Macalester College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Macalester sustainability office keeps a potential student projects list to connect students with campus-based research needs on their website, as well as a list of completed projects. The topics of the completed projects include energy, biodiversity, education, food and academic departments. For example, Macalester maintains community gardens on campus. Students studying under the Food, Agriculture and Society concentration area able to apply what they learn in the classroom to the garden. Macalester's psychology of Sustainable behavior class also has a project component in which students work to educate classmates about zero waste and implement projects aimed at promoting waste sorting. The sustainability director also offers courses: Campus Sustainability 101, and Sustainability Innovation Lab in which studnets learn about campus sustainability and engage in hands-on projects aimed at promoting campus sustainability. Examples of recent project include: green sports projects, sustainable transportation, and greenwashing.

Macalester is also recognized as a public arboretum. In order to maintain our arboretum status, Macalester offers public facing educational events annually. https://arbnet.org/morton-register/macalester-college

A team of macalester Students have recently been conducting an applied research project under the supervision of facutly members in the Environmental Studies Department, the Sustainability Office and campus Grounds focused upon increasing engagement with and education around trees on campus. This research is both qualitative and quantitative. They are currently collecting data on trees on campus including size, species and location in order to create a tree map of campus. At the same time, they are working with the University Archives to understand the history of trees on campus and in the neighborhood. Finally, they are engaging with the campus community, alumni, and the neighborhood around campus to collect stories about trees on campus. This information will be compiled into educational resources such as a report, interpretive signage, and a self-guided campus tour that will help improve public engagement around sustainable land use and the trees on campus.

Several courses in campus use renewable energy data four classes. For example, Phys/ES 130 Science of Renewable Energy and Phys/ES 340 Renewable Energy Systems students have used both wind data from the turbine as well as solar data from Markim Hall. They use the data to estimate capacity factors for the turbine and the solar array. They also use the data to estimate their relative contribution to the Macalester electricity load. In addition several math courses have used carbon emissions data from campus for student projects.

Macalester uses it's building infrastructure in several ways. Macalester has been offering annual energy tours on campus since 2022. These tours give students, faculty and staff an opportunity to tour and learn about campus energy infrastructure on campus and discuss opportunities for converting to renewable energy. The campus sustainability 101 course participates in building energy infrastructure tours including a roof tour in which members of the campus tour solar panels and go under the buildings to learn about the steam tunels. These tours are used to help facilitate conversations about carbon neutrality, building for sustainability and how construction and energy use play into sustainability. In the past, tours have been used to inform clas sprojects focused upon envisioning what it would take to achieve carbon neutrality at Macaleter.

In addition, Markim Hall, home of the Annan Institute for Global Citizenship, is Macalester’s first LEED Platinum Certified building and one of the first campus buildings in the nation to earn the U.S Green Building Council’s highest level certification for energy efficiency and environmental design. The building’s design and construction support the IGC’s mission and reflect the college’s deep commitment to sustainable practices and responsible citizenship. Classes tour Markim Hall as an example of green architecture. Data is also available on the Markim Hall's energy and water consumption as well as the amount of energy generated by the solar array on the building. This data if frequently used for class projects and more about Markim Hall can be found here:
https://www.macalester.edu/igc/about/markimhall/

The EcoHouse is a housing option on campus that serves as a live-in laboratory for students interested in sustainable building and sustainable lifestyles. This residential option often attracts environmental studies students interested in practicing what they are learning. Students are supervised by faculty members in the Environmental Studies department. A requirement for living in the house includedes a practical project in which students research and implement new technology in the house. Past projects have focused significantly on understanding the impact of energy efficiency retrofits. The EcoHouse gives students a unique opportunity to explore practical green-living lifestyles, to test the effectiveness of new green technologies, and to work with community partners to develop better resources on green renovations and sustainable lifestyles. In addition, because it is equipped with a planned state-of-the-art energy monitoring system, the house functions as a "live-in" laboratory for testing the energy savings and cost-effectiveness of various renovations and green technologies. The system allows the EcoHouse to provide empirical data on the performance of various house systems that we can then share with many others. The house is also rapidly becoming an information clearinghouse, fostering discussions about sustainability by connecting interested homeowners with relevant community organizations and efficiency resources. As a requirement for living in the house, EcoHouse residents host various events, skill-shares, and workshops, and will develop a comprehensive web site to help build connections between on and off-campus resources. Project EcoHouse is in continual development and guided by an ambitious vision. More about the EcoHouse can be found here:
https://www.macalester.edu/ecohouse/

Course: Science of Renewable Energy
Instructor: Dr. James Doyle
As a class assignment, students analyze the energy output from the campus wind turbine as well as from the solar array on Markim hall. The annual energy production from the wind turbine is used to calculate the turbine capacity factor and this is compared to typical capacity factors at large wind farms. We also estimate what fraction of Olin Rice office lighting can be supplied by the turbine. THe Markim Hall solar array is used to estimate the capacity factor for solar power generation, and to study daily and seasonal variations in solar energy production.

