Principle 1

Sustainability
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Student Experience
Climate Action Plan
Campus Management
Enhancement Projects

Principle 1: Promote Education, Demonstration, Experimentation, and Involvement

The campus landscape will serve as a classroom, laboratory, demonstration, and collaboration space. Campus landscapes should be utilized for teaching and research as they allow students, faculty, and staff to practice their expertise and contribute to the body of University research. Outdoor environments should be well-equipped to facilitate daily interactions between all groups. Connections are made within these spaces, and ideas are shared. Students, faculty, and staff should be actively involved in implementing the campus landscape. They should be encouraged to collaborate and consult with designers and staff in all project planning, preparation, installation, and maintenance phases. Students, staff, and faculty who are invested in and engaged with the campus landscape are more likely to maintain, defend, and support the implementation and maintenance of resilient and sustainable practices.

Objectives and Strategies

  • “Eastern Washington University resides within the traditional homelands of the Spokane People and other tribes connected through their shared history of this region. This land holds their cultural DNA, and it is their Ancestors who are here and bring forth the knowledge of this place – the knowledge that comes from the land.” – EWU Land Acknowledgement
  • The campus landscape will demonstrate sustainable design principles.
  • Outdoor classrooms, plazas, and abundant seating areas will be created to foster interaction and discussion.
  • Learning areas will be located to accommodate the educational needs of departments.
  • Students, faculty, staff, and administration will actively participate in sustainable landscape initiatives.
  • Partner with students, staff, and faculty to develop inclusive sustainability programming.

  • The Sustainability Spine will be developed to integrate sustainable landscaping into the core of the campus.
  • Sustainability and landscape sustainability will be integrated throughout curricula, communication pathways, and research.
  • Sustainability demonstration gardens and landscapes will be developed for passive and interactive learning.
  • Full internships and service-learning opportunities will be provided for students looking to increase their understanding of sustainability.
  • Engage students in learning and implementing sustainable landscape maintenance projects
  • The community garden will be expanded and enhanced to increase student engagement and local food production and decrease food insecurity.
  • Garden boxes and edible species will be integrated into the campus landscape to increase access and demonstrate local food production.
  • Classes representing a variety of disciplines will be engaged to play a role in documenting before and after conditions of campus landscape sustainability.

  • Partnerships with local and regional organizations engaged in inclusive sustainability efforts will be expanded and strengthened.
  • Sustainability programming will be inclusive and culturally appropriate.
  • Messaging will be developed to showcase the interconnectedness between sustainability and health and well-being.

  • Interpretive and electronic access to the Prairie Restoration project will be provided for research, education, and recreation.
  • Clear and defined trail connections will be provided to access the Prairie restoration project.
  • Research projects that engage undergraduate and graduate students will be pursued to expand the Prairie Restoration.

Campus Identity and Values

The diversity of EWU’s landscape, from the Showalter lawn to the Prairie Restoration, affords EWU’s students and faculty numerous opportunities to use the campus as a laboratory, a learning landscape, and a promoter of innovative technologies in the realms of horticulture and natural resource stewardship. New planting should be selected for drought tolerance, with a priority for natives to promote regional biodiversity and sustainable maintenance.

Sustainable Education

Plazas, courtyards, and small alcoves have valuable roles to play in casting first impressions of the University, as they often portray the daily life of a student. These spaces near building entrances provide areas for students and faculty to meet, study, or spend time before entering or after exiting the building and should feel welcoming, comfortable, friendly, and animated by furniture.

An institution of higher learning is an exceptional place to demonstrate a new way of designing and maintaining landscapes. Education is critical in getting people to understand the new expectations of a college campus aesthetic. Stormwater infiltration areas and new prairie landscapes are great places to begin with outreach and education. Sustainable landscape education on campus could include signage, tours, research plots, informative QR codes, interactive websites, and social networking.

The Campus Garden should continue to encourage interaction between students, staff, and many of the retired faculty and staff of the EWU community. A full-time manager might manage the garden, coordinating garden selections with campus food services to create an authentic “farm-totable” experience. EWU should also consider incorporating edible plant species and “Garden Patches” at key campus locations to bring the garden to the campus core, demonstrate local food production, and support student health and wellness.

Trail systems within the Palouse Prairie provide an opportunity to educate all visitors about the significance of the Palouse Prairie and EWU’s stewardship of it. Safe and accessible pathways and trails should be provided through the natural areas to integrate these areas into the academic and social life of EWU. Clear directional signage should be provided at trailheads for the pathway system and within the campus core to direct students to the natural areas for study, research, and recreation. Pedestrian crossings at Washington Street should be evaluated for safety, and additional pedestrian connections from the campus core to the prairie should be provided where needed.

EWU Office of Sustainability
117 Showalter Hall,
Cheney, WA 99004
Contact
Erik Budsberg, Director of Sustainability
ebudsberg@ewu.edu
509.359.6476

The Office of Sustainability seeks to serve as a source of sustainability-focused initiatives, a central hub of information for sustainable practices at EWU, and to engage with community members to promote sustainability in the Inland Northwest.

Eastern Washington University resides within the traditional homelands of the Spokane People and other tribes who are connected through their shared history of this region.

This land holds their cultural DNA and it is their Ancestors who are here and bring forth the knowledge of this place—the knowledge that comes from the land.