda, cleansing, preventative medicine, mindfulness and meditation, food intolerance awareness, healthy eating and meal planning, deconstructing cravings and overcoming sugar addiction, healthy skin care, and finding your happiness. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Nicole Anagnos is Health Coach and Director at Zen Tree Wellness in Williamstown. She is co-founder of the organic skin care company, Klo Organic Beauty. She also holds a master’s degree in education.