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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

881
Total Resources
472
Organizations
21
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

140 resources
Transfer student leaves sustainability legacy at UCLA

Introduction to Sustainable Living

  • University of California, Los Angeles (CA)

My proposal for the 2018 Student Sustainability Leadership Award is for a course that I was able to develop at UCLA designed to help students learn knowledge and skills that ...

The first delivery of Campus Farm produce to MDining

University of Michigan Campus Farm and MDining Lead Sustainable Food Movement

  • University of Michigan (MI)

With the first delivery of Campus Farm fresh produce to Mosher Jordan dining hall in the summer of 2017, the University of Michigan’s MDining’s sustainability goal of using ...

Every student receives a sticker at the end of each session to remind them of the pledge they made to live a more sustainable life.

Sustainability Activation Program at the University of Dayton

  • University of Dayton (OH)

The Sustainability Activation Program (SAP) is an innovative, large scale, and peer-to-peer education program that began in October of 2016 with the intent to better educate our student body about ...

RU Sustainable themed sticker design

RU Sustainable event series

  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)

RU Sustainable events are designed with the purpose of bringing together faculty, students, and staff to engage with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). As described on the ...

Partnership Development of Sustainable Learning

  • Triton College (IL)

From a partnership of labor and industry and a community college grew an educational program geared toward meeting industry needs while highlighting facility sustainability and environmental awareness.

Integral inclusion of sustainability to the curriculum

  • The Universidad Tecnologica Metropolitana (Metropolitana Region)

It shows how the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana de Chile integrated sustainability throughout the curriculum for all its programs

Dismantling a local School to Prison Pipeline with Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

UTRGV’s collaboration with an alternative school and its subsequent integration of education for sustainable development has been transformative for the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized youth.

Armed guards ...

JGC Permaculture Garden and class lecture

Permaculture and Community at WCSU

  • Western Connecticut State University (CT)

The Jane Goodall Center for Excellence in Environmental Studies is a unique partnership between Western Connecticut State University and The Jane Goodall Institute, a private non-profit organization dedicated to wildlife ...

Promoting Sustainability Science on Campus: Renewable Energy Workshops Hosted at Kean University in New Jersey

  • Kean University (NJ)

The project provides workshops for high school/college students and educators to learn the basics, application, and impacts of renewable energy through hands-on activities and software tools. The workshops cover ...

  • Posted April 3, 2018
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Implementing a Sustainability Internship Program at Siena Heights University

  • Siena Heights University (MI)

Michigan is experiencing numerous environmental health threats, and the SHU Sustainability Internship Program was created to engage students to address environmental challenges. Using the AASHE Guide to Creating & Managing ...

Tiny House Team

Kauai Community College Tiny House Hydro Electric Micro Grid Project

  • University of Hawaii Kauai Community College (HI)

During the Summer of 2016 a free Tiny House building course was offered free to the community of Kauai. The course ran for five days and focused on building the ...

ITC Building, Western Technical College

Building as a Living Laboratory: The Integrated Technology Center

  • Western Technical College (WI)

When you enter an academic building on a college campus, you expect that learning takes place there. Desks and labs, offices and hallways, students and faculty—all are standard. But ...

Penstemon 2.0

  • Santa Clara University (CA)

From the outset, our goal has been to foster a culture of sustainability at the University by focusing on our curriculum as an interdisciplinary community of scholars. SCU has used ...

Some of the feedback received during the consultation on the first draft of the Pitch In redesign

Branding our Waste: Creating College-Specific Recycling Signage through Collaboration

  • Red River College Polytechnic (MB)

In an ongoing effort to improve the effectiveness of our waste and recycling programs, Red River College set about redesigning our hallway waste and recycling signage (Pitch In signs) in ...

Student Painted Signs During Community Service Leadership Event

Revisiting Service Learning Through Food Equity, One Outcome from the Chemeketa - Marion Polk Food Share Youth Partnership

  • Chemeketa Community College (OR)

Chemeketa Student Retention and College Life (SRCL) periodically offers free leadership courses to students. Chemeketa’s dreams of a student farm for the Agricultural Sciences program are still a few ...

Sustainability Assessment Report for Philadelphia University by using AASHE STARS Credit System

  • Philadelphia University (PA)

This project is a thesis research on sustainability at Philadelphia University. The University is known regionally for its sustainability initiatives and education. The university has won several awards and recognitions ...

First Responder Training for Photovoltaic Fires

Solar Garden Partnership: A Renewable Energy Innovation

  • Grand Valley State University (MI)
  • Consumers Energy

Grand Valley State University (GVSU) began a renewable energy project in partnership with its local utility, Consumers Energy, after the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a Solar Garden program. This ...

