Dallas College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Dallas College Office of Sustainability encourages students to volunteer for campus engagement by participating in events and fairs at the beginning of each semester and during specific events. Students engage the campus at new student orientation, service learning fairs, and specific sustainability events like Earth Day, Arbor Day, Campus Race to Zero Waste. Faculty participating in the Service Learning Program will give students an assignment for a grade when students participate in campus engagement activities.

Dallas College Professor of Interior Design Kelli McCarthy partnered with local non-profit United to Learn. United to Learn matched Prof. McCarthy's students with six elementary schools from Dallas ISD to help re-design teacher's lounges with a focus on wellness at three elementary schools, front entry experience at one school, and school cafeteria at on school. Each design concept incorporated site visits, photos, and input from stakeholders. https://www.dallascollege.edu/news/pages/newsitem.aspx?ArticleId=91

Dallas College Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Charles Siegel includes the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in coursework. Specifically, ENVR-1402 includes a class project on exploring the campus' greenhouse gas emissions and ways the institution could reduce its carbon footprint. The textbook for the course is "Age of Sustainable Development" by Jeffrey Sachs, which includes an overview of the SDGs and common science-based approaches to measuring environment and socio-economic goals for climate change.

The Dallas College Construction Sciences Program incorporates green building standards such as EPA Energy Star, EPA WaterWise and USGBC-LEED across all courses. The final course of the program is CNBT-2344: Construction Management II and requires student to work on a semester-long project in team roles that mirror professional roles in industry: Project Manager, LEED Architect, Safety Officer, Project Scheduler and Budget Manager. Every semester the student teams focus on a building on campus that could become LEED certified, referencing real costs and technologies currently available in the market. The students make a final project presentation at the end of the semester with a judges panel that features advisors from the program's industry advisory board, former students alumni of the program, college leaders and sustainability staff.

Professor of Video Technology Greg Ruuska assigns his students every semester at least one sustainability education project that involves campus sustainability goals, infrastructure and programs. In 2020, Professor Ruuska's student led a video project to interview college sustainability and energy leaders about Dallas College Renewable Energy Goals.

The Richland Theater Program includes energy-efficiency lighting impact on production operations and actor comfort in curriculum and course assignments for DRAM 1120 - Greenrooms; DRAM 1121- Makeup Rooms; DRAM 2120 - Dressing Rooms; and DRAM 2121 - Backstage Rooms.

Energy efficiency topics on production design and LED lighting is included in DRAM 2331 - Stagecraft II. When the LED lighting upgrade occurred for the performance halls, theater work rooms and stage, the faculty includes these facilities upgrades into the curriculum, referencing the national theater production initiatives led by the Broadway Green Alliance.

The Dallas College Construction Sciences Program includes energy across coursework for residential construction, commercial construction, and electrician journeyman. The assignments include examples of college facilities energy projects as local and on-site projects the students can learn from. The new Construction Science Building (CSB) set to open in fall 2021 will feature a public display dashboard in the main lobby and accessible online in every classroom. The public display dashboard is intended for use by faculty to source the building's energy and sustainability features for assignments and projects across coursework.

The Dallas College El Centro Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality (CPH) Program trains students to become professionals in international cuisine and customer service. The CPH Program partners with Turn Compost to divert all pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste from the kitchens and campus restaurant that is open to the public. CPH faculty and staff teach students about best practices for safe and sanitary composting in a commercial grade professional kitchen environment and also include industry trends for organic, local and fair trade practices in the restaurant sector. https://www.dallascollege.edu/cd/credit/food-hospitality/pages/default.aspx

