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Case Studies

Introduction

AASHE’s case study library contains hundreds of detailed case studies on a wide variety of higher education sustainability initiatives from faculty development programs to whole campus energy retrofits to community partnerships. All case studies are entered in the annual AASHE Awards Program.

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At a Glance

929
Total Resources
491
Organizations
20
Countries
48
U.S. States & Territories
7
Canadian Provinces

Bars in graphs can be clicked to view resources that align with a particular category. Because a resource may be listed under multiple topics and disciplines, graph data may include higher total counts than what is indicated in total resources above.

New Resources

39 resources
Packing Food at Catering Services

Food Recovery Efforts at the University of Dayton

  • University of Dayton (OH)

The Food Recovery Network chapter at the University of Dayton helps fight both the issue of hunger and food waste by collecting, transporting, and donating food each week from dining …

  • Posted April 28, 2025
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Resilient Climate Leaders: Redefining Sustainability Programming to Meet the Needs of Students Today

  • Tufts University (MA)

In the early 2020’s with the onset of the pandemic and accelerating impacts of the climate emergency, students in Tufts University’s sustainability programs began asking for ways to more effectively …

  • Posted Jan. 24, 2025
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Addressing Climate Anxiety through Resilience and Community Building

  • Portland Community College (OR)

Sustainability and climate work require resilience to fend off burnout and avoidance. While our college does good work promoting sustainability through our Climate Action Plan and curricular and co-curricular environmental …

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"Improv to Improve the Earth"

  • University of California, Merced (CA)

The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) in partnership with Quarantine Improv (QI) hosted its second annual Earth Day event, "Improv to Improve the Earth". The goal was to bring …

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Ava Brewer uses student-athletes as sustainability advocates for CMU

  • Central Michigan University (MI)

Central Sustainability coordinator Ava Brewer created a video promoting sustainability at CMU using student-athletes as sustainability advocates. The video will play at football, men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, volleyball and …

Bicycle Fleet Expansion

  • University of Cincinnati (OH)

As part of our commitment with the environment, our community and as a Bicycle Friendly University, we have expanded our bike fleet in order to keep up with the high …

  • Posted Feb. 23, 2023
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The Herbicide Free Emory 'living wall' and garden after bench installation.

Redefining Environmental Aesthetics at Emory University

  • Emory University (GA)
  • Re:wild Your Campus (TX)

Emory defines sustainability as relating to the quality of life, emphasizing the necessity of community health, wellbeing, and happiness. In approaching sustainability, Emory has created a comprehensive strategy to foster …

President's Sustainability Research Fellowship 20-21: Climate Community

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

The 2020-2021 President's Sustainability Research Fellowship Climate Community project was conducted by Martin Tomlinson '23 and Maya Tipton '23 over the 2020-2021 Academic Year. The purpose of Climate Community was …

Addressing Food and Housing Security among NC State University Students

  • North Carolina State University (NC)

Since February 2018, when a report on student hunger and homelessness on NC State University's campus was released, the campus community has generated increased resources for students, conducted ongoing research …

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Project Reach, Reclaim, Revive

  • Seneca Polytechnic (ON)

Guided by academic advisors and business experts, student leaders of Enactus Canada create and implement community empowerment projects and business ventures in their communities. This experiential learning platform helps students …

North Texas Food Policy Alliance

  • University of Texas at Arlington (TX)

What are Food Policy Councils/Alliances? The first Food Policy Council started 30 years ago in the city of Knoxville. In the last decade Food Policy Councils (also called food system …

  • Posted April 21, 2021
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Herbicide-Free LMU

  • Loyola Marymount University (CA)
  • Re:wild Your Campus (TX)

The project represented in this case study is Herbicide-Free LMU, a campaign I started at LMU under Herbicide-Free Campus. With a slow beginning as the sole campaign leader, I worked …

Me (left) and Maggie (right, who is taking over HFC UCSB next year) tabling at the UCSB Environmental Studies 50th Anniversary Event

Herbicide-Free Campus: UCSB

  • Re:wild Your Campus (TX)

This project sought to reduce synthetic herbicide use on the UC Santa Barbara Campus. There were three main aspects of this project: meeting with groundskeepers, passing resolutions in the student …

Final Project Report: Crum Woods

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Purpose of the Project: To increase student, faculty, staff, and community member engagement and safety in Crum Woods, as well as continue to implement the 10-year Crum Woods Restoration and …

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Priming the Sustainability Talent Pipeline: Indiana Sustainability Development Program

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
  • Indiana University Kokomo (IN)
  • Indiana University South Bend (IN)
  • Indiana University Indianapolis (IN)

The Indiana Sustainability Development Program (ISDP) is a privately funded sustainability workforce development initiative led by Sustain IU (the Office of Sustainability at Indiana University), which pairs students with organizations …

Access MIT: A sustainable free ride

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)

In 2016, MIT set out to reduce parking demand on campus by 10 percent over two years with the launch of Access MIT. The program represented a first-of-its-kind, research-based approach …

Pop-Up People's Pantry

Pop-Up People's Pantry- Feeding those in need in response to COVID-19

  • University of California, Merced (CA)

The Pop-Up People's Pantry at the 18th St. People's Garden popped up in response to COVID-19 to feed our food insecure community healthy and nutritious food, predominantly fresh produce.

