Field Trip Week!

Hey all, it's Emma again! Last week we had the joy of going on two field trips to Michigan State University and the University of Michigan to learn more about their sustainability practices, so here's my rundown of what happened. P.S. Stick to the end for a little life update :) 

Tuesday, July 9th

MSU Field Trip

Tuesday was amazing in so many ways. We pulled up to Michigan State University’s Surplus Store at 9 am and was greeted by our tour guide and Sustainability Student Assistant, Emily Hill. She showed us inside to meet Katie Deska, the Education Coordinator for the Surplus and Recycling Center. She took us on a tour of the surplus store, where students donate their unwanted things to be resold to others! Katie also showed us their recycling center, where 97% of materials from around campus are sorted and formed into bales of stuff like plastic (the other 3% goes to the landfill). These bales are shipped out to processors in the eastern US to be reused! We also got a tour of the pre-consumer compost process. MSU collects food prep scraps from culinary locations on campus and delivers them to the compost center to decompose. This compost is special, as it is full of Eisenia fetida,  AKA vermicomposting worms, which help break down the microbes in the soil. This makes the compost super nutrient-filled (and expensive) but we were lucky enough to receive some bags for free!

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 The Eisenia fetida worms in the vermicompost and bales of plastic at the MSU recycling center

The next stop was the Student Organic Farm (SOF) where Farm Manager Darby Anderson greeted us. We got a small tour of the 20-acre farm, including its hoop houses, fields, and orchard. The SOF is part of the culinary department at MSU, providing them with food for students as well as community members. The farm operates under a practice called CSA, or community-supported agriculture. People pre-pay and receive food from the farm during the growing season. We also got to learn about their pest control methods, which include the USDA trapping animals and a gray tabby cat named Trout. After our farm tour, we ate lunch in MSU’s Brody Hall, where there were a plethora of different food options.

During lunch, we met with Carla Iansiti, the Director of Sustainability in Dining and one of her interns. Carla discussed with us the struggles MSU has with dining and sustainability, having been trial and error with multiple waste reduction programs in the past. Although struggling with student dining, the post-consumer food process is spectacular. Uneaten food gets sent to the kitchen, where the scraps are scraped into a channel of running water. This water leads to a pulper, where food is chopped up to be used for compost at Hammond Farms. We also toured their kitchen, where staff are trained in reducing the amount of food waste during prep. 

After our lunch and kitchen tour, we met Department of Community Sustainability professor Ruth Klein-Robach for a stormwater tour. We began by discussing watersheds, rainfall, and runoff as we walked across campus looking at different types of stormwater infrastructure. As we stopped by the Red Cedar River which flows through campus, Ruth turned our attention towards a small flock of geese. MSU has a huge problem with people feeding the ducks and geese, and their poop running into the river. Types of mammal waste (human, dog, or goose, for example) can carry the bacteria E. coli, which can be very dangerous. Because animal poop is essentially everywhere by the river, the watershed can be easily contaminated. After passing by the geese (which we were all a little afraid of), we were taken to one of MSU’s green infrastructure buildings. What looked like a small area of building covered by small greenery is a great way to reduce stormwater runoff. This small area absorbs rain that would have been runoff, helping to reduce flooding. 

The beautiful Red Cedar River in East Lansing

Our last stop was at Beal Gardens, part of MSU’s 150-year-old arboretum. Out from the plants appeared Carolyn Miller, the Plant Recorder as well as the Invasive Species Coordinator for the school. The garden is absolutely beautiful, including a plethora of colorful plants and flowers. Carolyn explained that Beal is a sort of outside classroom, where students can come to learn about all the different types of plants in the collection. The “Core Collections” included Indigenous North American plants, injurious plants, medicinal plants, weeds, veggies, themed collections, economic plants, and systematically organized collections. This collection was breathtaking to look at, as I am a huge plant enthusiast. Carolyn also described her role in invasive species management and getting biodiversity on campus. She has also mapped the over 20,000 trees in the campus arboretum, some of which are hundreds of years old! After touring the gardens, we returned to the van and headed home after a very eventful day.