The Dallas College El Centro STEM Center includes two rooftop greenhouses used by the Urban Agriculture and Renewable Resources Program and new Agriculture Academy partnership with Texas A&M University at Commerce. Faculty and staff grow food crops in the rooftop greenhouses from seedlings that are transplanted to the indoor living grow wall at the El Centro Downtown Campus. Seedlings grown in the greenhouses have also been transplanted to the campus community gardens at Brookhaven, Mountain View and North Lake, and plans to expand campus-community garden support with living labs strategy will continue in the future as part of the overall college sustainability strategy. https://www.dallascollege.edu/about/sustainability/campuses/pages/ecc.aspx

The biology courses for botany and environmental biology include a campus plant walk for students to learn about native plants, climate adaptive plants, non-native plants, and invasive plants. Faculty from many disciplines utilize campus pollinator gardens and campus community gardens for specific assignments. For example, an English composition instructor will take their students to a campus garden for a specific writing assignment that is focused on sustainability topics.

The Dallas College Tree Higher Education Campus USA Program includes components of student engagement and teaching. Faculty from several disciplines utilize the program as an opportunity to reframe their curriculum to include topics of sustainability and social and environmental justice. Students contribute by helping with the campuses' tree inventories and planting trees on campus.

Dallas College sustainability education initiatives include a focus on citizen science, like using iNaturalist to identify plants and animals on the campuses. Several biology and environmental science and geology faculty utilize iNaturalist in course assignments for teaching students taxonomic classification and geographic distribution of biodiversity in an urban setting.

Student learning outcomes include being able to describe environmental hazards and risks and the social and economic ramifications associated with the interdependence of ecological and socio-economic systems. Examples of c courses that teach this include: BIOL-2406 - Environmental Biology; ENVR-1401 - Environmental Scienc; and GEOL-1405 - Environmental Science.

Several Dallas College Richland Theater courses teach students lessons on materials management, recycling, reuse, surplus disposal, ecofriendly adhesives, off-gassing of sheet goods, and different building materials available for purchase and use that meet sustainability criteria. These courses include: DRAM-1330 - Stagecraft I; DRAM 2335 - Theater Design; and DRAM 2121 - Backstage Practices. Topics covered in these classes advance students’ understanding of the connections between human quality of life and environmental health across product life cycles.

Several faculty incorporate transportation in their coursework to advance sustainability goals. Since 2018, the late Professor of Government Dr. Lynn Brink assigned her students each semester to use their free college DART GoPass and ride the bus or train to campus and then write a reflection paper on how the experience links to policy topics in Texas government.

Professor of Logistics Michael Galloway has assigned his students to explore DART routes to campuses and identify alternative transportation options where DART service did not meet student scheduling needs or provide any service to a particular campus or community. This assignment helps students in the introductory logistics course learn more about the logistics industry challenges in moving commodities.

Professor of Business and Technology Linda Ward has supported student assignments assessing campus scope 3 emissions with support of sustainability staff and facilities staff providing students with shipping-receiving data. The project resulted in a model for estimating scope 3 emissions during the months of April and October that have the highest number of deliveries and represent a reliable data sampling.

Drama and theater production classes at Dallas College include introduction to theatre, stage movement, stagecraft, makeup, costumes, acting, voice for the theatre, theatre history and introduction to cinema. Faculty place particular emphasis on the Four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink as methods for reducing waste in the creation of performing art.

The Theater Production Programs at Brookhaven, Mountain View, North Lake and Richland maintain a multi-material recycling center located in the Scene Shop where staff and students can place recyclable items according to their designation. This area features containers for used household materials, batteries, printer cartridges, scrap metal, grocery bags, and a single-stream recycling bin for various plastics, ferrous metals, aluminum and paper products. All hardware, screws, rigging, trim, moldings, pipe, and lumber that remain relatively intact after a show are disassembled, cleaned, organized according to type / physical dimensions and stored away. Any plywood larger than one sq foot and all stock lumber longer than 12” are neatly placed in scrap lumber racks for easy access when the next set is being constructed.