Student Success Intern's Final Presentation

No Food Left Behind: A free text service to reduce food insecurity and food waste

  • University of California, Merced (CA)

No Food Left Behind is a free text messaging service that connects students, staff and faculty at the University of California, Merced to events that might have food leftover. People …

How to Start a Green Greeks Club on Any Campus

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus (AZ)

Historically, Greek Life and Sustainability Organizations have been disconnected from each other on college campuses. This is the odd reality despite the fact that the two groups share many of …

SDG Week Banner

SDG Week

  • The University of British Columbia (BC)

SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Week [https://sustain.ubc.ca/sdg] was a week-long occasion at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus that consisted of ten multidisciplinary events—six of these events were organized by …

Mobile Food Pantry

Addressing Food Insecurity on Campus

  • Colorado State University (CO)

Approximately 10% of students at Colorado State University experience food insecurity. In the past five years, CSU has been aggressively tackling food insecurity through the creation of innovative programs under …

University of Vermont Eco-Reps Coping with Crises Case Study 2019-2020

  • University of Vermont (VT)

Originally this campaign was going to focus solely on coping with climate change, however, in being interrupted by COVID-19, we decided to expand the campaign’s scope to address coping with …

Building Climate Resilience at Arizona State University: Second Nature’s Climate Commitment

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

In 2016, Arizona State University’s President, Michael Crow, signed the Second Nature Climate Commitment, which not only reaffirmed ASU’s commitment to climate neutrality but also set a course to address …

Bike Friendly University

  • University of Cincinnati (OH)

The Bicycle Friendly University program recognizes institutions of higher education for promoting and providing a more bikeable campus for students, staff and visitors. The Bicycle Friendly University program evaluates university's …

  • Posted Feb. 27, 2020
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Environmental Justice

Hope and Empowerment: Navigating Grief, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Through Train-the-Trainer Workshops

  • Portland Community College (OR)
  • Portland State University (OR)
  • Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network (GPSEN) (OR)

In these times of accelerating change, environmental crises, and social injustices, we are bombarded with negative news that can numb and overwhelm the spirit. How can we build hope and …

Showing off one of the TRU Ebikes

Thompson Rivers University Bikeshare and Employee E-bike Purchase Program

  • Thompson Rivers University (BC)

Thompson Rivers University began a simple bike share program with five bikes that was designed for students, staff and faculty to have access to bicycles for up to a week …

Sustainable Events Consultant Volunteer Team

The McGill Staff Engagement Ladder

  • McGill University (QC)

Between 2016 and 2019, the McGill Office of Sustainability developed four separate engagement programs to increase collective sustainability actions for staff, students, and faculty. The programs were strategically developed to …

Food Recovery At UIC

  • University of Illinois Chicago (IL)

At the University of Illinois at Chicago's (UIC) dining facilities, there is much food that is prepared but not eaten. It goes to the landfill, but it could be instead …

  • Posted Aug. 10, 2018
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PSU Urban Center with Max Train Running Between Two Halves of the Building

Portland State University: Driving Rigorous Sustainability through Top-Level Policies

  • Portland State University (OR)

Portland State University (PSU), situated in the University District of downtown Portland, Oregon, is the only public urban university in the state located in a major metropolitan city. A recognized …

Stanford Students Use Green Cleaners

Stanford R&DE Student Housing Innovation in Cleaning

  • Stanford University (CA)

Stanford’s R&DE Student Housing Operations (SHO) adopted a green cleaning standard that has reduced chemical usage in residences by over 90%. The system engineer's water by infusing it with ozone …

Using Technology to Motivate and Quantify Behavior Change: My Cardinal Green

  • Stanford University (CA)

In today’s increasingly technological and personalized world, sustainability professionals must provide opportunities to engage their community in a way that is relevant for them, while also quantifying the impacts of …

Ohio University's Professional Development Program for the Advancement of Sustainability

  • Ohio University (OH)

Ohio University's Office of Sustainability designed a Professional Development Program to advance the university's sustainability profile, particularly with its built environment. On a monthly basis staff from Architecture, Design and …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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The brown's team outside of the brown's- a california cafe

Brown's- A California Cafe

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

This August, Cal Dining opened brown’s- a california café. By design, over 80% of the ingredients used are sourced locally from within 250 miles of the UC Berkeley campus and …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Doctoral student Matheus Fernandes tests out healthier chairs and furniture inside Peabody Terrace. These chairs, used by Harvard University Housing, feature chemical flame retardant-free materials. In 2015, Harvard became the first university to sign a national pledge stating a preference for purchasing furniture manufactured without the use of toxic flame retardants. Peabody Terrace was the first project of its size to implement the new pledge on campus.

Avoiding Chemical Flame Retardants on Campus

  • Harvard University (MA)

Harvard University’s Sustainability Plan, created in partnership with faculty, students, and staff, is rooted in a sustainable development vision focused on enhancing community and individual well-being within and across generations. …

USF “Share-A-Bull” Bicycle-Share Program

  • University of South Florida (Tampa) (FL)

Deployed a smart bike-sharing program with 100 GPS enabled bikes, multiple bicycle parking stations, and a mobile phone app to facilitate locating, reserving and returning bikes. With this program, USF …

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UNT Health Science Center Community Garden: Connecting Health and Wellness to Sustainability

  • University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (TX)

The University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is a graduate school of health care professions with over 2,100 students. The UNTHSC Community Garden broke ground in early 2014 …

  • Posted June 11, 2015
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BHCC Health and Wellness Center

  • Bunker Hill Community College (MA)
  • DiNisco Design Partnership (MA)

The Health and Wellness Center at Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a e 48,000 square-foot structure provides "smart classrooms," spacious offices, student study lounges, flexible state-of-the-art "sim" labs with …

  • Posted July 27, 2012
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Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)

The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is a world-class research facility that houses twin interdisciplinary institutes: the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research and the public, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. With …

  • Posted July 24, 2012
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Weaving Sustainability into New Employee Orientation

  • University of Louisville (KY)

At the University of Louisville, we took advantage of an existing, mandatory day-long New Employee Orientation to begin educating all new full-time employees about the fundamentals of sustainability, our institutional …

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