Awardee: LSA Student Government

Project Overview: This pollinator garden will be thoughtfully crafted with native flora supporting biodiversity, increasing student engagement, and promoting overall sustainability at the University of Michigan. As student leaders in LSA, the LSA Student Government wants to be stewards of this space and has committed to investing in the patch as a part of their key committee responsibilities. They have an ongoing interest in campus green spaces and see this project as a key opportunity to move the conversation forward for LSA and have this as a physical legacy from the Year of Sustainability.

Awardee: UM Sustainable Food Program (UMSFP)

Project Overview: Rooting for Change was a three-day summit hosted by the UM Sustainable Food Program (UMSFP) that focuses on uplifting student stories and ideas surrounding student food sovereignty through interdisciplinary modes of learning and communication. Rooting for Change is an end-of-year, culminating event that focuses on active student participation with food systems on campus. The goal of Rooting for Change is not just to put on events for students but for students to engage with each other in creative, interdisciplinary, and interactive ways through the act of leading other students to engage with the campus food system. 

It is important to interact with food and sustainability on campus in a way that goes deeper than individual initiatives. Rather, we find that building community through food is a very meaningful way to share well-rounded information, skills, and stories; a campus united through food justice is one that is equipped with the resiliency and innovation required to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our University. Through this event, we focus on bringing the campus community together to uplift student voices on the intersectionality between sustainability, food, and social justice. We find that the best way to do that is to have students leading the talks, panel, and workshops. We believe that by placing students at the forefront of this event, the summit becomes a space that unites students and inspires them to take action on campus, and future endeavors, in sustainable food systems.

Photos by Micherlange Francois-Hemsley

Awardee: Chemistry Department

Project Overview: The Chemistry Department seeks to reduce its water footprint by replacing single-pass water-cooled condenser systems with waterless air-cooled condensers for use in research and teaching labs. Condensers are used to capture solvent vapor when heating a reaction or drying a solvent. The condensers must be cooled to effectively do so, and conventional condensers are cooled by continuously flowing cool tap water through it, which goes down the drain after one cycle through the system. This process can use an estimated 150 or more liters of water per hour. The Chemistry Department seeks to purchase HeidolphTM Radelys Findenser Super Air Condensers, which passively radiates heat away from the system with zero water waste and no added energy requirements. The purchase and implementation of these “Findensers” throughout the department will eliminate hundreds of thousands of liters of wasted water per year.

Awardee: LSA@Play

Project Overview: The LSA@Play team at the University of Michigan aims to support sustainability goals by replacing plastic water bottles at events with a portable water refill station. This initiative aligns with the university’s objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, waste sent to landfills, invest in a sustainability culture, and highlights the College of Literature, Science, and the Art’s commitment to sustainability over a vast area of topics. This transition is expected to reduce plastic waste by 4.07 to 24.4 pounds per event, based on an average attendance of 200 to 1,200 participants. This station eliminates the need for plastic bottles and encourages attendees to use their reusable bottles. By doing so, it not only reduces plastic waste but also promotes a culture of sustainability and supports education around resource conservation.

Awardee: Clean Up Campus

Project Overview: Clean Up Campus is an environmental student organization dedicated to preserving natural areas through clean-ups, volunteering, and educational outreach with local schools. We host weekly workdays held at various locations throughout Ann Arbor where we aim to restore and maintain public areas through trash pick-ups, waste prevention establishments, and collaborations with professional organizations.

Awardee: Earth and Environmental Sciences

Project Overview: The Geomicrobiology Lab is home to the Western Lake Erie Culture Collection (WLECC). The WLECC was started in 2017 and continues to add new cultures annually. This collection is essential to the study of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs) by researchers at the University of Michigan and other Great Lakes adjacent institutions, including members of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), and other researchers around the world. The WLECC is composed of strains of Microcystis, the cyanobacteria species responsible for cHABs in 160 countries that are spread across 6 continents. To continue this critical work in a more sustainable way, disposable plastic consumables will need to be replaced with glass alternatives. To offset the additional time required for cleaning, we are proposing to purchase a glassware washer and necessary accessories. This washer would be made available to other research groups in the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, hopefully encouraging them to also make the switch to glass from disposable plastics. The Geomicrobiology Lab has an established history of sharing instrumentation with other labs.

Awardee: Department of Anthropology

Project Overview: The Department of Anthropology is organizing our annual four-field symposium for this fall, with the topic of “Sustainable Life: Practice, Values, and Culture.” The topic of the symposium was chosen to align with the current LSA theme year of sustainability. It is scheduled on Monday, October 7. Our speakers include anthropologists representing the four subfields of anthropology (archaeology, linguistic, sociocultural, and biological or evolutionary anthropology). Our goals include: (1) sharing contemporary anthropological research on sustainability with members of the university community and general public, (2) fostering conversation on sustainability among and between different subfields within anthropology, (3) encouraging new research projects on sustainability among undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Michigan.