Richland Campus Theater Facility – Fannin Hall
The 2020-2021 school year at Richland reflects a continued commitment to teaching and modeling safe and sustainable industry practices in the interest of better serving students and proactive conservation of our planet for future generations. Theater, by its very nature, is all about reframing ideas and repurposing physical objects. Artists who work in the theater are trained to follow a creative process of translating words into actions. The vocational skills they acquire studying theater lend themselves to advocacy for positive change and the pursuit of simple solutions to complex challenges. This often involves experimentation and the ability to re-envision the ways in which students and staff interact with our work environment. The Richland theater faculty places particular emphasis on the Four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink as methods for reducing waste in the creation of performing art.

Greenroom / Makeup Rooms / Dressing Rooms
DRAM 1120 / 1121 / 2120 / 2121 Backstage Practicum
Students in Theater Practicum courses at Richland campus acquire hands-on learning using energy-efficient equipment. 2019-2020 Theatre renovations in the Fannin Hall makeup and green rooms saw the removal of old and dangerous Hollywood-style makeup mirrors surrounded by numerous incandescent lamps. These fixtures produced extreme heat and posed safety hazards with hairspray and other makeup materials. With approximately 12 lamps per 24 makeup stations at 100W per lamp replacing the 288 lamps with Rosco light pads illuminating the 20 new makeup stations improved safety, cut down on heat production, reduced air conditioning issues and greatly reduced electrical usage. The 20 mirrors are lit by almost 8 linear feet 1-1/2” wide Rosco L1 Light Pads that surround the mirrors and use approximately 28watts of electricity per mirror this reduces energy usage for the makeup mirror to a mere 560watts from the previous 28,800watts of the old incandescent makeup mirrors.

Renovations to greenroom and makeup room overhead lighting replaced numerous incandescent overhead light fixtures with 11 compact fluorescent fixtures on motion sensor timers to reduce electricity usage.

Fannin Performance Hall / Arena Theater / Backstage
DRAM 2331 Stagecraft II Introduction to Lighting Design
DRAM 1120 / 1121 / 2120 / 2121 Backstage Practicum
Students in the Stagecraft II class get hands-on experience learning the value of energy efficiency. Upgrades to the Fannin Performance Hall house light system to ETC ARC Pro net and We-ef Lighting LED fixtures have provided greater safety and reduced energy usage. Replacing 29 Par 38 250W lamps and 13 150W flood lights with 29 ETC 4 Cell Arc Pro and 13 ETC single Cell Arc Pro House lights saves 9,100 watts of energy. Additions of new specialty LED technology from We-ef Lighting allowed for the addition of lighting over stairs, in exit areas and on the front edge of the stage to improve safety. The LED technology made improved safety possible in a way incandescent fixtures could not and only added to the overall energy load by 276watts.

Converting to LED technology has allowed for energy savings, reduced maintenance costs in materials and labor to replace lamps. It has also improved safety in the makeup rooms and helped allow for safety upgrades in an aging building that was reaching its electrical load limits with incandescent fixtures. Reduced electrical consumption has allowed for safety improvements with improved electrical capacity over the system. The LED technology has also produced even fields of light in the Fannin Performance Hall for theater patrons, thereby improving safety.

In the last 7 years the Richland campus technical theater faculty worked to convert theatrical fixtures to LED technology system by system concentrating limited financial resources on high wattage, high heat producing fixtures in our stage lighting rig. Replacing 24, 2000watt 8” Fresnel’s with 15 LED Fixtures and replacing 32,000watts of Cyc lights with LED fixtures. Considering the need to upgrade other conventional fixtures, current efforts are focused on trying to replace aging inefficient arc follow spots with LED options that will reduce heat, improve artistic capabilities while reducing energy usage.

Focusing on new technology and advances on energy usage in upgrades to the sound system at Richland lead to the acquisition of a D&B Audiotechnik system that resulted in decreased energy draw while delivering the modern sound capabilities needed. Essential in an older building with limited electrical capacity struggling to meet modern audio needs.

