Feature: MSU Research and Sustainability Efforts Impact the Entire State

Spartans are about being green, but the ways in which MSU researchers, professors and students support sustainability make our state even greener.

            Ah, autumn in Michigan.  Cotton-ball clouds are racing across the blue sky on a chilly wind, and soon the real cold will come.  What do you say we take a trip around our beautiful state, before the days get short and the sweatshirt weather ends?  Let’s plan an adventure that’s both Spartan-themed and sustainable.

            First we’ll need to fill up with some environmentally friendly fuel, and Michigan State has us covered.

            The U.S. Dept. of Energy in 2007 awarded MSU and the University of Wisconsin-Madison $125 million over five years for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.  Researchers at the GLBRC are looking for the most energy-packed plants that grow well in Michigan, and working out kinks in the process of turning their cellulose—the inedible stuff that keeps them upright—into fuel.  That means making cellulosic ethanol, or “grassoline” (see cover story, Winter 2008), affordable enough for road trippers like us.

            “If biofuels are going to cost more, they’re not sustainable economically,” says Kurt Thelen, a project leader for the GLBRC and a professor of Crop and Soil Science.  “So I think it’s our charge to try to bring those costs down.”

            Our state is an ideal place to make that happen, says Thelen, because we can do it without sacrificing the food-growing potential of land that could help feed the world’s poor.

            “All the good land is going to stay in food crops,” he said.  “But in Michigan we’ve got lots of areas of what we call marginal land, so they’ll be very good candidates for biofuels.”

            In the northern reaches of the state, for instance, there is abundant land that once was farmed but wasn’t rich enough to provide much food.  Farmers could use that acreage to grow switchgrass, poplars or other fast-growing plants, Thelen said.  “If you can create a market for a crop that does well on marginal soil, you can build an economy around that.”

            Growing those crops up north and elsewhere—even on abandoned industrial sites, where the plants can clean up contamination before being converted to fuel—comes with other benefits, says Steve Pueppke, director of MSU’s Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES).

            “If we can bring a couple of million acres back into production, one immediately thinks, ‘That’s going to take a lot of people,’” he says.  “Clearly that would create jobs.”

            New employment wouldn’t be limited to the farmers growing feedstocks, Pueppke added; factory workers, for example, would stamp parts for new kinds of harvesting equipment, while workers of all sorts would run the new fuel distilleries.

            And don’t worry—Spartan scientists haven’t forgotten about the furred, feathered and scally Michiganians.  They’re also researching ways to manage biofuel plantations so they’re good places for upland birds and other creatures to live.  “That’s kind of the basis of sustainability,” Pueppke says.

            Pueppke also directs MSU’s Office of Biobased Technologies, where scientists are staking out wide territory for the state as a leader in the bioeconomy—that is, a future in which the fuels, chemicals and other materials we use every day come from renewable living matter, rather than from polluting and finite fossil fuels. 

            Bruce Dale, the office’s associate director, has patented a process that makes grassoline production cheaper, among other achievements, while other researchers there have developed a strain of corn that turns into fuel more simply and cheaply than other varieties.

            Using starch from corn and soybeans, other researchers have made nontoxic toys as well as packaging materials that degrade easily, instead of taking up landfill space.  They’re developing inexpensive cells for collecting the sun’s power, and building engines that make the most out of plant-based fuels, among other projects. 

            Say, all this talk about corn and soybeans reminds me:  We’d better talk about what we’ll eat on our trip.  If you ask me, it’s not a vacation unless you sample the local fare.  Lucky for us, MSU is home to thinkers who are all about helping the environment by connecting people with locally grown food.

            The C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems aims to link farmers and consumers, to the benefit of both.  Their work focuses on supporting small and medium-sized farms—the backbone of many rural economies in Michigan—says Mike Hamm, C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and head of the group. 

            As a growing industry and the state’s second biggest economic driver, food production is crucial for building a sustainable economy here, experts say. “Locally integrated food systems are part of the toolkit of economic development for the state,” Hamm says. Eating locally grown foods preserves the environment by reducing fossil fuels used for transport, and fills the pockets of Michigan farmers with money that might otherwise escape the state’s economy. 

            One project, for instance, provided inexpensive hoop-style greenhouses to 12 Michigan farmers to extend their growing seasons and give them more produce to sell at farmers markets.  Hamm and colleagues also work to get more Michigan-grown foods into the 140 million meals served annually in the state’s school cafeterias, and to teach students about the work that brought the food to their trays.  “Schools are both a market opportunity and an educational opportunity,” he says.  

            What could go better with veggies from a farmers market than some fresh-caught Great Lakes fish?  Let’s get off the road for part of our trip and hire a charter boat.  And we can thank MSU if we have any luck out on the big water.

            “In the last, say, 30 years, Great Lakes fisheries have gone in a different direction from virtually all other fisheries in the world,” says Michael Jones, chair of the MSU Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife.  “You could argue that the Great Lakes are a poster child for fisheries management.  We’re trying to sustain a healthy fishery, as opposed to restoring it.” 

            Such successful management depends, in part, on research like that done at the Quantitative Fisheries Center, which MSU started in 2005 at the request of the Dept. of Natural Resources and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. 

            Prized for their thrilling fight and tasty flesh, Pacific salmon were introduced into the lakes in the 1960s and reeled droves of anglers to coastal hotels, diners and marinas, reviving local economies.  “They have beautiful, big marinas that weren’t there 30 years ago, and that’s because of the salmon fishery,” Jones says.

