Pacific Lutheran University
IN-3: Innovation 3

Sustainability Fellowships
The Student Sustainability Fellowships are intended to provide an opportunity for students of any discipline to participate in furthering the sustainability efforts on the PLU campus. Students actively engage in research about existing practices and uses of resources on the PLU campus and examine best practices on other college and university campuses and other facilities in the local area. They also investigate and propose strategies and solutions to address sustainability practices on the PLU campus and help identify funding agencies or opportunities for the projects. The fellowships are also intended to continue the collaboration between students, faculty and staff around issues of sustainability while building the skills of the students.

The Sustainability Fellows of 2012-2013 have quite distinct projects. Saiyare Refaei has pursued an evaluation of the university’s carbon footprint in relation to the amount of meat purchased and consumed in the Dining Hall. The long-term goal of the project is the reassess the amount of meat purchased at PLU and work toward educating and providing more sustainable food options. The second project has been conducted by Kenneth Stancil. He has focused his project on water usage on campus, especially irrigation tactics. His research is aiming to examine alternate forms of irrigation in order to reduce consumption of water. The final project of the 2012-2013 year centers on the restoration of prairie habitat on campus and is conducted by Tyler Wilson. PLU already maintains two restoration sites on campus. The third site is unique in that, instead of creating a wooded zone, Wilson has worked toward restoring an area of grassland to PLU’s more aged historical habitat, prairie. This project not only attempts to create a more diverse habitat on campus, but also offers an educational opportunity for students to learn about habitat restoration and PLU’s historical prairies.