UTRGV Tree Campus Team

Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning in Urban Forestry helps UTRGV earn Tree Campus USA Designation

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

In 2014, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (through its legacy institution UTPA), one of the largest Hispanic Serving Institutions in the country, proposed and offered three iterations of ...

Las Pintas Solar Experience group, 2013

Johnson County Community College Student Sustainability Committee

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

As a broadly effective, innovative, engaging, and replicable project, Johnson County Community College’s Student Sustainability Committee [the SSC, the Committee] is a compelling and powerful tool for developing student ...

Watershed UGA: A living laboratory transforming campus and community through teaching, research and service

  • University of Georgia (GA)

Watershed UGA created a vision and framework for using the campus as a living laboratory to advance sustainability through teaching, research, public service and outreach, and university operations. We are ...

Zero Waste Events Expanding Across Campus (Synchronized Swimming Athletic Tournament)

The Ohio State University Sustainability Goals Development Project

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

In November 2015, The Ohio State University announced the establishment of sustainability goals to guide the university as it develops durable solutions to the challenges of sustainability and in evolving ...

UTA CARES: Open Education and Open Pedagogy for Sustainable Future and Resource Conservation

  • University of Texas at Arlington (TX)

Reducing the cost of a college education is a frequent topic in higher education circles. Some colleges and universities such as UT Arlington have been trying to find other ways ...

GreenApps Eco-Reps Sustainability Leadership and Engagement Course

  • Appalachian State University (NC)

The GreenApps: Eco-Reps Program was developed in order to recruit on-campus students to join the Office of Sustainability team to assist with education and promotion of campus sustainability through a ...

Linking Sustainability with Study Abroad

  • Delta College (MI)

This project describes the planning, development, and implementation of integrating sustainability into study abroad in existing travel and through establishing new destinations. It also constructs a model that includes a ...

Temple Tiny House

  • Temple University (PA)

The Temple University Tiny House project is a student designed and student constructed sustainable building located at Temple Community Garden on main campus. Completed in spring 2017, the 175 square ...

The Urban Agriculture Community-based Research Experience (U-ACRE) Project

  • California State University, Fullerton (CA)
  • Fullerton College (CA)
  • Santa Ana College (CA)
  • University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)

In Orange County, 36% of low-income households experience hunger at least once a day and well over 1/3 are children. Engaging students in experiential learning that addresses sustainability in ...

Student Created Iconography Set

Sustainability Marketing, Messaging and Design for Good at Chemeketa Community College

  • Chemeketa Community College (OR)

Chemeketa Sustainability served as a client to the college's Visual Communications program to create cohesive marketing for use in future sustainability campaigns and promotions.

Ohio State University Sustainability Goals Project and Campus As A Living Laboratory Digital Archive

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

Undergraduates in the Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) major at The Ohio State University (OSU) complete a capstone course where student research teams analyze specific action priorities of the ...

  • Posted June 16, 2016
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Students for Sustainability

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

The University of Arizona’s Students for Sustainability program empowers students, builds leaders, and pursues institutionalized sustainability. The program embodies the University’s 100% student engagement model through its organizational ...

  • Posted June 11, 2016
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View looking North toward the shelter where the sustainable landscape blurs the edges of the shelter visually as an extension of the thin-film solar roof - both “solar collectors” in the broader definition of the site ecosystem

Point of Departure: Place Making and Identity Via Integrated, Didactic & Sustainable Transit Shelters

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

The College of Design (CoD) & The Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) saw an opportunity to advance the University of Kentucky’s sustainability agenda by developing real world projects ...

  • Posted June 11, 2016
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Sustainable Carolina Leadership Program

  • University of South Carolina (SC)

The Sustainable Carolina Leadership Program is a sustainability-focused, student professional development program at the University of South Carolina, . It was conceived and developed over the course of six years to ...

  • Posted June 11, 2016
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In the fall of 2015 art students in the Alternative Photography class (ARST4285/6285 ) spent six weeks engaged with sustainability in the Lilly Branch Watershed of UGA campus. The students walked from the headwaters of Lilly Branch near Barrow Elementary to its end in the North Oconee River. With 2/3 of the stream buried in pipes underground, the students followed the contours of the landscape along with the signs of manhole covers and stormwater grates, to track its flow. Combining this field s

Watershed UGA: Creating a University-wide Culture of Sustainability

  • University of Georgia (GA)

Thanks to funding and inspiration from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, in 2015 the University of Georgia and its community partners have created a vision and framework for using campus ...