There is a also a student club on campus, data for good, that utilized campus energy data for data visualization projects

Macalester College offers a Food, Agriculture and Society concentration on campus to students interested in food systems. Campus food and dining infrastrucutre has given students studying the FAS concentration the opportunity to activly apply the content they are learning in the classroom through hands-on learning. Recently FAS students have taken lead roles in the campus garden affectionally called the MULCH Garden. FAS students can also use their work with food on campus as their experiential learning credit requirement for the concentration. The community garden is run by student clubs and sustainability office employees and provides ample opportunity for hands-on learning. The garden has given students the opportunity to practice with concepts such as permaculture, three-sisters gardening techniques and integrated pest management. In the past year, students working on these techniques in the garden have presented about their work at regional sustainability conference and campus sustainability retreats. They have also created educational programming for students on campus and helped give campus food tours on campus highlighting the different projects going on around campus aimed at improving access to healthy culturally appropriate food while also addressing food waste

In addition to the community garden, FAS students are also involved with Macalester's food recovery program in which they capture uneaten food and donate it to local hunger relief nonprofits. Two students are currently employed by the Sustainability office to research and implement opportunities to expand food recovery on campus and identify new opportunities to capture uneaten food for human consumption.

Ordway Field Station
Macalester College holds several classes and lab at the Ordway Field Station managed by campus. At the field station, students take ecology courses as well as environmental education courses.

Turfgrass Conversion and Campus Biodiversity
The Sustainability Innovation Course On campus currently has a student team working on turfgrass conversaion and food access by identifying opportunities to create more edible and native landscapes on campus as their final course project. Several students have conducted research on how to incorporate more sustainable practice into Macalester’s landscaping. Their projects focus on the Macalester landscape and how management practices can be altered in order to be more environmentally friendly and proactive. In addition, since 2022 student organizations have been collaborating with the Macalester grounds department to help with turf-grass conversion projects in which students help plant and care for native plants.

Stormwater Management
The macalester grounds department is currently partnering with several professors on campus to design student reasearchers around new stormwater management project on campus. The students will take water infiltration and soil quality data before, during and after raingardens are installed on campus in order to document differences over time. In addition to this research focused project, there are numerous incentives across campus that go into storm water management on Macalester’s campus. Porous pavements, parking lot renovations, and turf conversions are all projects that have been conducted in order to mitigate the number of pollutants that enter the sewer systems. Classes are given tours on these projects, and are also encouraged to find more ways to encourage Macalester to use less water and fertilizers. More about these projects can be found here:
https://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/urban-sustainability/landscaping/

Macalester Prairie Restoration Project
Macalester College helps to protect the genetic diversity of native pollinator plants through the conversion of an area where turf grass had difficulty growing into a dynamic landscape. With funding from Facilities Management, members of the College prepared the site and planted native grass and prairie flower seeds in November, 2004. Prairie dropseed, prairie smoke and alumroot, which are all low growing plants, were added the following year as an edge for the sidewalks bordering the prairie. This native prairie acts is used in biology courses on campus and acts as an opportunity for students to research the benefits of this space, as well as how to incorporate more prairies and prairie plants into other areas on campus. More information on this project can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17nJFv7IvhaTuo85CVyfiURCgjhUjxTewfKZOFinJAD0/preview

Arboretum
In addition, the Campus is a certified arboretum. As part of it's status as an arboretum, Macalester offers public educational events yearly. In addition, we frequently offer grounds tours on campus to speak abut sustainable grounds management. As partof the campus sustainability 101 course students tour the campus arboretum and complete a class visioning project related to grounds sustainability.

In fall, 2023 students traveled to the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference to present research posters focused upon campus purchasing and diverstment policies.

Three Macalester Students are currently involved in the Post Landfill Action Network fellowship on campus which focuses upon analyzing current purchasing and operations and making a proposal on zero waste alternatives. This proposal

Two courses over the past year: Campus Sustainability 101 and the Sustainability Innovation Lab have involved final projects and coursework focusing upon sustainabile transportation. Students working on these projects focus upon interviewing stakeholders involved with transportation in the neighborhood, analyzing commuting data from campus and proposing solutions that would encourage more students, faculty, and staff to carpool, bike or walk or take public transit to campus.