            If fishery managers stock too few salmon in the lakes, there won’t be enough survivors to support a fishery.  If they plant too many, the competition for food can leave the fish susceptible to disease, causing mass die-offs like one that devastated the lakes in the late 1980’s.  “There’s a lot of concern that we’re teetering on the edge of that again in Lake Michigan,” Jones says.

            That’s why he and colleagues use computer models—which they constantly refine as their understanding of the lakes improves—to determine how many salmon should be planted into the lakes each year.     

            According to Jones, no other institution does modeling work like that of the center, where a master’s program in quantitative fisheries science is in the works to help fill a gap in government expertise.  Management agencies have used MSU’s findings to justify cuts in the number of salmon stocked, set catch limits on other species and better manage the invasive sea lamprey, all with the goal of sustaining ecosystems that can continue to fuel Michigan’s economy.

            Well, I don’t know about you, but after a dinner of locally grown vegetables and Great Lakes salmon, capped off with Michigan wine, I’ll be ready for a good night’s sleep.  But I don’t want to eat up lots of natural resources while I’m getting my beauty rest, so let’s stay at an eco-friendly hotel.

            That’ll be a bit easier, thanks to Sarah Nicholls, an associate professor in the Depts. of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies (CARRS) and of Geography.  An expert in sustainable tourism, Nicholls was part of a panel that named Mackinac Island the top sustainable island destination in North America, and fifth in the world.

            She’s now at work on a project that will measure just how green Michigan’s accommodations sector is.  She’ll also survey travelers from here and neighboring states to learn about their attitudes and behaviors when it comes to green lodging.

            “What I hope to do is get a sense of the kinds of green initiatives that have already been, or that can relatively easily and economically be implemented in the hotel sector,” Nicholls says.  “In addition, I want to understand what kinds of initiatives Michigan travelers are looking for, and, perhaps more importantly, are willing to pay for.”

            Sustainable lodging is more than just asking guests if they want their linens washed every night, she added.  “There are other things that hotels can do to reduce their energy consumption and minimize waste, and in some cases consumers are willing to pay more to stay at hotels that implement these kinds of changes.”

            Nicholls says she’ll share her findings with hotel operators to suggest ways they can bring in more guests while minimizing their environmental footprint.

            You know, it’s nice to tread more lightly by eating local food and using green lodging, but to build a sustainable economy in Michigan, you’ve got to have a solid base of customers who understand the hidden costs of inexpensive products, and the benefits of supporting environmentally friendly businesses. 

            “You can have farmers markets and community gardens, but if people don’t go to them, they’re going to go away,” says Geoffrey Habron, an associate professor in the Depts. of Sociology and of Fisheries and Wildlife.

            To keep those kinds of ventures around, Habron teaches courses that give students hands-on experience in sustainability.  “Education about sustainability should be about helping students recognize how they can do something to change the world,” he said.

            An integrative social science course in sustainability brings together undergraduates from diverse backgrounds who may never have given the environment much thought.  They work in teams to launch their own sustainable ventures, evaluate the green credentials of real businesses or teach others what sustainability is all about.  Habron’s other course is the pilot for a specialization in sustainability that he hopes to launch soon.

            Habron said he thinks the courses not only build MSU students’ critical understanding of sustainability, but also add value to their diplomas as they enter a fierce job market.

            “There are a lot of kids out there with a 3.5 GPA in engineering,” he notes.  “They need to do something to get an edge.  And if they have evidence that they understand sustainability that they can show somebody, and not just talk about it, that’s a big help.”

            Graduate students, too, are engaging in issues of sustainability.  In a course taught by Robby Richardson, an assistant professor in CARRS, students calculated the sustainability of the state and of three counties surrounding MSU using a metric called the genuine progress indicator (GPI).  Richardson says GPI offers a more holistic accounting of socioeconomic wellbeing than does the gross domestic product (GDP) because it considers the cost of pollution, crime and other social ills.

            “Pretty much universally, we use GDP as an indicator of socioeconomic welfare,” he says.  “And the GDP has lots of problems.” 

            Richardson said his future students will calculate the GPI for other parts of Michigan, and that their results can help paint a clearer picture of the state’s economic and social well-being, and help it move toward a sustainable future.

            And as Habron sees it, that future will be defined by Spartans who are committed to a Michigan that’s at once prosperous and ecologically robust. “Because we’re such a big school, we have the capacity to do a great deal,” he says.  “So if we only address 20 percent of the student population, that’s still a lot.”

?  Andy McGlashen, ’04, M.A. ’09, is news writer for MSU's Environmental Science and Policy Program and a freelance journalist. He holds two MSU degrees, a master's degree in environmental journalism and a bachelor's degree in English.

MSU’S SUSTAINABLE MICHIGAN ENDOWED PROJECT (SMEP)

            MSU’s “green” research and education is buoyed by the Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project.  Founded in 2002 with an endowment from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, SMEP is directed by distinguished faculty in fields related to sustainability.

            Solutions to Michigan’s environmental challenges require bringing together people from all sectors—academia, business, government, and nonprofit.  SMEP supports this kind of “engaged scholarship” through annual gatherings of diverse experts to discuss emerging issues, like the bioeconomy.  SMEP also funds critical projects and research, including an invasive species information clearinghouse and habitat restoration for lake sturgeon, Kirtland’s warbler and other sensitive species. It supports a graduate seminar on sustainability.

            “We’re a place where people and ideas come together, and then collaboration and projects spin off,” says Mary Schulz, associate program coordinator.  “SMEP is exciting because it enables people to do interesting work.” 

            For more information, view a short video at www.smep.msu.edu.