University of Massachusetts Amherst
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Campus Planning supports a cohort of Green Building Researchers who work to advance green building policies and provide in-house LEED consulting for new construction and major renovation projects on campus. The Green Building Researchers assist the Green Building Committee in developing and updating the Green Building Guidelines for UMass, an official green building guidebook for all major construction projects. Nariman Mostafavi is a Ph.D. student in Building and Construction Technology at UMass. He joined the Campus Planning in January 2013 as a Graduate Green Building Researcher. Nariman currently works on developing a campus-wide sustainability analysis tool and is tracking campus resource use at the building level. Somayeh Tabatabaee is a Ph.D. student in Building and Construction Technology at UMass and joined Campus Planning in January 2013 as a Graduate Green Building Researcher. Somayeh is currently working on a case for a Net Zero Energy Building on campus and is developing a database of campus LEED projects. Soroush Farzinmoghadam is a graduate student pursuing PhD in Regional Planning and Master of Architecture at UMass and joined Campus Planning in January 2013 as a Graduate Green Building Researcher. Soroush currently works on developing a campus-wide sustainability analysis tool, automation of building Energy Utilization Intensity benchmarking and is developing Interactive LEED Explorer and Sustainability Explorer maps. Green Roofs: Prof Craig Nicolson -- ES445, and Prof Paige Warren (Honors thesis advisor). One of the major projects in ES445 (Environmental Problem Solving) involves writing a detailed project proposal for a project that will improve our sustainability practices at UMass Amherst. In 2014, one of the student teams researched green roofs, and came up with a proposal to install green roofs on two campus buildings. In a separate project, Prof Paige Warren oversaw an honors student writing her thesis on ecological research to look at seedling establishment for green roofs on 6 different buildings on our campus.

UMass Amherst has a Real Food Challenge Internship Program (for credit). Our Chancellor has signed the Real Food Challenge, which makes UMass the largest campus dining program (serving about 45,000 meals per day) to sign the agreement. The challenge is a commitment for the institution assuring that 20% of the universities’ food purchases come from socially responsible farms and food businesses–what they call ‘real food.’ Students work within an internship team each semester supported by UMass Dining/Auxiliary to audit UMass Dining procurement using the Real Food Calculator.

Students regularly submit energy conservation and renewable energy related proposals to the campus Sustainability Innovation and Engagement Fund. One specific proposal which was completed in January 2015 was the installation of occupancy sensors in a number of classrooms in the Isenberg School of Management. The student used data loggers set in the classrooms for a period of two weeks to analyze the amount of time the lights remained on compared to the times that the classroom was scheduled to be occupied. Once this data had been collected, she was able to determine the avoided cost savings achieved through efficient use of the lights, and was able to estimate the cost and return on investment of installing the occupancy sensor that would make create that enhanced efficiency. http://www.umass.edu/sustainability/get-involved/sustainability-innovation-engagement-fund iCons Program: Students in the Integrated Concentration in Science focus on either energy or biomedicine and have been assigned to develop energy flow diagrams of the entire UMass campus. They regularly tie in campus energy systems when studying the following topics: Renewable Energy Biomass-fired Power Plants, UMass Power Plant Efficiencies, Amherst Solar Energy Farm (new), Fuel Cells and Soldier Power (new), and Nuclear Energy. http://www.cns.umass.edu/icons-program/ Professor Craig Nicolson teaches ES445, ECO 697PS analysis of campus energy system. In these two classes, students have worked on projects analyzing the energy use in residence halls and other buildings at UMass Amherst, making recommendations to the Director of Housing for how energy use and emissions can be reduced. UMass has over 14,000 students living on campus, and in Res Hall energy use accounts for a significant portion of our campus emissions.

Professor Paige Warren teaches NRC 564 Habitat Management where Students develop a habitat management plans for the campus to promote biodiversity, learning about the principles of Conservation Biology with the campus as the case study. The Arboriculture program trains students using campus trees and arboretum. These students intern with the Grounds division of the Physical Plant.

