Vanderbilt University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
Reporter |
Chelsea
Hamilton Sustainability Outreach Program Manager Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Student sustainability research incentives
Yes
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
Vanderbilt University provides myriad opportunities for students to partake in sustainability and environmentally-focused coursework, research and educational opportunities.
The Climate, Health and Energy Equity Lab, co-founded and directed by Dr. Zdravka Tzankova (Vanderbilt University Climate Studies), Dr. Carol Ziegler (Vanderbilt University School of Nursing), and Dr. James Muchira (Vanderbilt University School of Nursing), combines research, practice, and teaching to advance just approaches to climate mitigation and renewable transitions. Accepted students collaborate with Dr. Tzankova and Dr. Ziegler to map corporate & institutional awareness on the equity implications of climate mitigation pledges & actions; develop conceptual and strategic approaches for using climate mitigation to alleviate specific economic, environmental and health inequities; and, design strategies that simultaneously advance climate mitigation and health, energy, environmental, and economic equity. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/thewondry/programs/social-innovation/
The Drinking Water Justice Lab facilitates community engagement to create ongoing awareness and understanding of drinking water justice issues (i.e. quality, affordability, and accessibility) and provides an immersive, interdisciplinary training experience for students. https://lab.vanderbilt.edu/dwjlab/
Immersion Vanderbilt, an initiative of the Academic Strategic Plan, calls for each undergraduate student to participate in an intensive learning experience that takes place in and beyond the classroom, culminating in the completion of a final project. Working with an Immersion faculty or staff adviser every step of the way, and supported by a network of offices across the entire campus, students pursue a goal through experiential learning that is punctuated by their final project. Immersion Vanderbilt helps students explore their passions, transform ideas into action, and make a difference in the world. Many Immersion projects focus on climate and sustainability related topics.
The Vanderbilt Green Fund (VGF) expanded in 2016 to include three focuses, allowing for more flexibility to fund projects focused around sustainability research. The VGF is intended to systematically reduce Vanderbilt’s greenhouse gas emissions by funding projects with both environmental and economic benefits, and by enabling students, faculty, and administration to engage in the process of transitioning to a clean and sustainable energy future. The fund was expanded in 2016, doubling the funding available for projects to $150,000. The fund provides up-front capital to projects of three primary focuses:
• Classroom proposals: these focus on sustainability enrichment and experiential education. Examples include student research, guest speakers, field trips, seminar series, conference attendance, student-run mini-conferences, and film screenings.
• Innovation proposals: these focus on on-campus projects that increase energy efficiency and promote sustainability efforts in an attempt to reduce energy consumption on campus. Examples include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing energy use, installing clean sources of energy, reducing water use, reducing sewage or pollutants, and spurring behavioral change to reduce energy or material consumption through education.
• Laboratory proposals: these focus on improving the sustainability of laboratory operations. Examples include offsetting the increased purchase price of energy/water efficient equipment, e.g. ultra-low freezers, green labware and chemicals, and behavioral change such as the Shut the Sash awareness program or the Green Lab certification and recognition program.
In addition to these two special programs, environmental engineering, environmental science, and environmental studies majors and minors and environmental policy concentrations are available to Vanderbilt students. Departments and programs offering courses pertaining to sustainability and the environment include:
1. American Studies
2. Anthropology
3. Asian-American Studies
4. Biomedical Engineering
5. Biological Sciences
6. Civil and Environmental Engineering
7. Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
8. Climate and Environmental Studies
9. Communication of Science and Technology
10. Divinity
11. Earth and Environmental Sciences
12. Economics
13. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
14. English
15. Environmental Sociology
16. Environmental Engineering
17. Engineering Management
18. Engineering Science
19. European Studies
20. History
21. History of Art
22. Human and Organizational Development
23. Law
24. Law and Economics
25. Management (Owen Graduate School of Management)
26. Mechanical Engineering
27. Nursing
28. Philosophy
29. Political Science
30. Psychology
31. Public Health
32. Religious Studies
33. Sociology
34. Spanish
35. Women’s and Gender Studies
Ample opportunities for student sustainability research are available at Vanderbilt through several research centers in addition to the specific departments and programs previously mentioned, such as the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, the VU/MWS Renewable Energy Showcase (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lc/), the Eos Project (http://eosprojectvu.org/), the Vanderbilt Green Fund (https://anchorlink.vanderbilt.edu/organization/greenfund), the Climate Change Research Network (http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/environmental-law/climate-change-network/), the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Strategy Study (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/futurevu/sustainability.php), the BlueSky Vision Energy Strategy Study (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainability/off-site-large-scale-clean-energy/), and the Zero Waste Study and Master Plan (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainability/reduce-waste/).
