George Mason University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

• University Sustainability hosts daily volunteer opportunities at its hydroponic greenhouse, permaculture garden, and organic vegetable garden sites as well as during annual events. In fiscal year 2023, there were over 6,800 recorded volunteer and experiential learning hours from students, faculty, and staff at green events, clean ups, and campus sustainability sites. Additional workshops, for example tree grafting, are also a part of the regular experiential learning opportunities at those sites.

• Students in EVPP 480: Sustainability in Action, as part of this capstone course, develop an implementable campus project to enhance sustainability at Mason. In FY 23, teams of students in this class implemented surveys and promotions about alternative transportation options on campus, revitalized a campus garden, restored existing bee hotels, conducted bird nest mapping, and explored innovations with a hydropower microturbine. To complete these projects, students worked closely with campus stakeholders and shared their results with University Sustainability at the end of the semester to provide feedback for how Mason can improve its campus environment.

• The Civic Fellows Program is a one year paid engaged service program for Mason students. Civic Fellows are matched with Community Partners to complete 8-10 hours per week of service on a project proposed by the Community Partner. Students engage in a cohort model to participate in pre-service training and professional development workshops throughout the year. As part of the cohort experience, students are introduced to concepts of social justice, civic learning, and anti-racism. In 2022-23, University Sustainability partnered with fellows to reduce single-use plastics in operations and engage the community about plastics pollution. 2023-2024 partner sites include a community food pantry called "Food for Others" with a mission of distributing food to neighbors in need by mobilizing the community and volunteers.

• In April 2023, multiple waste audits and a campus clean-up conducted at George Mason University by Mason Facilities, Student Government, and University Sustainability contributed an estimated 1,555 single-use plastic items, weighing 58.4 pounds to Celia Ledón’s The Shape of Water installation, visible at the Reach (Welcome Pavilion) in the Kennedy Center from March 22 – April 23, 2023.

In 2022, A graduate student led an interdisciplinary research project to teach Mason students to collect, process, analyze, and communicate about how Mason’s local ecosystem responds to the effects of climate change, creating a visible marker for an otherwise invisible impact. By having students collect and analyze data on the bloom date of the cherry blossom trees at Mason Pond, (part of their coursework in STAT490 and STAT634) and integrating it with Mason’s local meteorological data, variations can be tracked over time to develop more accurate predictive models.

• In 2021, as part of University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund projects, The Men's Soccer Team locker room was renovated for the first time in 35 years deliberately featuring sustainable upgrades including new lockers made from recycled content and responsibly sourced materials, a dimmer switch with mercury-free and energy-efficient LED lights, and new flooring constructed from bio-based materials.

• In spring 2022, the School of Art made upgrades to their print studio, using another of University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund grants, to include a new energy efficient printing machine that uses 95% less energy than a photocopier and does not produces greenhouse gases or air pollutants. They all received new tools for papermaking to teach students how to create new sheets of paper from a blended pulp of leftover paper scraps. In addition, in fall 2022, Mason Exhibitions created a free, art supply, sharing cabinet within the School of Art as a socially-conscious resource that provides access to valuable art supplies that aren’t always affordable, promotes a culture of sharing amongst students, and encourages recycling unused or unneeded materials instead of throwing them away. Civil Engineering Capstone Projects included stormwater recommendations; recycling bins; refill stations; greenhouse automation and vertical shelving; MAX-R unit in Starbucks; sustainable print studio; locker room renovation.

In 2021, a team of undergraduate student engineers wrote a proposal to install ground-mounted solar panels at Mason's Presidents Park Greenhouse which the University Sustainability office manages. The proposal received funding from the office's Patriot Green Fund as well as Facilities Management and is actively being worked on by a project team of students, staff, faculty, and external consultants. The student team met with stakeholders, reached out to vendors, conducted analysis, and participated in surveying to support the installation of the panels. Gaining valuable professional experience in the process.

