Planet Blue: Sustainability at the University of Michigan

December 2017

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Decomposting Leaves

Learning from Trees

Chemical Engineering Professor Heather Mayes is utilizing the autumn leaves to harness renewable energy and resources. Alongside utilizing multiscale modeling in her research, Professor Mayes and her team plan to use their findings about the protein-sugar interactions in plant biomass to create new starting materials for cheaper, efficient renewable products.

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Energy Management Team

Student teams conceptualize U-M’s emissions in Energy + Challenge

Student teams battled to best conceptualize what 641,000 tons actually looks like during the Energy + competition, which culminated in a judging session this week at the Duderstadt Center.
The challenge, offered by the Energy Institute and the Duderstadt Media Commons, sought to demonstrate the interconnectedness of energy with the built environment, the climate, and the centrality of energy in society.

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compact flourescent

Replace or Wait?

A study conducted by researchers from Michigan Engineering and School for Environment and Sustainability recommends residents to switch from incandescent light bulbs into LED light bulbs. Based on examined cost, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate that CFL and LED lights are easy ways to lower utility bills, reduce energy use, and help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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M-Dining Tower Gardens

The Growing Opportunity of Tower Gardens

East Quad and Bursley dining halls are now boasting a lively new addition to the dining atmosphere -- vertical gardens. With the tower gardens, MDining is able to showcase one alternative growing method, aeroponics, to show students an innovative method of food production that challenges traditional growing practices that require inputs of either soil or water.

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book shelf

"Green Biz" story highlights U-M and Dow educational innovation

Sustainability leaders of tomorrow must navigate complex systems and collaborate across disciplines to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
The U-M Dow Sustainability Fellows Program's groundbreaking approach to education brings together students from across the university to solve local-global scale sustainability challenges in partnership with others in academia and practice.

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EDF Lofo

U-M, EDF Partnership Promotes Science and Practical Solutions

One of the goals of the partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the university is to explore social and behavioral science focused on environmental issues. A new article highlights the work of two teams, drawing from Organizational Studies,the Program in the Environment, the Erb Institute, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

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Sarah Swanz

Students and Sustainability Profile Series

More frequent and severe storms, flooding and an increase in temperature threatens public health and also our cultural heritage.
Sarah Swanz is working with four other students as part of a Dow Fellows team project focusing on the protection of cultural heritage.

They spent six weeks in Wisconsin collecting oral history interviews from the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe.

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Planet Blue: Sustainability at the University of Michigan






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