UMass Amherst's Green Office Program offers students a chance to receive graded credit for analyzing and improving the purchasing throughout the many academic and administrative offices on campus. Acting as consultants, they are able to work with office managers to develop strategies and improve best practices for reducing both the amount of paper purchased and the amount that gets thrown away as well as develop and provide a green purchasing guide made up of products that are available to purchase through the campus vendors such as Office Max. One effective way that they are able to do that is by communicating and working directly with our paper company's campus representative from Office Max. They are able to provide raw purchasing data over a period of months, which the students are then able to analyze and synthesize into useful charts and figures. They can then be used to educate offices on the financial and environmental merits of something as simple as reducing the amount of paper an office purchases on a monthly basis.

At UMass Amherst we have a Bike Share Program that was started by a student in 2010. This program allows students to rent bikes for 24 hours for free in the Fall and Spring. Student use these bikes to commute around campus instead of driving. In the Spring of 2013 a student in our Sustainability Fellowship Program helped to coordinate the Bike Share Program. This student researched other schools' bicycle sharing programs to learn about different ways to make our program more efficient. One example of this was the idea of using a computer to keep track of information so that it would be easier to keep track of the bikes. This student wrote up a report about everything he learned, he received a grade and credit. Students serve on the Bike Share committee and the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC). UMass Amherst students are eligible to participate in the NuRide Program. This program offers incentives to anyone who takes the bus, rides their bike or carpools. During the Spring and Fall of 2013 a student in our Sustainability Fellowship Program researched the ways to spread awareness, increase membership and the benefits of the NuRide Program. The implementation of his research discouraged people from driving single-occupancy vehicles and burning fossil fuels. This student wrote a report about what he learned and received credit and a grade. Students in Eleni Christofa's Sustainability Transportation class in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department learn about regional and campus transportation issues and propose solutions to them through the Sustainability Fund. http://cee.umass.edu/faculty/eleni-christofa

At UMass Amherst we have a bicycle compost-pick-up program called the Minute Riders Program. In the Fall of 2013 a student in the Sustainability Fellowship Program did a lot of research and submitted a proposal for this bicycle compost-pick-up program. The proposal was approved and now over 25 offices participate in the Minute Riders Program. The compost is brought to Dining locations and added to the 1400 tons of food waste on campus each year. The student who wrote the proposal received credit and a grade for all of the research he did. The New2U Reuse Program is an annual student run effort that is held during student move out weekend and move in weekend the following year. The program is designed to collect unwanted dorm room items that would otherwise be thrown away. The items are then sorted, catalogued, priced, and sold at a reduced price to students moving in the following year. Students are responsible for organizing the collection area, which most be large enough to accommodate material from approximately 5,000 students. They must then arrange a storage area for all collected material over the summer break, where they are also responsible for cleaning and pricing all of the items. The final stage of the program is a tag sale in September. Student leaders must register volunteers over the three day sale. They must also secure a room large enough for the sale. Students are responsible for securing funding for the program, and last year, generated over $4500 in revenue. The Sustainable UMass Fellows program has Waste & Recycling Fellows each year who conduct research and implement projects that reduce waste on campus. Projects range from the Minute Riders Program to New2U Tag Sale (below) to composting and electronic recycling programs. The undergraduate chapter of the UMass NetImpact Group has focused on clothing recycling and candy bar wrapper recycling in the last two years, partnering with UMass Dining and Residential Life to establish collection points for these items. At UMass Amherst we have a very strong Eco-Rep Program. Student in the Eco-Rep program receive 2 credits for studying different aspects of sustainability and participating in peer education, teaching their fellow-students about sustainability. For example, in 2014 Eco-Rep students collected electronic waste in the lobbies of all 5 residential areas. They also educated their peers on how hazardous electronic waste can become if it is not disposed of or recycled properly. They promoted recycling behavioral change. The students brought all of the electronic waste to our waste management center where it was sorted and sent to socially responsible companies who could dispose or recycle the materials properly.