FutureVU Sustainability also assists students who are interested in or want to initiate sustainability research projects which use the campus as a laboratory. Examples of past projects include: a current study on behavior and fume hood energy use, development of the ThinkOne energy conservation campaign in academic and administrative buildings, and use of feedback intervention as a means of inducing student behavior change in The Commons residential campus for first-year students and the development of a zero waste dashboard in collaboration with the School for Science and Math.
The Climate, Health and Energy Equity Lab, co-founded and directed by Dr. Zdravka Tzankova (Vanderbilt University Climate Studies), Dr. Carol Ziegler (Vanderbilt University School of Nursing), and Dr. James Muchira (Vanderbilt University School of Nursing), combines research, practice, and teaching to advance just approaches to climate mitigation and renewable transitions. Accepted students collaborate with Dr. Tzankova and Dr. Ziegler to map corporate & institutional awareness on the equity implications of climate mitigation pledges & actions; develop conceptual and strategic approaches for using climate mitigation to alleviate specific economic, environmental and health inequities; and, design strategies that simultaneously advance climate mitigation and health, energy, environmental, and economic equity. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/thewondry/programs/social-innovation/
The Drinking Water Justice Lab facilitates community engagement to create ongoing awareness and understanding of drinking water justice issues (i.e. quality, affordability, and accessibility) and provides an immersive, interdisciplinary training experience for students. https://lab.vanderbilt.edu/dwjlab/
Immersion Vanderbilt, an initiative of the Academic Strategic Plan, calls for each undergraduate student to participate in an intensive learning experience that takes place in and beyond the classroom, culminating in the completion of a final project. Working with an Immersion faculty or staff adviser every step of the way, and supported by a network of offices across the entire campus, students pursue a goal through experiential learning that is punctuated by their final project. Immersion Vanderbilt helps students explore their passions, transform ideas into action, and make a difference in the world. Many Immersion projects focus on climate and sustainability related topics.
The Vanderbilt Green Fund (VGF) expanded in 2016 to include three focuses, allowing for more flexibility to fund projects focused around sustainability research. The VGF is intended to systematically reduce Vanderbilt’s greenhouse gas emissions by funding projects with both environmental and economic benefits, and by enabling students, faculty, and administration to engage in the process of transitioning to a clean and sustainable energy future. The fund was expanded in 2016, doubling the funding available for projects to $150,000. The fund provides up-front capital to projects of three primary focuses:
• Classroom proposals: these focus on sustainability enrichment and experiential education. Examples include student research, guest speakers, field trips, seminar series, conference attendance, student-run mini-conferences, and film screenings.
• Innovation proposals: these focus on on-campus projects that increase energy efficiency and promote sustainability efforts in an attempt to reduce energy consumption on campus. Examples include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing energy use, installing clean sources of energy, reducing water use, reducing sewage or pollutants, and spurring behavioral change to reduce energy or material consumption through education.
• Laboratory proposals: these focus on improving the sustainability of laboratory operations. Examples include offsetting the increased purchase price of energy/water efficient equipment, e.g. ultra-low freezers, green labware and chemicals, and behavioral change such as the Shut the Sash awareness program or the Green Lab certification and recognition program.
In addition to these two special programs, environmental engineering, environmental science, and environmental studies majors and minors and environmental policy concentrations are available to Vanderbilt students. Departments and programs offering courses pertaining to sustainability and the environment include:
1. American Studies
2. Anthropology
3. Asian-American Studies
4. Biomedical Engineering
5. Biological Sciences
6. Civil and Environmental Engineering
7. Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
8. Climate and Environmental Studies
9. Communication of Science and Technology
10. Divinity
11. Earth and Environmental Sciences
12. Economics
13. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
14. English
15. Environmental Sociology
16. Environmental Engineering
17. Engineering Management
18. Engineering Science
19. European Studies
20. History
21. History of Art
22. Human and Organizational Development
23. Law
24. Law and Economics
25. Management (Owen Graduate School of Management)
26. Mechanical Engineering
27. Nursing
28. Philosophy
29. Political Science
30. Psychology
31. Public Health
32. Religious Studies
33. Sociology
34. Spanish
35. Women’s and Gender Studies
Ample opportunities for student sustainability research are available at Vanderbilt through several research centers in addition to the specific departments and programs previously mentioned, such as the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, the VU/MWS Renewable Energy Showcase (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lc/), the Eos Project (http://eosprojectvu.org/), the Vanderbilt Green Fund (https://anchorlink.vanderbilt.edu/organization/greenfund), the Climate Change Research Network (http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/environmental-law/climate-change-network/), the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Strategy Study (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/futurevu/sustainability.php), the BlueSky Vision Energy Strategy Study (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainability/off-site-large-scale-clean-energy/), and the Zero Waste Study and Master Plan (https://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainability/reduce-waste/).
