Office of Sustainability

The Academic Sustainability Program (ASP) is an interdisciplinary initiative that works to identify, incorporate, and support themes of sustainability into student curriculum and research. ASP offers programs to help professors incorporate sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals into courses and curricula. The program also approves classes offered for Auburn University’s Sustainability Studies minor, maintains an updated directory of sustainability-related programs, and serves to provide access to campus resource guides and upcoming events. ASP also partners with the Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management to use campus as a living laboratory for research and teaching.

Sustainability in Action is a study abroad program based in Fiji. Over one-month course, students are immersed in the lives of local residents and their more sustainable life practices. Subjects include globalization, economic development, climate change, natural resource management, eco-tourism, and consumerism. Participants reside in primitive housing of Mali natives without running water and electricity. In the Sustainability in Action program, students observe sugar cane and permaculture farms, collaborate with local Fijians on a community-based project, and gain an overall skill set and knowledge from their experience living on a remote, self-sustaining island.

With a diverse selection of courses from colleges across the university, the interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability Studies, offered by the College of Liberal Arts, gives students the opportunity to gain wide-ranging expertise and hands-on experience working on the most crucial issues in contemporary society. Sustainability Studies seeks to improve environmental health, social justice, economic development, and individual well-being through the integration of disciplinary perspectives from across the university. Sustainability students care about the world around them, on both a global and a local scale. Courses in the minor help them to identify, evaluate, and implement ways they can make a positive difference for themselves, their communities, and the world.

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities (CMDCAH) facilitates public engagement within the Auburn community. CMDCAH hosts various events that inform community members and spark substantive conservation on issues of importance. Examples of events include “Becoming the Beloved Community Amid Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders”, “Building Community: A Process of Purpose,” and “Becoming the Beloved Community Amid the Fragility of Democracy and White Supremacy”. Other topics include sustaining traditionally disenfranchised groups and cultivating community resilience. The center works to create dialogues that improve the civic health of the Auburn community.

The Office of Sustainability exists to create an ethic, culture, & practice of sustainability at Auburn in service to improving lives, communities, and natural systems in Alabama and beyond. To do this, the Office establishes partnerships across campus with stakeholders in academics, operations, campus life, administration, and the broader community. The Office’s partnerships aim to develop ways to embed sustainability into the university’s operations, instruction, research, and outreach functions. With a systems perspective, the Office weaves networks of collaboration that build capacity, enabling Auburn to accomplish so much more working together than could possibly be achieved alone.

A collaborative effort among the E.W. Shell Fisheries, the College of Agriculture’s Department of Horticulture, and the Food Systems Institute gives students a hands-on educational experience while providing Campus Dining with locally grown food to serve fresh meals. The project uses nitrate-rich fish waste from tilapia ponds to grow vegetables hydroponically for consumption in on-campus dining halls. The food is hyper-local, so it does not have to travel far and maintains its rich nutrient profile. This partnership maximizes efficiency, reduces waste, and offers an innovative way to combine student well-being with campus sustainability.