The past two years has seen an emergence in a group of faculty, staff and students involved in researching and promoting the Tan Brook, the watershed that flows through campus and connects the university to neighboring Amherst and flows eventually into the Mill River which flows into the Connecticut River. Multiple courses have focused on the Tan Brook including Tim Randhir's water management class and David Glassberg's Environmental History class. Graduate students in Landscape Architecture doing thesis on green infrastructure have designed stormwater management solutions for areas of the tan brook to reduce the amount of runoff and erosion caused by the growing impervious surfaces along the watershed in the town of Amherst and on campus. The first successfully implemented Sustainability Fund Project was proposed by an Eco-Rep student to install low flow sustainable shower heads throughout her residential area.

The Campus Master Plan (2012), Energy Master Plan (2014), Solar Energy Plan (2014), and Green Building Guidelines are all examples of how the administration uses the campus as a living lab for coordination and planning. Each of these plans have sustainability components and have successfully changed the culture on campus to be extremely supportive of sustainability initiatives.

Diversity: The Chancellor's Diversity Advisory Committee, brings together offices, programs and individuals who do important work to advance our campus's commitment to diversity and equity. The committee is comprised of faculty, staff, students, and community members and chaired by Debora Ferreira, Executive Director of Equal Opportunity & Diversity. This Committee serves as an advisory board on matters of diversity, and has been charged with reviewing campus policies and procedures related to diversity; helping to develop new, coordinated initiatives to advance diversity and equity on campus; and contributing to the development of a comprehensive diversity and equity plan. Affordability: The Center for Education Policy & Advocacy is a policy and advocacy agency that builds student power and strengthens student voice. CEPA also works on higher education issues at a statewide level, lobbying in support of access to an affordable college education in the state of Massachusetts. CEPA operates as an agency of the Student Government Association and is structured into four core teams: Access and Affordability, Campus Culture, Gender Equity, and Student Labor Action Project. Working both independently and collaboratively, the core teams build partnerships with students, student organizations, faculty, staff, and the administration to institutionalize student voice and shared governance. Our campaigns cover a range of student issues and strive to build a campus environment that is inclusive of and responsive to the diverse needs of students from different cultures and backgrounds, including but not limited to ALANA, LGBTQ, low socio-economic, first generation, international and nontraditional students. We always welcome new members and encourage students to check the core team descriptions below. Together we can continue to work towards a unified and powerful student voice. Access and Affordability Core Team Access and Affordability is the statewide advocacy core team of CEPA that works with student groups at other state universities and colleges in Massachusetts as well as across the country (New Jersey, Wisconsin, Oregon, and California to just name a few). This core team focuses on advocating for increased funding for public higher education and the overall affordability and accessibility of higher education on a statewide level and national level. CEPA’s Access and Affordability core team supports the expansion of shared governance within the university, state, and country. They also deal with the issue of student debt-- something that has now surpassed a trillion dollars nationally.

The Department of Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst operates the Body Shop Fitness Center in the Totman building. This fitness center serves as a teaching lab and a gym. The Body Shop provides students a chance to have hands on experience with clients and to interact with the Amherst community. Our goal is for the students to apply their knowledge from classes and previous experiences and share it within the Body Shop community. Additionally, the Body Shop is used to conduct a variety of research projects and used for kinesiology courses as well. The shop also has exercise equipment that generates electricity providing learning opportunities for renewable energy while exercising. https://www.umass.edu/sphhs/kinesiology/body-shop

Over the past two years, students and faculty have been actively engaged in the advocacy for and campus education of fossil fuel divestment. With an active petition of more than 3,000 student signatures, the core group of Divest UMass Amherst has met with the campus Chancellor, the University President, and the Board of Directors of the UMass Foundation. The group of students successfully pressured the Foundation to create a new Socially Responsible Investing Advisory Committee: http://www.umassp.edu/foundation/socially-responsible-investing-advisory-committee Students have also organized numerous educational events to raise awareness of the effects the campus's endowment can have on prolonging and increasing climate change. As a core team of the Center for Education, Policy, and Advocacy, students are paid and receive credit for their participation and leadership in this campaign.