Faculty Resources

For UM Faculty Members: No matter in which school, college or department you teach, the Sustainability Living Lab is an opportunity for your students to get a solution-applied learning experience on campus, using the office of sustainability as your client and partner!

Here are some of the most recent examples that made an impact on our campus operations and life:

School of Communication

• Interactive Media course:
  Prof Sanne Martens uses the Office of Sustainability as a client for her class. Students are given a tour of our Green Buildings selected that semester, as well as narrative for sustainable construction features. At the end of the semester, they need to present the 360 virtual tour they built in Adobe XD or Figma. One of the projects is selected to be published on the green U website and students are recognized by having their names listed on the page.
  
  
  
• Design for Sustainability course:
  The class taught by Prof Nerri Garcia delivered 1 project by group. Each project explored one aspect of sustainability on campus and offered an innovative way to reach out to students. One of them involved signage on the ground inspired by the Covid era was a tactic we started adopting in certain campaigns.
  
  
  

Writing Studies Department

• Innovation in Technology and Design course:
  The class taught by Prof. Lauren delivered innovative outreach tools to address some sustainability needs on campus. One fo the class projects was an app to incentivize sustainable behaviors through gamification. The project became reality with the launch of the get green app at the U.
  
   

Miami Herbert Business School

• Introduction to Sustainable Business course:
  - Environmentally Preferred Products branding in the UM Bookstore.
  - Creation and launching of a Round Up program at the UM bookstore. The program benefit green student orgs on campus. 
  
  
  
• Marketing Graduate course:
  The class taught by Prof. Khan delivered several marketing and branding projects that brings stunts, activations and happening in the realm of sustainable behavior change. One of the project used our mascot to gamify recycling right guidelines during green games.
  
  
  

Geography and Sustainable Development

• Economics of Sustainable Development course:
  The class taught by Prof Haoluan delivered various surveys that the office of sustainability needed to assess various aspects of its programs. The OS ended up using and inlcuding the surveys in its outreach campaigns.
  
  
  
• GIS Graduate course:
  A group of 5 graduate students delivered an app able to capture the full tree canopy of our campus. we have used this app and its associated ArcGIS map to build a robust Tree Inventory that other classes are enhancing with new layers and that our ground landscpaing managers are using to maintain our trees on campus.
  
  
  
• Sustainable Food Systems course: 
  The class taught by Prof Moises partnered with Office of Sustainability and Dining Services to analyze the invoices of our food service provider to calculate the scope 3 emissions of food in the university green house gases inventory.
  

Climate Resilience Insitute

• Climate Resilience course: 
  The class is taught by several professors from different schools and colleges with a main on campus project to deliver at the end of the semester. Students worked under the supervision of Prof. Norris from the Institute for Data Sience and Computing. They used the Tree canopy app elaborated by GIS graduate students in previous semesters to populate the campus tree inventory with various data points that are used by other classes and by our grounds landscaping manager for tree care.
  
  
  

College of Engineering

• Innovation in Design and Technology course: 
  The class is taught by Prof. Bilge delivered several innovative ways to address waste diversion issues on our campus. One of the project addressed collection and collection of cardboard for recycling with methods that our facilities department implemented across campus.
  
  
  
• Water-Quality Control in Natural Systems course:
  The class taught by Prof. Solo Gabrielle sample water from our main body of water on campsu, lake Osceola. They track pollutants, excess nutrients and dissolved oxigen to assess the environmental health of our lake. At the end of the semester, results are shared with facilities management and used to take action on remediation.
  
  
  
• Construction Management graduate course:
  One of the Phd students project consisted in the revision or our Water Use Intensity benchmarking dashboard, and identification of a building candidate for a comprehensive water audit.
  

No matter what class you're teaching this semester, our Green U tour will inspire your students. They will have a chance to learn, get involved, and see our campus like never before. You can tailor the tour according to your class need: Start at Stanford Circle in front of our ECO tree, a symbol of students commitment to nature preservation and the environment [...] Stop by the LEED Platinum Frost Building and learn about its green features. Schedule your next tour now with greenu@miami.edu

Invite Green U for a 20 min presentation in your class, and get your students involved in the multiple sustainability projects our campus offer: from our sustainable food initiatives, our LEED certified buildings, to our various renewable energy projects, our tree canopy or our waste minimization strategy, our multidisciplinary approach is fit for any class. Contact greenu@miami.edu to schedule a presentation in your class (available on our 3 campuses).

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How Did I Green My Syllabus?

Over the last few years, the University has increased its offerings of graduate and undergraduate programs focused on sustainable development. We invite you to join a group of colleagues from various UM departments as they share their personal journey in Academia, and how they decided to integrate sustainability in their syllabus. Join our panelists, Prof. David Kelly (Miami Herbert Business School), Prof. Lokesh Ramamoorthi (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Prof. Erin McNary (Sports Administration), and Prof. Justin Stoler (Geography).