Tag: sustainability leadership on campus

Call for the Michigan Tech Sustainable and Resilient Communities Faculty Research Fellowship!

The Tech Forward Initiative on Sustainability and Resilience is accepting applications for Sustainable and Resilient Communities Faculty Research Fellows. Fellows will receive support to buy out one or more courses from their teaching responsibilities in the Spring 2022 or Fall 2022 semester. Fellows will be expected to 1) develop and submit proposals to external funding opportunities; 2) establish a relationship with an existing center and institute to build support for sustainability & resilience research on campus; and 3) participate in Sustainable and Resilient Communities Social network and Research Collaborative (SRC-squared) events during the 2021-2022 academic year. 

Potential applicants are required to complete a short Google Form to provide information about their potential projects. Based on this pre-proposal, applicants will be contacted (within two weeks of submitting the pre-proposal Form) and potentially encouraged to apply. The full application will require: 

  • List of funding opportunities (submission deadline, max budget, link to solicitation), one paragraph describing planned submission, list of (expected) team members with indication of confirmed collaborators and collaborators to be invited (not more than 1 page)
  • Brief explanation of how these projects, if funded, align with sustainability and resilience research and how this Fellowship opportunity would allow pursuit of new opportunities that otherwise would not be pursued (not more than 1 page) 
  • A letter of support from supervising Chair or Dean with budget requirement indicated

Particularly encouraged elements include transdisciplinary and convergent teams, a combination of teams experienced in collaboration and new collaborative teams, a combination of teams internal to Michigan Tech and teams including external collaborators, and a clear connection to growing the visibility of sustainability and resilience research at Michigan Tech. Applicants should consider as a general benchmark submitting a minimum of 3 funding proposals totaling a minimum of $2 million, although more proposals and larger funding amounts are encouraged as are creative pursuits of funding opportunities outside of this general benchmark. 
The Tech Forward Initiative on Sustainability and Resilience welcomes and encourages inquiries about this opportunity! Please contact Chelsea Schelly, cschelly@mtu.edu, with any questions.

Waste Diversion on Campus

This material was provided by Dan Liebau, an MTU facilities site engineer, and was originally published in Tech Today on December 14th 2020.

Anchored by the Sustainability and Resilience Tech Forward initiative, Michigan Tech continues to develop its sustainable practices on campus. Campus recycling efforts can be measured by our waste diversion rate. The waste diversion rate is the ratio of recycled material to the total weight of campus’ solid waste stream. Currently, the University has a solid waste diversion rate goal of 18%.

The monthly diversion rate for November was 18.93%. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, (July 2020) our overall solid waste diversion rate is 12.49%. By comparison, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) reported a statewide estimated recycling rate of 18.1% in 2018 – up from 15% in 2015.The intent of sharing campus waste diversion rate information is to educate our community on campus recycling initiatives and increase participation in our current recycling programs.

There’s still work to be done, and this is where you as a community member can help. Making a conscious choice to recycle not only improves the University’s waste diversion rate, it also reduces costs associated with solid waste management on campus. Participation also assists in further developing our current recycling programs and better aligning Michigan Tech with EGLE’s goals of achieving a statewide recycling rate of 45%.

Additional information and updates related to campus sustainability initiatives can be found at mtu.edu/sustainability.