We were previously called BLUElab India but in 2020, began transition to BLUElab Metro. This accomplished a few things, it changed focus of our projects from international to local due to COVID and allowed us to start building relationships with local communities and defining impactful projects. This year, we continued our focus locally with 5 projects.
The first project is the Bryant Electrification Project. This project helps the Bryant neighborhood in Ann Arbor become the first carbon neutral neighborhood by 2026 at no cost to the residents. This year, we helped A2Zero write and research for MI Low Carbon Infrastructure Grant. Check it out!
The second project is the Waste Reduction Project. This project began with electronic waste collection last year, morphed into a subteam focused on several ongoing projects focused on waste reduction/circular economy. We worked with FreeCycle and set up Battery drop off stations at U of M.
The third project is the Data Visualization Project. This project created data visualizations of the sustainability initiatives on campus to quantify the impact of different organizations on the local community. It will be a recurring project in future semesters to grow the number of visualizations. This semester was focused on visualizing the Canopy Cover project in collaboration with Michigan EcoData.
The fourth project is the Canopy Cover Project. This project's goal was to increase canopy cover on campus to reach our goal coverage by 12% to meet the overall goal of 60%. We did this by improving community engagement with sustainability and environmental justice on campus and started a campus-wide tree planting event in collaboration with Grounds and Forestry.
The final project is the SEAS Facility Project. This project worked with the SEAS faculty to engineer a solution to how gnats are accumulating near the basement (main composting) area. They had to take into account that, exhaust vents are able to keep gnats away from first and second floor, but not the third floor and the light in the composting bin attracts the gnats. The full design process starting with idea generation and will result in implementation of our solutions in Dana next school year