The next day, we discussed our trip: What were the strengths? Weaknesses? How could we apply what we saw to Albion? Our overall takeaways were as follows:

• Having a connection between staff and students is super important, without which implementing sustainable practices is much harder

• Information about sustainability can be presented in so many ways such as signs, social media, student eco-reps, and more sustainability-based organizations

• Having a large school in a large city provides many more resources and opportunities for sustainability than at Albion

Thursday, July 11th

UofM Trip

On Thursday we were on the road again, this time to the University of Michigan! We arrived at their Sustainable Living Experience dorm to meet our tour guide (and former sustainability coordinator at Albion!) Daisy Hall and Professor Joe Trumpey. They explained to us that the Sustainability Living Experience was only one of the various “living-learning” communities at UofM. This includes things like a clothing dye garden, lots of campus bikes, and over 40 student organizations focused on sustainability. The housing was beautiful, full of earth-toned furniture, plant and animal posters, and lots of books. It felt like an actual home and not just a student dorm. One of the more shocking parts of the dorm was their mushroom tent! The basement of the dorm included a large tent filled with buckets growing different types of oyster mushrooms. The mushrooms are sold for about $15 a pound and are used by the school's dining staff. We sampled a pink oyster mushroom which Bonnie said tasted like chicken, Curtis said tasted slightly like blood, and I thought tasted kind of bland. But hey, each to their own. 

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Professor Thom Wilch holding a pink oyster mushroom, which was grown in a bucket in the Sustainable Living Community at UofM

Daisy then took us on a walking tour of the downtown and campus. She took us past a number of statues and art outside, making the campus truly feel like a large art museum. The next stop was the Graham Sustainability Institute, which focuses on student service with community partners throughout Michigan. Graham employee Bridget Gruber and current intern Jasmine gave us a rundown of their mission statement and internship process. The Institute accepts students for a 3-semester long program in which they will connect with community members with sustainability-focused projects. These projects are open to students of all majors, not just environmental ones. They also gave us some great advice on working with community partners: 

1-Communicate about your capacity with community partners, don't be afraid to be realistic

2-Listen to the needs of your community instead of assuming what they need

After receiving some great advice from Bridget and Jasmine, we walked back through campus to get to one of the many dining halls on campus for lunch.

UofM’s dining hall was massive and had its fair share of delicious meal options. During our lunch, Director of Student Engagement for Dining Keith Soster joined us to discuss what sustainable dining practices looked like at Michigan. Firstly, dining tables and chairs are made of reused materials like bowling alley wood! The dining halls also focused on having more natural lighting through windows and spending less on artificial lighting. Keith explained to us some “nudge behaviors” he has used in order to make the dining hall a more sustainable option for the campus. The dining halls moved from having large plates to smaller “tapas” style entrees. This allowed students to not overload their plates with food, which usually ended up with them throwing out more food. UofM also offers unlimited meal swipes for students, reducing the amount of students taking food home from the dining hall. This also reduces a “feast or famine” mindset in students, which would lead to overeating to make a meal swipe “worth it”. What I thought was the most impactful in the dining hall was the large carbon ratings beside each meal option, another nudge behavior to help students eat more sustainably. Eating something with a green rating made me feel good, and I hope it makes other students feel good too! After our meal, we toured the kitchen where we got a look at the food waste process. Michigan had a very similar process to MSU where food is scraped into running water and then sent to a pulper. 

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A banner detailing carbon ratings in food and an industrial pulper in the kitchen of UofM

Our last (official) stop of the day was at the Campus Farm where Manager Jeremy Moghtader and Student Affairs Program Manager, Haley Kerner gave us a rundown of the large plot. The farm grows food mainly based on dining services and community demand. Aside from food plots, they also have a section exclusively for students researching plants! Our hot sweaty group was happy to be shown the washing and prep station, which included a large cold walk-in container we cooled off in. Lastly, we looked at a large straw bale house that was built by students and Professor Joe Trumpey! This house is made from layers of dirt, clay, and straw, making it a nice combination of cool and warm throughout the seasons. After the farm, we took a quick trip to the visitor center/gift shop where I got a shirt with mushrooms on it and Nico and Ashlynn got bird shirts. 

A view of the UofM Student Farm

The next day we were once again in the science atrium discussing our trip and what we had learned. Here's what we took away from the trip:

• Getting funding for things (especially sustainability-related things) is hard, no matter the size of the school

• Having a dedicated sustainability community makes students feel more connected and passionate about the environment

• Sustainable dining can be done in many ways including portion control, meatless options, and feedback from students inspiring change

On a non-sustainability related note, the past few weeks have been crazy for me both on and off the job. For starters, I was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. What I thought was just an infection quickly turned into an emergency room trip and three days spent in the ICU. Constantly checking my blood sugar and injecting myself with insulin has become a new and strange practice. It’s especially hard given the heat which makes my sugar drop from sweating so much. I feel a little bit like a robot and a little less like a human now. On a lighter note, insulin saved my life and it could save yours too. If you have any of these symptoms I highly suggest seeing your doctor about diabetes: excessive thirst, fatigue, nausea or vomiting, excessive urination, blurred vision, fast heart rate, headaches, sleepiness, and unintentional weight loss (Mayo Clinic). 

Stay safe out there,

-Emma :) 

The author holding a bouquet of mustard greens at the Albion Student Farm