Richland campus facilities department has been an outstanding partner in embracing sustainability, replacing high bay arc fixtures in our shops and stage spaces with LED fixtures allowing for improved safety and reduced energy usage.

Scene Shop / Costume Shop / Prop Shop / Storage Spaces
DRAM 1330 Stagecraft I
DRAM 2335 Theater Design
DRAM 1120 / 1121 / 2120 / 2121 Backstage Practicum
Sustainable practices are what distinguish theatrical production and manufacturing from many other similar industries. In the Richland scenic studios, properties storage and costume shop, most items that are pulled from stock or purchased are rethought, repurposed, inventoried and stored away for future reuse. This maxim applies to the vast majority of physical objects and equipment that appears on our stages. In Stagecraft I, Theater Design and Backstage Practicum courses, students are taught lessons on materials management, recycling, reuse, surplus disposal, ecofriendly adhesives, off-gassing of sheet goods, and different building materials available for use that meet sustainability criteria. Topics covered in these classes advance students’ understanding of the connections between human quality of life and environmental health.

In the Scene Shop, many of the materials utilized for manufacturing and construction are conveniently reusable. All hardware, screws, rigging, trim, moldings, pipe, and lumber that remain relatively intact after a show are disassembled, cleaned, organized according to type / physical dimensions and stored away. Any plywood larger than one sq foot and all stock lumber longer than 12” are neatly placed in scrap lumber racks for easy access when the next set is being constructed.

Richland Theater Production keeps a multi-material recycling center located in the Scene Shop where staff and students can place recyclable items according to their designation. This area features containers for used household materials, batteries, printer cartridges, scrap metal, grocery bags, and a single-stream recycling bin for various plastics, ferrous metals, aluminum and paper products.

The Richland Costume Shop acts as a laboratory for imaginative uses of textiles and a repository for used clothing, hats and shoes. All items in stock are kept clean, neatly organized and filed according to type. In this way, every costume inventory acts as a sort of museum for preserving and repurposing vintage garments. After a show closes, the costume items that were utilized are laundered and all added adornments like buttons, Velcro and trim are removed and placed in a drawer for later use. Any large bolts of fabric are put back on the shelf. Smaller scraps are cut into miniscule “swatches” for use in costume design classes. All unusable textile remnants are placed in a bucket for recycling into useful materials like furniture stuffing and home insulation. Costume construction materials and supplies are organized and accessible for sustained reuse. The Costume Shop Laundry Room features high-efficiency front load machines that reduce water usage and allow for appropriate steam cleaning to eliminate health hazards of shared and stored costumes.

Properties design is a collage art form that mixes and matches found objects to make extraordinary compositions and functional tools of storytelling. The Richland Props room is full of unique items that might end up in a landfill were they not so useful to artists who manipulate them as a painter would use paint, as a medium for their art. The Props Room is full of cast-off, eclectic and hard-to-find items that are organized and inventoried according to type. When a script calls for a certain prop, it can be pulled from stock rather than purchased new. This helps reduce waste and keep show budgets within scope.

Productions / Professional Affiliations
With an eye towards the future of the performing arts industry, the Richland Theater faculty have incorporated novel pedagogy into the theater curriculum by allowing sustainability to be central to the concept phase of the creative process. Richland theater has also established and maintained relationships with professional organizations that benefit theater students, focus on innovation and promote sustainable industry practices.

These initiatives are exemplified in the approach to productions like A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This show won, among other accolades, the award of excellence for “Innovative Production Design with Sustainable Materials” at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The concept of the show focused on human’s relationship with nature and our responsibility to care for our planet. The design incorporated found objects, refuse and renewable materials to create the scenery and costumes. For example, the set was comprised of a curtain made entirely out of 1,426 plastic bottles retrieved from refuse and recycling receptacles on campus and elsewhere. Costumes were constructed using, discarded plastic bags, straws and parts of old electronics, among other items.

