Research Focal Area: Sustainable Communities

Re-use Efficiency Packaging with Analytics for Customized Knowledge (REPACK)

One of the major sustainability challenges present today is the waste that accompanies packaging, usually corrugated cardboard, from the increased prevalence of online purchasing. However, since the average corrugate box contains only 50% recycled materials, half of the fiber must still be produced anew each time a package is shipped. Moreover, online ordering leads to smaller, more frequent “one off” orders which requires more packaging compared to the bulk orders that are sent to big-box, brick-and-mortar stores and then resold. Given these factors, reusing packaging materials is more efficient than recycling. This project will explore the development of a label designed to track reused packaging, investigate means to drive supply chain adoption, and explore how branding affects community participation, thus improving the sustainability of the growing e-commerce industry.

Air Quality, Climate, and Health

The purpose of this research team was to promote multidisciplinary research on the interactions between forest ecosystems and human health, as mediated by wildfire and air quality, in addition to developing models and measures of wildfire impacts on society and environment.

Environmental History, Ecology, and Sustainability in Public Lands

This research team sought to promote sustainability in public lands by bringing environmental historians into dialogue with sustainability scientists, specialists in the human dimensions of natural resource conservation, and natural resource managers.

Biodiversity Case Studies

This GCRT drew on expertise from several disciplines to identify, author, field test, refine, and make available for curriculum incorporation, a new series of case studies focused on biodiversity, conservation and management within sustainable communities. Case studies will focus on areas including the connections between cattle and sustainable communities, sustainability issues with STEM education, conservation biology, protected lands management and sustainable communities, and others. These case studies will offer educators and community leaders a useful framework for engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds in active and interactive explorations of complex content with the intent to promote deeper understanding.

Sustainable Affordable Housing

The purpose of this GCRT was to identify ways to expand the use of non-traditional building materials into highly efficient homes in an effort to reduce the demand for the virgin natural resources typically used in construction. This group looked at the role culture may play in material selection and use from a Native American perspective.

Urban Lab & LENSES

The purpose of this GCRT was to create a collaborative Urban Lab to enhance the sustainability and biodiversity of the urban areas between campus and Old Town, Fort Collins using the LENSES regenerative framework.

Reducing Vulnerability and Improving Sustainability to Natural Disasters at the Natural, Built, Social, and Economic Interface

The purpose of this GCRT was to create an interdisciplinary, multidimensional understanding of how communities—in concert with the natural systems within which they interactively exist—may be made less vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters.

Carbon Footprint Metric for the Built Environment

The Carbon Footprint Metric for the Built Environment team worked as a catalyst to bring together the diverse faculty and expertise at CSU needed to address greenhouse gas mitigation efforts associated with the built environment.

Women, Population, and the Environment

The WPE’s mission was to promote the status of women globally through education and dissemination of applied knowledge on the challenging issues of the times, such as climate change, food shortage and health. Knowledge and education will enable and empower women to make informed decisions for themselves, their family and society.

LENSES: Regenerative Urban Environments

Regenerative Urban Environments Research Working Group will focus on creating a guiding framework for use by communities, organizations and project teams who want to develop Living Environments, and has members spanning 9 different departments across the University. A Living Environment is a new concept and paradigm shift – the notion that built environments, neighborhoods, communities, buildings, and even manufactured objects can have a positive, symbiotic impact on the natural environment.

Colorado State University

Sustainability