Texas A&M University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Office of Sustainability Internship Program focuses on educating campus and the public in regards to the University's sustainability initiatives and encourages participants to make more sustainable decisions in their daily lives. The main focus of the program is Campus Engagement through a peer to peer outreach platform. Our students give presentations, provide workshops, plan and participate in events and design the educational content, create videos, utilize social media, and do various tabling and other activities to engage our campus community around sustainability issues. Positive outcomes associated with this work include: providing presentations to audiences ranging from 30 - 100 students/faculty/staff 2-4 times each semester; providing workshops for audiences ranging from 30-50 students/faculty/staff; creating educational content for events that range from 250-600 participants, and generating digital content for social media platforms that have between 500 to 2,500 followers. As we have moved to more virtual offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, outreach strategies have shifted to virtual presentations and culminated in a Virtual Campus Earth Month in April 2020.

The Office of Sustainability Internship Program focuses on educating campus and the public in regards to the University's sustainability initiatives and encourages participants to make more sustainable decisions in their daily lives. The main focus of the program is Campus Engagement through a peer to peer outreach platform. Our students give presentations, provide workshops, plan and participate in events and design the educational content, create videos, utilize social media, and do various tabling and other activities to engage our campus community around sustainability issues. Positive outcomes associated with this work include: providing presentations to audiences ranging from 30 - 100 students/faculty/staff 2-4 times each semester; providing workshops for audiences ranging from 30-50 students/faculty/staff; creating educational content for events that range from 250-600 participants, and generating digital content for social media platforms that have between 500 to 2,500 followers. As we have moved to more virtual offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, outreach strategies have shifted to virtual presentations and culminated in a Virtual Campus Earth Month in April 2020.

Public outreach occurs at the community-wide Brazos Valley Earth Day. Positive outcomes associated with the work include interacting with ~200 people at Earth Day and sharing our sustainability message.

Utilities & Energy Services (UES) holds tours of the operating plants to give students first-hand experience on how the facilities operate. We have a number of students working side by side with UES staff evaluating building, distribution system, and plant operating performance. These students are usually with UES for 2 or more years and have the opportunity to gain real-world experience while pursuing their academic degrees.

The Combined Heat and Power system at the Central Utility plant is regularly used to give students a better understanding of CHP.

The ARCH 406 class in the College of Architecture was given a project to redesign the underutilized spaces on campus as pavilions with the use of sustainable materials and reduced the total amount of utilities utilized.

Students collected and analyzed building usage data to create schedules to turn heating and cooling systems off when not in use. Schedules typically reduce building energy consumption by more than 15% annually.

Chartwells at Texas A&M has a sustainability intern (current Texas A&M student) that helps manage sustainability-related initiatives within the company. This position has led to greater sustainability education for not only the student but the company. Sustainability-related projects include the planning and coordinating of the company's annual Farmers' Market on campus, data collection for STARS, making food recommendations that are in line with STARS, and working on Fair Trade Designated events. This intern, Yadira Hernandez, was awarded the Campus-Wide Sustainability Champion Award (student) for the Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 academic year.

We also have two Chartwells staff members on each of these campus-wide sustainability groups: University Sustainability Advisory Committee and the Sustainability & Environmental Management Committee.

A central focus of SSC Grounds Management is the active support and leadership of sustainability efforts campus-wide. The department actively participates in a myriad of activities in conjunction with individual students, student groups, formal course work, research projects, and campus initiatives.

We are currently working with the Horticulture department creating a lab that will allow students to design and install landscapes at the Leach Teaching Gardens which opened in June 2018.

We are also working with the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental studies to create Rain Gardens.

The alternative transportation unit often partners with various academic departments to better transportation on campus. We did several studies with the urban planning department about bike share before we implemented the program based on their recommendations.

We expanded our reach with the College of Engineering on developing software to help with the re-balance of the bike share system optimization protocols.

We also partner with other departments and student groups to educate and enable the student population to know more and utilize alternative transportation modes. We have a bike maintenance shop that teaches bike maintenance to students and allows them to use the station and tools to repair their bikes.

We also use League Cycling Instructors to teach bike safety classes to build confidence in cycling so the mode is used more often and appropriately.

The Howdy Farm promotes recycling and reduces green waste through composting practices. The farm composts all green waste generated from the gardens and creates compost that is used to fertilize and build healthy soils.

UES partnered with students to conduct a waste audit and provide input on recycling bin placement.

The Howdy Farm, works to teach students about water conservation in sustainable agriculture by using drip irrigation, organic mulches, and by planting seasonal crops that conserve water. The Howdy Farm also utilizes rainwater harvesting in an effort to use less municipal water.

The Office of Sustainability utilizes our Internship Team to assist with STARS reporting requirements. Interns prepare the information needed for credits and help with data collection. In particular, they helped us analyze data for AC-1. In addition, we created a Research/Analyst Intern position to assist with the completion of STARS and the implementation of our Sustainability Master Plan.

The Winnie Carter Wildlife Center is a 12-acre facility located on the TAMU College Station campus. Native Texas wildlife species, including white-tailed deer and Texas tortoises, are some of the animals housed at the facility.

Undergraduate, graduate, and veterinary students come to the Winnie Carter Wildlife Center to learn about the husbandry, management, research, and medicine of these animals. Experiential learning is the method by which courses are taught at the center. Students participate in the care of the animals and the facilities. The center is a unique campus living laboratory.

In addition, students participate in composting and recycling and reuse efforts, energy conservation, and are taught about sustainability.