• In Summer 2023, the development of a "Foragers Forest" was the first project to receive seed funding from the "Mason as a Living Lab" program. This initiative, led by a campus graduate student with support from staff, faculty, and external partners, will create an educational space designed for foragers education that focuses on native and edible plants. This space will increase access to nutritious foods, provide a distinctive and inclusive student experience, and serve as a focal point for research and scholarship on food security and wildlife conservation. This will be a space for classes, clubs and civic associations to learn when and how to safely and legally forage for wild foods. Foragers Forest; Reusable Container Kiosk; Weight the Waste; Greenhouse & Gardens Food Insecurity Efforts

• On Thursday, April 6, 2023 Mason celebrated Mason Vision Day – an opportunity for the Mason community to come together each year to identify and support a deserving initiative on campus. This year’s efforts address campus food insecurity, supporting Mason students who have limited access to sufficient or quality food. Food insecurity on college campuses is a rising, problematic trend that Mason is committed to combating. The Greenhouse and Gardens Program partners with the Patriot Pantry – a university program that provides food-insecure students access to non-perishable food and hygiene items. The Patriot Pantry serves hundreds of students every semester, and partners with the Greenhouse & Gardens program to fill the gap of providing perishable and fresh foods. The Greenhouse and Garden’s Program donates the food produced from its aquaponics system to those in need. Donations include, but are not limited to: tomatoes, lettuce, kale, and bok choy. In order to grow and harvest the produce, the PPG relies heavily on its volunteers. Anyone can gain hands-on experience with both hydroponic and aquaponic systems while volunteering. Inside the greenhouse, participants can learn how to compost indoors with worms, harvest crops, sow and transplant seedlings, solve pest issues using natural organic methods, and support a thriving farm-to-table sustainable food operation.

• In Fall 2022, Artist Katie Kehoe led a group of volunteers to plant 100 native trees on Mason’s Fairfax campus. This project served as a socially engaged performance action, accompanying several artworks by Kehoe in the public art exhibition,
“Approaching Event Horizons: Projects on Climate Change,” presented by Mason Exhibitions.

• In Spring 2021, George Mason University Arboretum earned ArbNet Level II accreditation. The Arboretum is overseen by a collaborative board of students, staff, and faculty who leverage the arboretum as a learning tool for the campus community.

• Between 2020 -2021, two different teams of students used University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund grants to lead service projects that work to reforest the grassy area next to Rappahannock Parking Deck. Together they planted 7 trees and 6 shrubs. All were native to the area and beneficial to local wildlife.

Plastics Free Mason Civic Fellows were engaged in a year-long (2022-2023) project to reduce the institution's purchasing of single-use plastic products. In particular, one of the major projects was to prevent single-use plastics bottles from being re-introduced to the campus in fall 2022 and spring 2023, and instead to purchase products that come in aluminum cans that are endlessly recyclable. Fellows collaborated with student government, sustainability staff, and the wider community to develop presentations and outreach campaigns, which they delivered to senior-leadership in official meetings and to the community through flyers, web, kiosking, and classroom presentations. Additionally, students worked on project regarding t-shirt purchasing, inventorying Mason's purchasing records and making recommendations for waste reduction.

In Spring 2023, three student teams completed projects to assess and improve the accessibility of alternative transportation options on campus. One team created a promotional campaign to increase the usage of the bike check out program. Another student group, in collaboration with the Office of Parking & Transportation, conducted a survey and created a promotional campaign to encourage staff and students to carpool to campus. Finally, a third group conducted a survey and did outreach to educate the campus community about the options and incentives provided by the Mason Transportation Office for engaging in sustainable behaviors.

Over the summer of 2021, a group of undergraduate students worked with University Sustainability and Facilities Management to bring Big Belly Solar Compactors to campus. Piloted through one of University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund grants, a set of three units were introduced to the patio of Starbucks on campus and had streams for trash, recycling, and composting. This was paired by a multi-stream waste station inside of the Starbucks to introduce front-of-house composting on campus and serve a test-bed for assessing contamination rates. As a result of these successful efforts, University Sustainability was awarded a grant in the Spring of 2023 to order 51 more solar compacting units and standardize them into Mason's infrastructure in order to reduce litter/ blow away, improve yellow jacket and bee issues around food patio trash, reduce staff time for pickups, and reduce overflow issues.

The WATER (Watershed and Aquatic Teams for Education and Research) consortium at Mason held a symposium on Oct 10, 2022 at the Potomac Science Center. Mason faculty, staff, and students who work with water in any way: art, research, community engagement, etc. were invited to present their work or attend the presentations and network with other attendees. One of the featured presentations was a storm drain marking project from a Mason graduate student to educate the community about the harms of improper dumping at storm drains on campus.

The Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) and the Business for a Better World Center are coordinating Mason’s 17 Rooms-U initiative, a series of deep dive discussions into the SDGs. 17 Rooms is a proven catalyst for engaging, inspiring, and shaping an organization’s mission around the goal. Participants with diverse expertise and perspectives were invited to convene in 17 small groups – one group per SDG – and work together to identify actions their organization can take within 12-18 months to make progress toward their goal. The process of 17 Rooms-Mason kicked off in Spring 2021 with 2-3 pre-summit convenings in the summer leading to Mason’s 17 Rooms-U Summit that was held on October 1, 2021. Participants included students, staff, faculty and community members. Participants were invited to apply for Seed Funding awards for their ideas and 9 initiatives that ranged across the SDGs received funding for their projects. 17 Rooms is scheduled to continue in October 2023. During this week, Rooms will meet for a guided discussion focused on a Sustainable Development Goal, and together they will determine one tangible action or outcome of their collaboration (such as a white paper, webinar, or development of a resource).

In 2023, one of the Summer Team Impact Projects covered the topic of "Indigenous Environmental Mapping and Resilience Planning" (https://youtu.be/Q2dAoc53ryU)

After centuries of marginalization, Indigenous nations in the Commonwealth of Virginia have successfully mobilized for recognition and self-determination in recent decades. However, environmental stressors pose considerable threats to these communities as they work to restore stewardship over tribal lands and waters.

Based in a partnership between the Chickahominy Indian Tribe and George Mason researchers, this project aims to collect, organize, and analyze socio-environmental data to support Tribal sovereignty in the realm of environmental decision-making. The research focuses in two specific areas. First, to follow the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty to collect, organize, and archive environmental data pertaining to recently reacquired tribal lands (e.g., wildlife assessments, air and water quality data, GIS and remote sensing data modeling applications). Second, to work with Chickahominy community members to build capacity for food sovereignty and community health initiatives.

The data collection and management goals of this project directly inform applied research efforts, and together these tasks support the broader aim of Indigenous-led landscape restoration. An additional goal of this project is to continue perfecting the engaged research methodologies through which sustained, equitable, and justice-affirming partnerships with Indigenous communities can produce mutually-beneficial outcomes for all.

• In 2021, one of the Summer Team Impact Projects covered the topic of "COVID-19’s Impact on Under-Resourced/Underrepresented College Students and their Peers." In the U.S., there have been more than 13 million COVID-19 infections and 260,000 related deaths. The novel coronavirus has had a disastrous effect on the daily lives of Americans, adversely affecting education, employment, food security, health, and housing. COVID-19 significantly challenges college students’ academic performance, particularly among under-resourced and underrepresented undergraduate students. The study relied on focus groups and semi-structured interviews to examine the effects of COVID-19 on different groups of students at Mason. Given the great diversity of the student body at Mason, the information gathered will improve understanding of the interaction between various socioeconomic/demographic factors and COVID-19-related barriers to a college education and a healthy lifestyle. Specifically, this study will gauge how the pandemic has affected behaviors, mood, relationships, and habits of young adults. The research team will share findings with Mason administration, faculty and staff, and students. Through publishing and making presentations to local audiences, it is hoped that the findings will inform policymakers, who can then discuss how to address discovered challenges and implement appropriate interventions to support students who are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

• The Patriot Green Fund is a $100,000 annual sustainability grant from Mason Facilities that provides funding for projects that improves the sustainability of Mason's campuses. Many of these projects are generated by students in sustainability classes and use the campus as a living laboratory. Students apply the knowledge learned in their studies and develop project management skills by implementing their ideas to help Mason achieve its sustainability goals. Applicants need to conduct an analysis of the financial impacts of their project and whether or not there is a return on investment. As part of this process the PGF Committee, which consists of students, staff, and faculty, decide how to spend the fund each year and determine which projects are the best investment for campus.

• Mason finance students are able to pursue independent research projects and, in September 2021, a graduate student's research that assessed the risk of ESG funds was published in the Wall Street Journal.

• The Center for the Advancement of Well-Being (CWB) is located at George Mason University, serving university populations and external audiences. Senior scholars and scientists are engaged in research that deepens our understanding of the science of well-being and evidence-based practices. CWB offerings include programs and resources for students, faculty, and staff along with executive education programs for organizations, agencies, and individuals. In Spring 2021, as part of the course curriculum, students met with departments on campus and performed an assessment of wellbeing based on the scholarly literature they learn in class.

https://green.gmu.edu/patriot-green/pgf-recipients/