University of Texas at Austin
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Jim
Walker Director of Sustainability, Financial, and Administrative Services University Operations |
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Campus Engagement?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Campus Engagement:
Undergraduate students in College of Communications partner with a different campus operational unit every spring semester. Excerpt from Spring 2022 syllabus:
This course combines discussions of environmental current events with hands-on agency/client experience to help students understand how to develop authentic communication strategies and tactics that can protect the environment and advance cutting-edge sustainability technologies.
In Spring 2022, Environmental Communication will be centered around a semester-long collaboration with UT’s Environmental Health and Safety Department to create a pollution prevention campaign building awareness of the Waller Creek Watershed on and around campus.
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Public Engagement?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Public Engagement:
UT’s Project LEAD (https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/utoutpost.php) program is a yearlong project management and leadership development program where students have the opportunity to utilize their newly acquired skills to manage real projects for the community. A Project LEAD team of students is working with the City of Austin and UT Office of Sustainability to develop and implement a more effective outreach program for the MoveOutATX initiative (https://www.moveoutatx.org/). MoveOutATX is a collaboration between the city, UT Office of Sustainability, area property managers, and local reuse organizations. The initiative seeks to redirect unwanted clothing and furniture during off-campus student move-out towards reuse rather than landfill. The Project LEAD team of students is working to expand MoveOutATX outreach to property managers, develop new ways to promote the opportunity to student renters, and create a marketing/promotion standard operating manual.
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Air & Climate?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Air & Climate:
Faculty with Cockrell School of Engineering are partnering with the City of Austin, community groups and East Austin residents to find out where hot temperatures are affecting people the most — and proposing solutions to cool down these places.
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Buildings?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Buildings:
A research project lead by Dr. Zoltan Nagy analyze energy consumption data from buildings on campus and identify patterns in consumption. Research project team members must access data through a database, analyze it, and apply different algorithms for clustering the data. Data is shared with UT Energy Stewards to inform operational decision making
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Energy?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Energy:
The Intelligent Environments Laboratory is releasing the first version of the UT Energy App. This app is intended to provide a way to collect information on climate/temperature and consequent comfort levels for students in UT classrooms and other campus buildings. This data will be used directly by the UT Energy Department to provide students with a better classroom experience and cut costs on climate control. https://nagy.caee.utexas.edu/energy-app/ To reduce HVAC energy inefficiencies, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) has become a growing field of interest. In particular, air handling units (AHU), devices that circulate air and regulate room temperature and humidity, are the primary focus of most HVAC FDD systems. A data-driven FDD for AHUs on a university campus would fill a role in the reduction HVAC energy consumption, which remains one of the main drivers in total building energy use and consequently impacts the total global CO2 emissions. Fault detection and diagnostics for HVAC systems can potentially reduce 10-40% of total building energy consumption. https://nagy.caee.utexas.edu/fault-detection-and-diagnostics-of-air-handling-units-using-machine-learning-and-expert-rule-sets/
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Food & Dining?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Food & Dining:
University Housing and Dining joined the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. Faculty with Nutrition Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences are drafting research agenda.
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Grounds?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Grounds:
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Purchasing?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Purchasing:
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Transportation?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Transportation:
The Center for Transportation Research in the Cockrell School of Engineering collaborated with Office of Sustainability and Parking and Transportation Services to draft and field new commute mode survey to entire campus population to be used to create a campus specific transportation demand model for use in courses with students and by the Office of Campus Planning.
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Waste?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Waste:
UT Resource Recovery student interns conduct waste audits on select campus buildings and report their finding to building occupants. Data is used to create targeted zero waste educational materials and outreach. https://sustainability.utexas.edu/news/waste-audit
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Water?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Water:
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Coordination & Planning?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Coordination & Planning:
Graduate students gathered and analyzed campus data in preparation for UT Austin's STARS submission
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Diversity & Affordability?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Diversity & Affordability:
Students associated with Project LEAD, a yearlong project management and leadership development program, are working with the campus food pantry (UT Outpost https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/utoutpost.php) to develop outreach materials. The goal of the initiative is to provide resources to help students better utilize the food pantry and make healthy choices. https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/leadership/projectlead.php
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Investment & Finance?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Investment & Finance:
Is the institution utilizing its infrastructure and operations as a living laboratory for applied student learning for sustainability in relation to Wellbeing & Work?:
A brief description of the projects and how they contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in relation to Wellbeing & Work:
Website URL where information about the institution’s living laboratory program is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.