Additionally, Richland enjoys an official relationship with Earth X, an international, nonprofit environmental forum whose purpose is to educate and inspire people to action towards a more sustainable future. As part of the agreement, Richland theater design students receive invitations to participate in public forums and exhibitions at Earth X events. For example, students presented their research and costume designs at the Earth X Dallas Sustainable Costume / Fashion Design event where they were celebrated for their innovative use of renewable or discarded materials. This was a magnificent chance for the students to gain professional conceptualization and presentation skills. Richland continues to seek new initiatives and opportunities for theater students to forge professional connections and embrace innovative, ecological and contemporary approaches to creating art.

Dallas College participates in the annual NWF Campus Race to Zero Waste Competition, formerly known as RecycleMania. The annual competition takes place every February and March providing opportunities for faculty and students to participate directly in measuring the campus waste and recycling streams. Science laboratory scales, yard sticks and data worksheets are provided to students to conduct both detailed waste audits and random sampling waste audits. The students collect the waste and recycling data and then provide their summaries to their instructors for class assignment credit and provide to college sustainability staff for reporting needs for the competition and for AASHE-STARS reporting. Professor of Anthropology Dr. Lesley Daspit incorporated a class assignment to map out all the recycling and waste bins around campus, highlighting anthropological concepts of studying artifacts like trash that allow for inference of culture and sustainable behavior.

Faculty from biology, environmental science and geology include in their coursework water quality testing of campus lakes and rivers. Texas rivers are small, and referred to as creeks, and provide students an applied learning opportunity to study water quality. The results of the water quality testing are submitted to the sustainability office and various departments and campus leadership. Water quality testing standards follow disciplinary guidelines. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) guidelines, and Texas Stream Team Program from the Texas State University Meadows Center for the Environment. Some campuses have unique waterways managed by different local and state agencies. The Richland Campus Student Green Team worked with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to assess fish biodiversity habitat and impact of migratory geese. TPWD Urban Biodiversity Program supports all Dallas College campuses with general needs for student learning with the iNaturalist program, including identification of plants and animals in riparian zones along campus lakes and streams.

Several faculty from graphic design and video technology utilize the campus infrastructure for advancing sustainability goals by focusing coursework and assignments on campus sustainability features that could be enhanced. Professor of Design Leslie Davis assigned her students to survey students at Brookhaven about the Windmill Garden. Students utilized the survey results to design new signs for the campus and the garden, resulting in some signs being adopted and implemented at the Windmill Garden.

Professor of Video Technology Greg Ruuska assigned his students every semester at least one campus sustainability project that involves campus sustainability goals, infrastructure and programs. Professor Ruuska's students have had assignments making videos for RecycleMania, Tree Higher Education Campus USA, and Dallas College Renewable Energy Goals.

Several faculty from sociology and psychology discuss sustainability topics of diversity and affordability in their coursework and assignments.

Professor of Sociology Rachelle Powell has hosted several special events for her courses by inviting community guest speakers to campus to talk about student resources and community issues around topics like human trafficking and the interconnectedness of economic and human rights violations and environmental degradation. In Texas, 75% of human trafficking is forced labor predominately in the agriculture sector, and 25% of human trafficking is forced sexual exploitation predominately in urban environments.

Professor of Psychology and Sociology Elgrie Hurd, III discusses sustainability topics of diversity and affordability in his courses of general psychology, biological psychology and lifespan growth and development utilizing institutional initiatives and resources to help advance sustainability to examine how biological processes of people and the environment impact public health and well-being.

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Professors of Kinesiology Keith McKinnon and Cherilyn Cox incorporate sustainability assignments in their coursework in topics of urban agriculture, growing fresh foods at home and on campus, and its importance to fitness, health and wellness.

The data submitted in this STARS credit includes campus as a living lab practices from September 1, 2018 to June 14, 2021. Sources include survey of representative samples and direct conversations with leadership and faculty about specific courses and programs.