FutureVU Sustainability also assists students who are interested in or want to initiate sustainability research projects which use the campus as a laboratory. Examples of past projects include: a current study on behavior and fume hood energy use, development of the ThinkOne energy conservation campaign in academic and administrative buildings, and use of feedback intervention as a means of inducing student behavior change in The Commons residential campus for first-year students and the development of a zero waste dashboard in collaboration with the School for Science and Math.
Faculty sustainability research incentives
Yes
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
• Climate Change Research Network - Participants in the Climate Change Research Network are examining questions such as:
o What are the aggregate emissions from individuals and households, and how do those emissions compare to the emissions from industry and other source categories?
o Which individual behaviors release the greatest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions?
o What are the greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicle idling and how can they be reduced?
o How do personal carbon calculators vary in their outputs and conversion factors?
o Which social psychological theories have the greatest explanatory power for greenhouse gas-emitting behaviors?
o How do people perceive and value climate change risks, particularly when they are remote?
o How should these climate change risks be valued for policy benefit assessments?
o What strategies are chosen by those policy advocates and to what extent are these strategies constrained by the political system in which they evolve? What changes in laws and policies can generate the most cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from individual behavior?
o What changes in the administration and staffing of government agencies will be required if climate change laws and policies are adopted?
● Climate and Energy Forum - Faculty associated with the former VIEE and current Climate and Energy Forum come from a number of Vanderbilt's schools and departments, bringing the collective skills and expertise necessary to address today's tough energy and environmental problems, while simultaneously educating tomorrow's leaders. VU/MWS Renewable Energy Showcase - In collaboration with Nashville Metro Water Services (MWS), Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE) set up a wind-solar renewable energy site at the Love Hill in Nashville. The main purpose of this project is to examine the feasibility of alternative energy production through solar and wind facilities, and the expectation is that about of 30kWh of energy will be generated on a daily basis; 30kWh is the average daily consumption of electrical energy per household across the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
● EOS Project - The Eos Project supports innovative initiatives at Vanderbilt University to promote understanding of urgent environmental issues and social action-pathways to respond to the challenges of climate change. The goal is to energize attention to environment/society concerns in diverse disciplines and campus constituencies. The project organizes programming and offers small grants and fellowships to support faculty and students to develop the vision, knowledge, leadership skills, and networks needed to address pressing problems at the intersections of ecology and social justice, where the well-being of human communities is inseparable from the well-being of more-than-human life-worlds.
● VUCO2– VUCO2 is an interdisciplinary Vanderbilt think tank devoted to Climate Change issues. It organizes reading groups, speakers, workshops, and retreats and spurs development and refinement of various sustainability research ideas. The think tank is housed in the Philosophy department.
● Sterling Ranch - Sterling Ranch, a 12,000-home planned community south of Denver, will provide a sustainability training site and test bed for Vanderbilt School of Engineering research involving students and professors. The community includes its own commercial space, retail stores and schools. Its design is centered on sustainability and next-generation telecommunications, a focus that’s creating internships and capstone projects for engineering undergraduates plus research opportunities for professors and their teams. The partnership, which includes corporations Mortenson Construction, Siemens and IBM, started with Brock Smethills (BE’13) discussing his idea with David Kosson, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering, and Doug Adams, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and holder of the Daniel F. Flowers Chair. They brought in a number of other professors across all departments to advance the concept.
● Rooted Community Health - The Rooted Community Health (RCH) initiative seeks to engage partners across the Vanderbilt campus and communities of Middle Tennessee in service to ecological sustainability, health promotion and human flourishing, and an ethically responsible understanding of our interdependency as a community within the vision of population health. Through partnering with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, colleagues in nutrition services, and other sustainability and health professionals, RCH aims to enhance community engagement through programming around ecology, sustainability, and health care. RCH is committed to facilitating trans-institutional transformation at Vanderbilt and enhancing our community’s health through community engagement, scholarship, and research in ecology, health, and sustainability.