  • Posted June 11, 2016
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Group Shot of Stakeholders

Eagles, Education, and Engagement through Green Technology

  • Alfred State College (NY)

Alfred State College (ASC) School of Applied Technology and the United States National Arboretum (USNA) have collaborated for over eight years in an innovative partnership that has generated significant measurable ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Shawneetown Gardens revitalization plan

The Shawneetown Gardens: a Sustainable Campus Community Garden Cultivated through Creation of Place

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

Rooted in the revitalization of a community garden on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, Kentucky, this project impacts a culturally diverse, multigenerational community through a multi-disciplinary effort led ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Empowering Students, Sustaining the University: The Southwestern Environmental Studies Capstone Experience

  • Southwestern University (TX)

Southwestern University’s Environmental Studies department has created a unique curricular program for their capstone students that allows them to identify aspects of the university where the social, economic, and ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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The Water Hub at Emory University

The Water Hub at Emory University

  • Emory University (GA)

The WaterHub® is a decentralized, district-scale water reclamation and reuse system serving Emory University’s main campus in Atlanta, Georgia. As the first of its kind in the United States ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Eco-Schools Leadership Initiative (ESLI)

  • College of William & Mary (VA)

I co-founded Eco-Schools Leadership Initiative (ESLI) (eslileaders.org) which is an after-school program where high school and college students teach elementary school students about the environment. There are six high ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Learning outcomes and a corresponding assessment were developed for undergraduate students. All areas of the university were encouraged to choose to participate. “Choose” is the theme of the campus environmental stewardship effort, as pictured above on campus flags.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment for Undergraduate Students

  • James Madison University (VA)

James Madison University (JMU) developed student learning outcomes and a corresponding assessment instrument to measure the change in undergraduate students’ environmental stewardship reasoning and knowledge over time. In consultation with ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Dr. Wimbish: President of CVC and Dr. Tommy Thompson: President of the CVC Faculty Association

Cedar Valley College a Center of Excellence of Sustainability in South Dallas, TX.

  • Dallas College (TX)

The Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) consists of seven campuses enrolling 85,000 students from Dallas County and beyond. Cedar Valley College (CVC), one of the seven DCCCD campuses ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Tree Campus USA Impacts on Service Learning

UTRGV Campus Tree Care Report: Proposal for sustaining a healthy and vibrant campus community forest

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

The benefits the forest will provide are myriad. Large trees give us a sense of place and belonging by ensuring landmarks for the future, and add aesthetic beauty to the ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Fully Online MA in Sustainable Design Program

  • Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MN)

MCAD’s online Master of Arts in Sustainable Design (MASD) program was developed for busy working professionals and offers small classes, peer-to-peer interaction and engagement with renowned faculty. The program ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Project Sin Fronteras Table discussion on wants versus needs

Project Sin Fronteras

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

Project Sin Fronteras is a project without borders, crossing institutional boundaries, and transforming sustainability concepts and practices into enriched curriculum and research. It provides a two-pronged approach to education for ...

  • Posted June 10, 2016
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Our Gompei’s Gears Bikes on Launch Day, WPI

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Bike Share Program

  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)

In 2014 a student group researched transportation alternatives on campus and recommended a community bike share program. In 2015, another student group further developed the bike share option by conducting ...

Social Impact Solar

  • California State University, East Bay (CA)

Poverty, inequality, and environmental sustainability are the biggest issues facing humanity today. Located in the richest state in the nation, with the nation’s most aggressive renewable energy programs, Cal ...

Implementing Sustainability in the Classroom at Université Laval

  • Université Laval (QC)

Université Laval has embraced a global approach to sustainability education. Although sustainability has been addressed in the classroom by individuals in the past, it is now being articulated with a ...

Assessing Student Sustainability Knowledge

  • California State University, Northridge (CA)

To improve sustainability knowledge of undergraduates, CSUN has added course offerings in sustainability in recent years. In order to assess the baseline knowledge of the general student population and the ...

Bike Maintenance Workshop

Sustainability Peer Educator Program - Simon Fraser University

  • Simon Fraser University (BC)

Program Vision: Students are confident, informed, and active sustainability leaders who have the skills and experience to advance sustainability at and beyond SFU.

The Sustainability Peer Education program empowers students ...

For the Planet Leadership Series: Building Sustainability Leadership in Higher Education

  • University of North Texas (TX)

The “For the Planet Leadership Series” is a five-week professional development course planned, researched, and taught by Senior Alyssa Wolverton at the University of North Texas. Her goal was to ...

One-Class-One-Project: Using service learning to engage students in sustainability

  • Florida Gulf Coast University (FL)

The University Colloquium is the sustainability capstone to the Florida Gulf Coast University experiences that utilizes service learning as a tool to engage students in experiential learning within the community ...

American Chestnut Partnership

  • Unity Environmental University (ME)

Unity College has partnered with the Maine Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation to help restore the iconic American Chestnut in Maine.

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