Students working at the sustainability office have been working with community members and a student organization on campus to coordinate an bike infrastructure and programming on campus. They have implemented a 24-hour bike check-out at the library, campus-wide bicycle registration, a personal bike program in which students in need of a bike can obtain one for free, and coordinated free repairs and maintenance for campus and community members. Students have also hosted events such as community bike rides, biking 101 events in which people who never learned to bike can learn in an accessible environments, and open shops where students can learn how to fix bikes. The programming and infrastructure updates have required research into other institutions, interviews with local bicycle advocates, interviews with bike club founders, and research on policy and enforcement in the Twin Cities.

Sustainable Scot Training: Sustainability training focusing on Waste sorting is conducted conducted for residence halls during orientation and offered to departments. Students working in the sustainability office have created the necessary resources to carry out this training and will be doing the training themselves.

https://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2019/12/Waste.2019-Final.pdf

In addition, the Green Dorm Program is a new initiative this year started by students in which they engage first year residence halls in zero waste education, invite students to participate in waste sorts, and test different interventions aimed at improving waste sorting.

In addition to this program, several on campus courses- psychology of sustainable behavior and campus sustainability 101 have incorporated waste management on campus into semester-long projects aimed at giving students real live experience.

1550 Summit/Free SWAP
Macalester also operates a Free Swap on campus. During the covid-19 pandemic, Macalester also began managing move-out donations in house rather than sending them to local nonprofits like good will. As a result of this program, students collect all reusable goods during move out, sort the goods, and then open up a space on campus for students and community members to come and take the goods. This has provided some excellent hands on opportunities related to mutual aid for student employees and volunteers

Hydrology Class Living Laboratory - Dr. Kelly MacGregor’s hydrology class calculates the runoff from different parts of campus by considering land cover and existing stormwater remediation measures for land parcels across campus. The class hopes to estimate total anticipated runoff, and use the data to apply for a reduction on charges on stormwater fees for areas with stormwater
projects.
https://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2019/12/Accomplishments.Water_.2019-Final.pdf

Macalester currently has three Post Landfill Action Network (PLAN) student ATLAS fellows working on a year-long research project under the supervision of the Macalester Sustainability Office and consultants from PLAN. Over the past year, students have been researching and proposing a strategy for achieving zero waste on campus. The final product of the fellowship will be a zero waste implementation plan proposal.

In the Sustainability Innovation Lab course, several student projects focus upon generating mutual aid benefits for the local community. Students are working on a reuse project that focuses upon promoting reuse while also connecting donations from campus to community groups that need them. Another project focused upon promoting more edible plant diversity on campus aims at incorporating more culturally significant food into campus gardens.

Several sustainability focused campus projects also aim at helping students practice engaging in mutual aid efforts on and off campus. The Bonner Program, a program focused on first year college students, collects move out donations to raise money for events/activities. The Free SWAP, the personal bike program, and community food access programs area all run by students interested in mutual aid and promoting equity, diversity and affordability on campus.

Fossil Free Macalester was a student-led organisation that demanded Macalester to divest from fossil fuel companies. They looked into alternative, sustainable energies Macalester could rather invest in and held sit-ins, speaker panels and numerous other campus events that taught students about divestment. More information can be found here:
https://www.macalester.edu/news/2019/10/macalester-college-board-of-trustees-announces-strengthened-sustainability-practices-and-investment-policies/

The handbook created by members of Fossil Free Mac can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ONACVEQwJ71ICBHI4uf2Z4yYSyhc1OTl/view?fbclid=IwAR1yTKJ91RLLC1BNlVUcAijDqyCS0XKngFrMhq6rFBH19udP6YmEhoPNX6k

Students from she Sustainability office and the Hamre Center for Wellnesss are currently working collaboratively to develop a poster about the SustainaCup program that will be presented at the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference next September. SustainaCup is a student-led program at Macalester College. It seeks to minimize waste and improve the sustainability of menstrual periods economically and environmentally while also promoting wellness and social justice. The program was launched by the Macalester College Sustainability Office in the Fall of 2019. The goal of SustainaCup’s initial phase was to test whether menstrual cups could be distributed free to students on campus and at a reasonable cost to the institution.

https://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2019/12/Accomplishments.Health-and-Wellness.2019-Final.pdf

https://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/gardens-landscape/
https://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=6250