● Trans-Institutional Programs (TIPs) Grants - Entering its third year as part of the university’s $50 million strategic investment in interdisciplinary research, TIPs are a centerpiece of the Academic Strategic Plan. The program is designed to serve as a catalyst to support new ideas, cutting-edge research and the development of infrastructure by providing pilot funds for emerging and existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. Awards are also made to reinvest in existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. The grants are meant to seed and expand research and teaching collaborations across disciplines, solve critical problems, embrace discovery and spark learning to position Vanderbilt as a world leader in a given area. TIPs are pilot funds for trans-institutional efforts that are, or may lead to, emerging programs, centers and institutes. Awards have been made over the past 3 years to 17 different projects that include over 100 faculty from all of Vanderbilt’s 10 colleges and schools. Recent winners that address sustainability include: Private Governance Approaches to Climate Change, Sterling Ranch Sustainability and Education Research Center, Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research, and Materials Durability and Environmental Research Facilities Hub.
● VECTOR - Recognizing the complexity of transportation issues in the private sector and at every level of government, VECTOR emphasizes the integration of transportation engineering, planning, and management. Other distinguishing characteristics of VECTOR’s work include ground-breaking applications of information technology and risk management, systems thinking, and adherence to VECTOR’s statement of shared values. The mission of VECTOR is to improve the quality of life in our community, region, and nation through leadership and excellence in transportation research, education, and outreach using all of the resources of the university and strong partnerships with government and industry. Current research is focused on these topics: Policy, management, and operations; Advanced information systems; Intermodal freight; Safety, security, and risk management; Incident management and emergency operations; Climate Change; Smart Cities; Risk and Resilience; Transportation System Management. VECTOR was involved in Vanderbilt’s CMAQ grant for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement.
● Vanderbilt Sesquicentennial Grants – a grant program to support activities and projects that engage with the university’s history, look ahead to its future, and explore what makes Vanderbilt distinctive and unique. Award winners include the Vanderbilt Fusion Project, a cross-disciplinary engineering project team and research initiative to build a functional miniature nuclear fusion reactor.
o What are the aggregate emissions from individuals and households, and how do those emissions compare to the emissions from industry and other source categories?
o Which individual behaviors release the greatest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions?
o What are the greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicle idling and how can they be reduced?
o How do personal carbon calculators vary in their outputs and conversion factors?
o Which social psychological theories have the greatest explanatory power for greenhouse gas-emitting behaviors?
o How do people perceive and value climate change risks, particularly when they are remote?
o How should these climate change risks be valued for policy benefit assessments?
o What strategies are chosen by those policy advocates and to what extent are these strategies constrained by the political system in which they evolve? What changes in laws and policies can generate the most cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from individual behavior?
o What changes in the administration and staffing of government agencies will be required if climate change laws and policies are adopted?
● Climate and Energy Forum - Faculty associated with the former VIEE and current Climate and Energy Forum come from a number of Vanderbilt's schools and departments, bringing the collective skills and expertise necessary to address today's tough energy and environmental problems, while simultaneously educating tomorrow's leaders. VU/MWS Renewable Energy Showcase - In collaboration with Nashville Metro Water Services (MWS), Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE) set up a wind-solar renewable energy site at the Love Hill in Nashville. The main purpose of this project is to examine the feasibility of alternative energy production through solar and wind facilities, and the expectation is that about of 30kWh of energy will be generated on a daily basis; 30kWh is the average daily consumption of electrical energy per household across the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
● EOS Project - The Eos Project supports innovative initiatives at Vanderbilt University to promote understanding of urgent environmental issues and social action-pathways to respond to the challenges of climate change. The goal is to energize attention to environment/society concerns in diverse disciplines and campus constituencies. The project organizes programming and offers small grants and fellowships to support faculty and students to develop the vision, knowledge, leadership skills, and networks needed to address pressing problems at the intersections of ecology and social justice, where the well-being of human communities is inseparable from the well-being of more-than-human life-worlds.
● VUCO2– VUCO2 is an interdisciplinary Vanderbilt think tank devoted to Climate Change issues. It organizes reading groups, speakers, workshops, and retreats and spurs development and refinement of various sustainability research ideas. The think tank is housed in the Philosophy department.
