Turning a Campus into a Living Sustainability Lab at ASU: Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference

Bonny Bentzin and Arianne Peterson from ASU presented on the ability of campuses to act as labs for sustainability practices, particularly when it comes to students, who are active and tend to have higher levels of engagement than any other demographic group. Using student enthusiasm as a tool means that ASU, with a population of 80k, has enormous potential.

ASU is urban, with a population of 80k and four campuses. With more students than seats and an arid Arizona environment, Bonny makes the point that if no one can figure out sustainability, ASU will be one of the first casualties. To that end, the university has ambitious goals of zero waste (this is launching, and solid waste is hoped to be at zero within 5 years) and carbon neutrality. They find that the biggest challenges are lost connections between Operations and mission statements, the fact that campuses function in multiple scales of time (students think in semesters, the crisis team is very short-term, faculty tend to plan years ahead, and administration must operate on all levels), and the sheer amount of problems plaguing such a large university. But in a glass-half-full mentality, lots of problems mean lots of opportunity, and students' frequent lack of a "no-can-do" filter makes them a powerful force.


The Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU is the hub for all of the university's sustainability-related activities. It provides chances for the university to lead through example by developing projects and internships. The goals are to connect students/faculty/staff, by implementing a common time frame, encourage interdisciplinary studies, promoting accountability, and providing better understanding of how to navigate university systems. The return of investment will be seen in a widened scope, the ability of members to gain a sense of ownership over their initiatives, course credits and research opportunities.

The strength of this program (title CLLN, for Campus Living Laboratory Network) is its connection between active learning, engagement and research. What that means is that students are doing academic work and publishing on, say, water use (active research), while also doing more interdisciplinary work in other classes, like studying the intersection of agriculture and building in green roofs (active learning) and even proposing projects to the Green Action Fund on eco-friendly dorms (active engagement). It should go without saying, but all of these elements are deeply interconnected, and helps to overcome the time-frame and communication barriers described earlier by engaging every element of the campus community.

Final notes: I like the focus that Bonny and Arianne place upon the importance of celebrating successes and not letting bureaucracy get in the way of opportunity. I'd also like to plug for the Fellows program at the National Wildlife Federation. One particular student at ASU is a Fellow, which means that NWF chose her proposal (among others) to fund and support. She's doing an assessment of local restaurants and their policies towards recycling and organic/local food. Once she has a clear picture of the ASU eating scene, she will give support to restaurants interested in getting involved, and provide information to campus members who want to search for more sustainable food. Our other fellows are doing a variety of projects on climate change and environmental issues all over the country, so check our website for more info!

**I'm Xarissa Holdaway from the Campus Ecology team at the National Wildlife Federation. I'm live-blogging the UMD Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference, and will be checking in every few hours over the next two days to tell you what I'm learning. Please forgive any spelling/grammar typing mistakes, I'm doing this on the fly and will be returning to edit later!