Blog Posts

By: Katie Koenig Data Dashboards If you’ve scrolled through college websites, you’ve probably encountered a dashboard before. The most common is probably a breakdown of student demographics. Arizona State University, which I covered in my last post, created a Campus Metabolism dashboard to present live data on their buildings’ energy and pollution outputs. Although that…

By Katie Koenig While researching college sustainability efforts, I generally look for the most eye-catching, unique initiatives I can find. Something like a “big ticket item” to add to this series every once in a while. “Sustainability” is such a broad term that I want to find efforts that really push the limits of what…

By Katie Koenig History Emerson’s Engagement Lab was first created in 2010 and evolved to focus on storytelling across many different media promoting “peace, equity, and justice.” Although it was closed at the end of 2024, its students, faculty, staff, and partners spent almost a decade and a half providing educational spaces and resources to…

By: Katie Koenig MassArt Sustainability Initiative Not every college sticks exactly to the Living Lab structure, but many still promote sustainability among student projects. Massachusetts College of Art offered its students funding and platforms to promote their sustainability-related art projects through a program called the Sustainability Initiative. Although it only lasted from 2013 to 2017,…

By: Katelyn Koenig UC System University of California Berkeley is tied for third with Lund University in Sweden in the QS World University Rankings for Sustainability in 2025. Along with several other UCs, Berkeley reached a platinum rating with AASHE in 2023. Sustainability on the University of California’s ten campuses and five medical systems is…