Michigan Technological University 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and Graduate Institutions 1,000 - 7,500 Student FTE

The eco-colorful cover of Michigan Tech's Environmental Sustainability Committee report. Photographer:

Contact

Lesley Lovett-Doust
Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs
Provost's Office
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI
(906) 487-2440
lld@mtu.edu

Governance & Administration

The mission, goals and strategic plan of Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) declare a commitment to develop, understand, apply, manage and communicate science and technology—all with the goal of creating a sustainable and prosperous world. Michigan Tech is known for the relevance and benefits to society of our research, the capacity of our students to put their knowledge into action, and the value we place on sustainability and quality of life. We aim to be the top technological university for the world.

Michigan Tech is a STEM-intensive public university with 5,800 undergraduates and approximately 900 graduate students, located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Since its founding in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, Michigan Tech has evolved to offer more diverse degrees while maintaining a strong technological focus. Just over 80% of our faculty is in the STEM disciplines; this is significantly different from the profile of all other universities in this state and most universities in the nation.

But Michigan Tech is a different kind of technological university, focusing on interdisciplinary research and learning, and embedding our commitment to a sustainable future in everything we do.  To ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction in ways that serve that goal, the University has appointed a Sustainability Coordinator who has the ear of the President and Executive Team.

Michigan Tech opted to earn accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission’s AQIP (Academic Quality Improvement Program) process, undertaking projects that address issues central to the University’s mission. Our first AQIP project is a carbon-counting inventory in which senior researchers, staff, undergraduates, graduate students and administrators are developing a model of all our campus processes and activities, including use of energy and materials, and testing the model’s response to various simulated changes in operations.

AQIP exemplifies the way Michigan Tech “walks the walk,” rather than simply talking about sustainability. The 2008 Princeton Review’s “Best 368 Colleges” commended Michigan Tech for its green policies and practices, and a recent issue of Science dedicated to the study of “Forests in Flux” cited Michigan Tech for our innovative cluster-hiring initiative in sustainability this year. Through this Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative, we filled three new endowed chairs in sustainability (the Robbins Endowed Chairs in Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Sustainable Materials, and Sustainable Management of the Environment) and added 7 faculty bridging 15 departments to our 130-member Sustainable Futures Institute, which serves as an incubator for research, education, and outreach efforts related to industrial/economic, environmental, and societal sustainability.

Michigan Tech President Glenn D. Mroz is a forest ecologist who conducted research on remediation of Torch Lake, a nearby IJC-identified “Area of Concern”, contaminated by decades of mining activity in the early 20th century. Several other senior administrators also have a background in environmental science. All are guided by the principle that they and their students should dedicate their professional efforts to creating a sustainable future.

Operations

Early in Michigan Tech’s history, we were given Henry Ford’s model village of Alberta, Michigan, designed as a family-based logging community complete with a sawmill, homes, and 4,000-acre forest. Today the Ford Center is home to student field education in Forestry, Ecology, and Environmental Science, and a site for retreats and small conferences. The managed forest is exceptionally productive, helping significantly to offset the carbon debt of students who must travel a significant distance to study in Houghton.

Michigan Tech has long followed a strategy that promotes pedestrian spaces and perimeter parking. As part of a long-range campus plan, US Highway 41, which ran through the center of campus, was moved to the south of the campus, and a pedestrian mall was developed. Train tracks that lay between the campus and the shores of the Portage Canal were removed and the lands restored to create a walking trail bordering the Canal and extending towards Portage Lake.

A recent Campus Greening Plan called Greenprint for Environmental Sustainability in Campus Operations and Activities identified the need for a carbon-counting inventory (now under way as part of our AQIP project), as well as a guide to green purchasing, a University policy promoting the use of recycled and refurbished products, establishment of a campus energy task force, and promotion of campus-wide recycling, and development of a green landscaping policy.

Until recently, the campus used underground sprinklers that drew water from the Portage Canal to maintain flowerbeds. Now we have moved to planting more drought-resistant native species that can tolerate intermittent surface sprinkling, saving the energy and cost of maintaining the old system. 

Several residence hall groups committed to sustainable living are involved in locally grown food co-ops. Recently, our residence halls and campus food services switched to reusable and renewable dinnerware and adopted the interesting strategy of providing smaller plates and fewer trays. This has significantly reduced food wastage and cut energy consumption for washing dishes and trays.

A sustainable world is a world that generates a maximum of value with minimum of waste. Using the LEAN