As Earth Month continues, highlighting U-M’s efforts to create a more sustainable campus community is of the utmost importance. As part of these continued efforts, Student Life Sustainability Manager, Alex Bryan, works to further sustainability on campus and with students through multiple different programs and events which help educate and promote the benefits of living sustainably.
In this episode of Michigan Minds, Bryan discusses the university’s sustainability efforts, Planet Blue Student Leaders, and how he and others work to gain student involvement to help reach our overall campus goals, specifically utilizing the ‘campus as lab’ approach.
“One of the experiential and leadership development programs is the U-M Sustainable Food Program (UMSFP). This started in 2012, it was initially an outgrowth of an idea from an Environment 391, undergrad class, that then became a master’s thesis for School of Environment and Sustainability. A team of students put together a pitch that said ‘you know what we kind of learn about food systems in our classes. We want to play with that on campus, we want this to be real and actualized.’”
He goes on to explain that these students created an environment that fostered collaboration in a way that creates more just and sustainable food systems on U-M’s campus while also holding annual events such as Harvest Fest, Rooting for Change, and the Farm Stand which provides produce grown on the campus farm, that is then sold to individuals on campus. These events also share educational content, like the following the path of tomatoes grown on campus.
“So this kind of student-led program started in a classroom and then gets applied onto campus. This group founded the Campus Farm with Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum and co-founded the Maize and Blue cupboard, our food pantry on campus. To me the ‘campus as lab’ approach allows us to take our operations, stack on an educational opportunity, connect to classroom and other co-curricular learning spaces, and help students build and imagine, and dream these fun things that become actualized in a way that can benefit campus or have the potential to scale into the communities around us,” he says.
Bryan discusses the complexity of sustainability and that if there is a disconnect between the environmental side and the social impacts of sustainability, that we are only addressing part of the issues at hand. “If we are going to achieve carbon neutrality at U-M or in the world, hopefully, then it’s going to take lots of talents and skills. So when we have folks who contribute no matter what they are doing, that is the only way we get and achieve this massive goal set in front of us.”
Bryan also emphasizes the work that students are doing on campus, specifically students who participate in the Excellence in Sustainability Honors Cord program that highlights the diversity of students who are focused on sustainability. He also talks about the work that art and culture play to help humanize sustainability work, and his hopefulness for change.
“U-M, generally, is in such a unique position to provide hope. Our mission is nested in these ideas of education, research, and serving the public good. It allows for each day to be a little bit better, to make improvements or changes in our lives or the spaces we can control. We have this opportunity to lead by example, to push ourselves, and the institution to an equitable and just future.”
