Augustana Campus Sustainability
Welcome! Here's a glimpse of some of the sustainability projects we have developed on campus over the last few years.
This is some of what our students, faculty, and staff have been doing to make our beautiful campus more sustainable. At Augustana, we think of sustainability as extending to every corner of our campus. We want to become good ancestors, and to live out our Augustana Core Values . Have a look at what we're up to, and let us know what you think!
1. Campus Vegetable Garden. We grow our own vegetables here, enough for about 30-40 thousand meals a year. In 2022 we launched a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that allows community members to buy a subscription to the garden and to receive a weekly or biweekly distribution during the growing season. The students who run the garden have learned how to run it as a successful business under the guidance of Augustana Business Administration professor Dr. Matthew Willard. They partner with other organizations and non-profits to make sure that some of the food goes to alleviate hunger in our city, and they're helping local churches make better use of their land by shifting from monocultured, resource-intensive grass to urban agriculture that serves the community.
2. Augustana Student Greenhouse. Along with the Veggie Garden students have built their own greenhouse. Under their own initiative, they also designed, built, and installed a toolshed, garden fences, and signs that teach about the garden.
3. Augustana Orchard. The orchard is home to about thirty apple and crabapple trees, and a companion food forest beside the Veggie Garden has another half-dozen cherry, mulberry, and plum trees. These trees provide fruit for classes like Biology professor Dr. Bruggeman's popular "Beer, Bread, and Brie" class, and other food-based classes. History professor Dr. Cory Conover helped design this orchard with his student Laura Arce, who wanted to leave behind a positive legacy after she graduated. The springtime blossoms adorn the hillside, and they provide good food for our campus bees.
4. The Outdoor Classroom. In 2017 an Environmental Philosophy class designed an outdoor classroom made of South Dakota stone, and in 2018 it was built. Since then it has won a Sioux Falls Beautiful award, and Augustana students and faculty have consulted on the creation of similar outdoor classrooms in public schools in Sioux Falls and Harrisburg.
Dr. Gerling, teaching in the Augustana Outdoor Classroom. Each layer of stone represents a different region of the state, from the border of Minnesota and Iowa to the Black Hills. It's an intentionally inclusive space where students can enjoy learning in the great outdoors.
5. Honeybees! In 2023, thanks to the efforts of Augustana students Janae Becher, Brayden Harris, and a number of their classmates, Augustana became home to several colonies of honeybees. Janae and Brayden also helped to change the Sioux Falls city ordinances in 2022 to allow not just Augustana but all institutions of higher education in the city limits to keep bees for educational purposes. These pollinators are vital to our food systems. Did you know that a third of our food depends on pollinators like honeybees? Janae also studies the microbiology of the bees, because what affects their health is important for human health, too. The bees are housed near the orchard, the vegetable garden, and the prairie restoration garden, so the gardens and the bees can be of mutual benefit. Want to learn how to keep and care for bees? Come join us!
Brayden and Janae with the bees.
6. The Prairie Restoration Garden. In 2019, Augustana Environmental Studies major Mia Werger was looking at some monoculture grass near a parking lot and she had an idea: what if we turned that small spot into a place where we tried to restore just a little of the tallgrass prairie that was once here? Over the last century, the U.S. has lost over 95% of the tallgrass prairie that was once home to myriad species of plants and animals. In this small spot, Mia built a split rail fence and planted over a hundred species of native plants. Now the garden has seating, trails, compost bins, and educational signage. Tall sunflowers provide shade in the summer and food for birds throughout the winter. Several Augustana classes use this garden as a living laboratory, but many people use the garden simply as a quiet place to study, to have breakfast, or to sit and chat with friends. The garden is a small attempt to restore some of the prairie, and its also a place to find rest and restoration in the midst of a busy week. Come check it out!
One fun way to enjoy this space is to download an app like iNaturalist or Seek on your phone, and see how many native plants you can identify here.
The Prairie Restoration Garden is for restoring a little bit of the prairie on our campus...and for restoring everyone who comes to stroll its paths, or to sit for a quiet cup of coffee in the morning.
7. The Meditative Labyrinth and Memorial Garden. The garden and its labyrinth are longstanding features of our campus, and they're also places of restoration and health. Starting in 2019, faculty and staff started to renovate it by adding recycled Sioux quartzite building stone. A century ago, this hard, pink, local stone was used for buildings and streets. As old buildings have been replaced, local gardeners cherish the old cut building stones for garden edging. The stones don't require maintenance, and they hold biomass in the garden beds even under windy conditions. This allows the garden soil to deepen, reducing water use and making the gardens more resilient. About half of this garden is native prairie plants that have deep roots and require very little care. The flowers of the Joe Pye plant and other native plants provide food and shelter for numerous pollinators, birds, and small animals. One of the reasons we love this garden is that it is a place to walk and relax. Everyone who visits is invited to do small things to tend the garden if they wish, and everyone is welcome to simply walk off the day's stress. A gazebo provides some shelter from sun and rain as well. A quick note: labyrinths are different from mazes; in our labyrinth, there are no wrong turns. This is not a place where you can get lost, but it is a good place to get found.
One way to make use of this space is to rake the gravel paths, slowly and meditatively. There are several rakes here, and you're free to use them.
