Meaningful progress can be made in campus and community sustainability when it spans a wide range of expertise: higher education, civic leadership, nonprofit organizations and individuals.<\/p>\n
Academics at its core<\/h2>\n
From the beginning, the Shi Center took a novel approach to campus sustainability. Instead of placing the responsibility with the facilities department, Furman focused on academics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted sustainability at Furman to be rooted in academic research and teaching, while at the same time very much influencing the way we behave on campus,\u201d says namesake and former Furman President\u00a0David Shi \u201973<\/strong>, who created the center during his presidency.<\/p>\n It became clear that the campus needed an entity that would take charge of the energy \u201cand drive it forward in a much more comprehensive way,\u201d Shi says. \u201cOur hope was that Furman and sustainability would become synonymous in the minds of people across the Upstate and across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n The institute\u2019s home is the former Cliffs Cottage, Southern Living magazine\u2019s first sustainable showcase home. It was open for public tours for a year after it was built, which helped fund its retrofitting as offices and classroom space. The building has a geothermal ground source heat pump and numerous photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, making it a net generator of electricity.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving this sustainable home to house the institute \u2013 what David (Shi) did \u2013 was strategic,\u201d says Weston Dripps, a professor of earth, environmental, and sustainability sciences and executive director of the institute since 2016.<\/p>\n Student fellowships have been a central part of the work from the beginning. During the school year, the positions are primarily campus-based, while summer fellowships usually place students with community partners. The institute has supported 325 student fellows, representing almost every major on campus.<\/p>\n Patrea St. John, planning director for the city of Travelers Rest, has hosted two Shi fellows.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been so impressed,\u201d she says. One fellow helped inventory the city\u2019s connectivity, mapping the existing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. The other inventoried all available parking in the city and created a map for the city\u2019s website. \u201cThose are things that, if they were left to me, would have fallen way down the list,\u201d St. John says.<\/p>\n As a student and Shi fellow,\u00a0Kylie Stackis \u201914<\/strong>\u00a0took on the massive project of getting the campus certified as an arboretum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe act of planting a tree, it\u2019s such a positive thing \u2013 I see the difference that I made in the world today,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Now, as education director for TreesUpstate, a Greenville-based nonprofit that plants trees, Stackis hosts Furman fellows to serve as crew leaders for high school students on her Youth Tree Care Team.<\/p>\n \u201cDown the line, maybe one of these students is going to fall in love with trees, too,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The institute\u2019s Community Conservation Corps also places students in the community to both learn and work. Through the corps, students have improved home weatherization for more than 150 low-income homeowners, helping them save 20% to 30% on their energy bills.<\/p>\n From staple guns to crawl spaces, students \u201cget excited about the small things,\u201d says Hannah Dailey, who runs the program. There are social lessons as well. \u201cSometimes they\u2019re in shock, too, about living situations.\u201d<\/p>\n Dailey also supervises the institute\u2019s Eco Reps, student peer educators who promote on-campus sustainability measures. With its split between community and campus work, \u201cmy job is almost the epitome of what the institute is,\u201d Dailey says.<\/p>\n The Shi Institute is built on the belief that sustainability is a collaborative endeavor.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone, no matter what you study, can contribute to the conversation around sustainability,\u201d Purvis says.<\/p>\n A faculty affiliate program brings together professors from across disciplines to foster information-sharing, networking and sustainability curriculum development.<\/p>\n And those conversations filter into classrooms. Stackis has noticed a shift in the fellows coming to work with TreesUpstate: A recent fellow was a music education major.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely getting people who are different from what you might expect,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Some students are first exposed to the institute through Furman\u2019s farm. For years, the farm has provided lab experiences for students in programs such as biology or earth, environmental, and sustainability sciences. But as part of the Shi Institute, the farm now also connects to the university\u2019s dining hall, helping stock the kitchen with local, organic produce. The compost from the dining hall then returns to the farm to nourish plants.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful closed-loop system,\u201d Dripps says.<\/p>\n The loops are part of why Jaime and Mary Anne Lanier wanted to invest in the work. They like to describe the Shi Institute as an \u201coctopus\u201d with tentacles reaching into every discipline.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has the potential to be a powerful influence,\u201d Mary Anne Lanier says.<\/p>\n \u201cIts power is in its collaborativeness, as opposed to competitiveness,\u201d Jaime Lanier adds.<\/p>\n The Shi Center was created more than a decade ago to focus work that was already happening on campus. The transition to an institute has similar origins: The change is less a fundamental shift than a culmination and enhancement of the work already happening.<\/p>\n While people will always be able to get answers about lightbulbs and paper versus plastic, \u201cif that\u2019s all they\u2019re seeing us as, we have completely missed the mark,\u201d Dripps says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/furman-magazine\/wp-content\/themes\/furman\/static\/images\/quotes_icon.svg\"){kind=icon}
\u201cWE WANT TO BE THE REGIONAL SUSTAINABILITY LEADER AND CONVENER.\u201d
\n-WES DRIPPS<\/p>\n\u2018Fall in love with trees\u2019<\/h2>\n
Join the conversation<\/h2>\n
The institute launches<\/h2>\n