● Sterling Ranch - Sterling Ranch, a 12,000-home planned community south of Denver, will provide a sustainability training site and test bed for Vanderbilt School of Engineering research involving students and professors. The community includes its own commercial space, retail stores and schools. Its design is centered on sustainability and next-generation telecommunications, a focus that’s creating internships and capstone projects for engineering undergraduates plus research opportunities for professors and their teams. The partnership, which includes corporations Mortenson Construction, Siemens and IBM, started with Brock Smethills (BE’13) discussing his idea with David Kosson, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering, and Doug Adams, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and holder of the Daniel F. Flowers Chair. They brought in a number of other professors across all departments to advance the concept.
● Rooted Community Health - The Rooted Community Health (RCH) initiative seeks to engage partners across the Vanderbilt campus and communities of Middle Tennessee in service to ecological sustainability, health promotion and human flourishing, and an ethically responsible understanding of our interdependency as a community within the vision of population health. Through partnering with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, colleagues in nutrition services, and other sustainability and health professionals, RCH aims to enhance community engagement through programming around ecology, sustainability, and health care. RCH is committed to facilitating trans-institutional transformation at Vanderbilt and enhancing our community’s health through community engagement, scholarship, and research in ecology, health, and sustainability.
● Trans-Institutional Programs (TIPs) Grants - Entering its third year as part of the university’s $50 million strategic investment in interdisciplinary research, TIPs are a centerpiece of the Academic Strategic Plan. The program is designed to serve as a catalyst to support new ideas, cutting-edge research and the development of infrastructure by providing pilot funds for emerging and existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. Awards are also made to reinvest in existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. The grants are meant to seed and expand research and teaching collaborations across disciplines, solve critical problems, embrace discovery and spark learning to position Vanderbilt as a world leader in a given area. TIPs are pilot funds for trans-institutional efforts that are, or may lead to, emerging programs, centers and institutes. Awards have been made over the past 3 years to 17 different projects that include over 100 faculty from all of Vanderbilt’s 10 colleges and schools. Recent winners that address sustainability include: Private Governance Approaches to Climate Change, Sterling Ranch Sustainability and Education Research Center, Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research, and Materials Durability and Environmental Research Facilities Hub.
● VECTOR - Recognizing the complexity of transportation issues in the private sector and at every level of government, VECTOR emphasizes the integration of transportation engineering, planning, and management. Other distinguishing characteristics of VECTOR’s work include ground-breaking applications of information technology and risk management, systems thinking, and adherence to VECTOR’s statement of shared values. The mission of VECTOR is to improve the quality of life in our community, region, and nation through leadership and excellence in transportation research, education, and outreach using all of the resources of the university and strong partnerships with government and industry. Current research is focused on these topics: Policy, management, and operations; Advanced information systems; Intermodal freight; Safety, security, and risk management; Incident management and emergency operations; Climate Change; Smart Cities; Risk and Resilience; Transportation System Management. VECTOR was involved in Vanderbilt’s CMAQ grant for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement.
● Vanderbilt Sesquicentennial Grants – a grant program to support activities and projects that engage with the university’s history, look ahead to its future, and explore what makes Vanderbilt distinctive and unique. Award winners include the Vanderbilt Fusion Project, a cross-disciplinary engineering project team and research initiative to build a functional miniature nuclear fusion reactor.
Recognition of interdisciplinary, transdisciplnary and multi-disciplinary research
Yes
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
---
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The Vanderbilt Faculty Manual states the following:
"Candidates to be considered for tenure are persons who have already achieved and who show promise of continuing to achieve a level of excellence in their contribution to the research, scholarship, or creative expression appropriate to their discipline or profession and as described in their letter of appointment.”
Vanderbilt also has many programs that facilitate and incentivize interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research:
• Multiple Trans-Institutional Programs (TIPs) grants have been awarded to research teams that engage with sustainability topics. Entering its third year as part of the university’s $50 million strategic investment in interdisciplinary research, TIPs are a centerpiece of the Academic Strategic Plan. The program is designed to serve as a catalyst to support new ideas, cutting-edge research and the development of infrastructure by providing pilot funds for emerging and existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. Awards are also made to reinvest in existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. The grants are meant to seed and expand research and teaching collaborations across disciplines, solve critical problems, embrace discovery and spark learning to position Vanderbilt as a world leader in a given area. TIPs are pilot funds for trans-institutional efforts that are, or may lead to, emerging programs, centers and institutes. Awards have been made over the past 3 years to 17 different projects that include over 100 faculty from all of Vanderbilt’s 10 colleges and schools. Recent winners that address sustainability include: Private Governance Approaches to Climate Change, Sterling Ranch Sustainability and Education Research Center, Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research, and Materials Durability and Environmental Research Facilities Hub.