Why is there a rake here in the Labyrinth? Because you're invited to use it. This is a garden for walking in, but everyone is also invited to tend it if they want to. Raking stones can be a calming meditative practice. Give it a try!
8. Adirondack Chairs. As you walk around campus you'll see a number of comfortable Adirondack chairs. Most of these were built by students and faculty using untreated cedar or recycled materials like repurposed wood and old downhill skis. Some of these chairs were built by our talented Theater Department , and others by members of the Environmental Studies program. The first three chairs were built by Dr. O'Hara, our Director of Sustainability and Environmental Studies. You can find them outside of the Augustana Chapel of Reconciliation , where they were dedicated to the campus pastors and the convivial, community-building work they carry out all year long.
One way you can get involved is by learning to make more chairs out of repurposed materials, and sharing them with your community. We are happy to help you get started.
These chairs were made from repurposed lumber by our amazing Theater Department. At Augustana, sustainability isn't just a single office or department; it extends to every corner of our campus.
9. Hammocking on campus. We think it's a good idea when you live in such a beautiful place to spend time outdoors. We've installed moveable triple hammock stands near student dorms so that students can hang out together, and they can move the stands into sun or shade as they wish. For much of the year, we put out hammocks so that everyone can make use of them. (We admit that most of us don't hammock outside in the winter, but the stands are out year-round if you want to try! Brrr!)
One way to get involved is simply to spend time on a hammock. While you're swinging gently in the breeze, you might consider how you can help others spend time outdoors, enjoying the benefits of clean air, sunshine, and quiet spaces.
Studying is better outside, with friends. And if you don't feel like studying, hammocks are great for just hanging out and enjoying beautiful weather.
10. Animal Habitat. In a number of places around campus you'll find birdhouses, raptor perches, and other habitat created for specific species. Students make birdhouses in Dr. Lewis' Introduction to Environmental Science class, for instance. Our campus is home to a wide diversity of species, some of which might surprise you. Our city is nestled in the oxbow of the Big Sioux River, and the river serves as a migration path for many species of mammals, birds, and other creatures.
Birdhouses like the one pictured here can be found hidden around campus, mostly in the trees. One way to enjoy them is to go on a scavenger hunt around campus. How many of them can you find? Which species are they made for?
Another way to enjoy the animal habitat is to consider how you're sharing your own habitat with other species, wherever you live.
This is one of many specialized birdhouses made and installed by Dr. Lewis' Environmental Science students.
11. Composting. Our students have been building site-specific composting bins around campus. Most of the bins are slow composters connected with gardens, where weeds can be placed for slowly returning their nutrients to the soil. These composters are made from upcycled pallets. In 2023, one of our Environmental Studies majors started building high-efficiency composters that cook kitchen waste into garden-ready compost much more quickly. Like every project we have on campus, these composters are both a laboratory where we can practice and improve our skills, and a practical benefit to the campus.
Composting, and especially efficient composting, saves food and garden waste from the landfill. This means the landfill produces less methane, and the nutrients in our waste can be returned to the soil. One Environmental Studies student recently sampled soil from around our campus and found (not surprisingly) that the healthiest soil on campus is the soil where we have worked to regenerate it by adding biomass like compost with each new growing season.
Students and the pastor of one of our church partners finish the first compost bin in the spring of 2023.
12. Augie Thrift. In 2024 several students started an on-campus thrift store to make seasonally-appropriate clothes available to other students, to reduce waste, and to fight fast fashion. They post donation bins in student residence halls and in some faculty spaces as well. Check them out on social media to find out about their offerings and hours.
13. Three Sisters Garden. The Augustana Archaeology and Anthropology students and faculty have made a "three sisters" teaching garden outside one of the Archaeology Labs. This is right next to the Prairie Restoration Garden. Together these two gardens and the space between them serve numerous purposes for teaching--and for rest and restoration--at almost no cost.
14. Academics. Everything we've mentioned here so far has some connection to academics, but a lot of it is stuff we have done because it was the right thing to do. Students who built the greenhouse, planted the prairie garden, and designed the orchard didn't do it for academic credit; they just wanted to see those changes on our campus. The Office of Sustainability was glad, in each case, to support their work.
15. Prize-winning Sustainability Audit. In 2023, two of our Augustana Environmental Studies students did a sustainability audit through Building Sustainable Connections , and earned us a silver certification. Worth noting: BSC let us know that much of what boosted us to that level was the projects our students did, many of which are listed above!
Many of our students and faculty have participated in local and global challenges, like IBM's Call for Code , or the Hult Prize . Many others have taken their ideas on to the Clinton Global Initiative University to find global mentors who are helping them build new businesses. Others have served our local government or local businesses in pursuing sustainability initiatives that benefit the community.
But there's a lot more than this going on at the Augustana campus! Our students work on sustainability projects in engineering, art, music, business, education, and much more. Not surprisingly, our most important contribution to sustainability has been in the development of our Environmental Studies Program . Click that link if you want to learn more about how our academic program teaches real-world skills for making positive, sustainable changes!
If you're on campus for a visit, we'd love to give you a tour. Just reach out to our Office of Admissions and let them know you want to know more about any of these projects. If you're a high school student with an interest in sustainability, be sure to ask about the Environmental Studies Scholarship as well!