Awardee: Sustainable Living Experience

Project Overview: The intentions of the Flower Farm are to create a space where students can learn about the plant growth process, and practice the goal of sustainable agriculture. Flowers grown will be sold to the University of Michigan for use in office space and other beautifying enhancements campus-wide. We project to grow 70% native species in our flower farm by the year 2028. The intentions of the Pollinator Habitat include introducing an extremely important organism to the surrounding Oxford Residences and the Nichols Arboretum. These pollinators will aid our Flower Farm, and provide a source of food in the form of honey that can be given to the SLE cohort or sold to Michigan Dining. In addition, the Pollinators will be an important educational experience for the SLE community.

Awardee: Earth and Environmental Sciences

Project Overview: We propose to purchase a TipNovus Mini and necessary accessories from Grenova to reduce laboratory waste sent for disposal, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport and production of plastic consumables, and educate students and the broader community about how new technologies can further enhance laboratory sustainability. Typically, pipet tips are considered single-use polypropylene plastic consumables in laboratory research. Unlike other laboratory consumables that can be replaced with reusable glass alternatives, there are no such alternatives for pipet tips. Pipet tips are essential for precise and accurate measurements for sensitive laboratory work. The CDC and NIH already use Grenova products with success to reuse pipet tips multiple times. The purchase and use of the TipNovus Mini would allow the University of Michigan the opportunity to move towards a more sustainable laboratory model. Acquiring one TipNovus Mini would also encourage potential users the ability for them to test the instrument to ensure satisfactory results. Furthermore, we propose that the instrument be run by undergraduate students as both employment and a learning experience, furthering LSA’s educational goals in addition to sustainability goals.

Awardee: LSA Mental Health and Well-being, Nature Rx

Project Overview: The goal of Nature RX is to educate and engage the U-M community about wellness practices and behaviors with nature, investigate research around nature and wellness, learn about efforts at other universities across the country, and spread awareness about the presence of Nature Rx at the University of Michigan for staff, students (graduate and undergraduate), and faculty. This symposium offers students, staff, and faculty an opportunity to learn about national research (that might inspire them to engage with the discipline), methods to be well with nature (such as forest bathing and nature journaling), and opportunities to further learn about these concepts at U-M. The goal would be to create resilient and environmental professionals who take this message with them in all aspects of their lives. Beyond the physical activities during the symposium (e.g. nature journaling) that will engage the U-M community. Contributing to our goal of lowering our carbon, water, and material footprint on campus as our students, staff, and faculty become more knowledgeable, and engaged on their own, and with campus-wide footprints.

Awardee: U-M Museum of Natural History

Project Overview: The Museum of Natural History seeks funding to acquire a lab-designated ultrasonic bath to enhance the sustainability of its Investigate Labs – Micro Worlds and Nature. Opened as part of the museum’s move to BSB in 2019, the novel labs provide immersive, hands-on educational experiences that showcase U-M faculty research, climate concerns, and efforts in sustainability. Staffed by trained undergraduate docents, the spaces welcome over 62,000 guests annually, including over 2,000 K-12 students. Because visitor lab engagement is so high, there’s a disproportionate amount of consumable material used over that of other museum education programs. This high material demand necessitates focused sustainability efforts. The proposed acquisition of an ultrasonic bath will significantly improve the museum’s ability to clean and reuse lab materials that are typically treated as disposable, thereby reducing waste. This initiative supports the museum’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, both in public outreach and behind-the-scenes operations. By educating staff and guests on the use of the ultrasonic cleaner and its environmental benefits, the project aligns with the museum’s goal of promoting climate change awareness and sustainability practices.

Awardee: Biodiversity Lab in the U-M Museum of Natural History

Project Overview: In the Biodiversity Lab, researchers work to characterize the immense biodiversity on the planet and to understand patterns in their evolutionary histories. This involves careful study of genomes–all the DNA that makes up an organism– and this genomic data is prepared in our molecular laboratory. Laboratory science today creates an alarming amount of plastic waste. For instance, a typical first step in the process of capturing DNA (“DNA extraction”) is to crush cells using steel or ceramic beads in single-use plastic tubes. These plastic tubes are placed on a specialized machine that shakes them vigorously, causing the tissue inside to be ruptured by the beads. The released DNA is removed and purified, and the tube is discarded. We want to reduce our material footprint by investing in reusable tubes for this essential procedure that underlies much of the work conducted in the lab. Stainless steel tubes will replace single-use plastics for the DNA extraction procedure. These tubes can be washed, sterilized, and reused indefinitely. This is just one opportunity to better align our research activities with our research goals of understanding interactions within the natural world and the processes governing them. Our study of natural systems should do as little harm to them as possible! Moreover, the Biodiversity Lab is not only an operational lab but also a display for the University’s Natural History Museum. Visitors to this public museum can watch science in action through our glass windows, and even interact via a two-way audio system. We hope to develop talking points, and perhaps visuals and signage, about the various opportunities to address sustainability in LSA laboratories.

Awardee: U-M Museum of Natural History

Project Overview: We will construct a display in the Natural History Museum’s “marquee” window out of repurposed building supplies that would otherwise be sent to a landfill. It will pay homage to a Cretaceous period diorama by George Marchand that was on display in Ruthven but did not make it into the new museum. Carpet tiles, ceiling tiles, and hand sanitizer stands will be repurposed to create the structure and cladding for the large-scale display. The display will be visible from both inside the museum and on the pedestrian bridge over Washtenaw, and interpretive signage explaining the sustainable use of materials will be installed in both locations.