● Design as an Immersive Vanderbilt Experience (DIVE) – DIVE is a program at Vanderbilt University that teaches human-centered design thinking to students so that they may solve complex, real-world problems, develop critical thinking skills, and work in multidisciplinary teams during an immersive, mentored project. Multiple engineering courses at Vanderbilt use the DIVE process to design sustainable projects on campus, including waste reduction programs and a community garden.
● Immersion Vanderbilt provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to pursue their passions and cultivate intellectual interests through experiential learning. This intensive learning experience takes place in and beyond the classroom and culminates in the creation of a final project. Students will have four pathways to choose from for their projects: civic and professional, creative expression, international, and research.
"Candidates to be considered for tenure are persons who have already achieved and who show promise of continuing to achieve a level of excellence in their contribution to the research, scholarship, or creative expression appropriate to their discipline or profession and as described in their letter of appointment.”
Vanderbilt also has many programs that facilitate and incentivize interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research:
• Multiple Trans-Institutional Programs (TIPs) grants have been awarded to research teams that engage with sustainability topics. Entering its third year as part of the university’s $50 million strategic investment in interdisciplinary research, TIPs are a centerpiece of the Academic Strategic Plan. The program is designed to serve as a catalyst to support new ideas, cutting-edge research and the development of infrastructure by providing pilot funds for emerging and existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. Awards are also made to reinvest in existing trans-institutional centers and institutes. The grants are meant to seed and expand research and teaching collaborations across disciplines, solve critical problems, embrace discovery and spark learning to position Vanderbilt as a world leader in a given area. TIPs are pilot funds for trans-institutional efforts that are, or may lead to, emerging programs, centers and institutes. Awards have been made over the past 3 years to 17 different projects that include over 100 faculty from all of Vanderbilt’s 10 colleges and schools. Recent winners that address sustainability include: Private Governance Approaches to Climate Change, Sterling Ranch Sustainability and Education Research Center, Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research, and Materials Durability and Environmental Research Facilities Hub.
● Design as an Immersive Vanderbilt Experience (DIVE) – DIVE is a program at Vanderbilt University that teaches human-centered design thinking to students so that they may solve complex, real-world problems, develop critical thinking skills, and work in multidisciplinary teams during an immersive, mentored project. Multiple engineering courses at Vanderbilt use the DIVE process to design sustainable projects on campus, including waste reduction programs and a community garden.
● Immersion Vanderbilt provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to pursue their passions and cultivate intellectual interests through experiential learning. This intensive learning experience takes place in and beyond the classroom and culminates in the creation of a final project. Students will have four pathways to choose from for their projects: civic and professional, creative expression, international, and research.
Library support
Yes
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
Vanderbilt’s extensive library system offers a number of different support mechanisms for sustainability research and learning. For example, the Walker Management Library maintains a robust research guide on Green and Sustainable Business available at http://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/greenbusiness which pulls together in one location dozens of sustainability-related databases to support sustainability research in the business and management realms. The Stevenson Science and Engineering Library offers live feeds of articles and research related to sustainability divided by engineering discipline on their website at http://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/content.php?pid=76468&sid=566411. These are just two examples that highlight how the Vanderbilt Library system is supporting sustainability research and learning at Vanderbilt.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
• http://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/cee/GraduateStudy/EnvironmentalEngineering/env-mgmt-policy/index.php
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lc/
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainvu/resources/academics-curriculum
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/americanstudies/sustainability/index.php
• http://cumberland.vanderbilt.edu/
• http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/environmental-law/climate-change-network/index.aspx
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/viee/
• http://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/cee/GraduateStudy/EnvironmentalEngineering/env-mgmt-policy/index.php
• http://eosprojectvu.org/
• http://as.vanderbilt.edu/philosophy/events/vuco2.php
• http://stories.vanderbilt.edu/rocky-mountain-hi-tech
• http://vanderbilt.edu/provost/occi/tips.php
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lc/
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainvu/resources/academics-curriculum
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/americanstudies/sustainability/index.php
• http://cumberland.vanderbilt.edu/
• http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/environmental-law/climate-change-network/index.aspx
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/viee/
• http://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/cee/GraduateStudy/EnvironmentalEngineering/env-mgmt-policy/index.php
• http://eosprojectvu.org/
• http://as.vanderbilt.edu/philosophy/events/vuco2.php
• http://stories.vanderbilt.edu/rocky-mountain-hi-tech
• http://vanderbilt.edu/provost/occi/tips.php
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.