Avery Indermaur
Sustainability Engagement Certificate ePortfolio
ENV 495S: Senior Sustainability Capstone Seminar
Taught by Dirk Philipsen; Spring 2021
Overview
This course was designed for students to synthesize and integrate the ideas, concepts, and themes from our academic coursework and experiential activities with each dimension of sustainability, enhancing our systems analysis of their chosen theme. In the seminar-style course, we discussed readings on sustainability topics alongside preparing our senior capstone project.
Capstone Project
For my capstone project, I wanted to examine the following questions: Where does our food come from? What is unsustainable about the ways it is grown and processed? How do we perpetuate these issues?
After thoughtful reflection, I identified a two-fold problem:
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Industrial agriculture dominates the US farming landscape and produces food in unsustainable ways, harming the people who eat it and environment in which it is grown.
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People lack access to information about the these problems underlying the food system.
To address these issues, I decided to design a holistic sustainability labelling system for food. My target audience was the Duke community, so I tailored the label around Duke Dining's current sustainability concerns and available data. However, it could be easily adapted to suit the needs of other dining venues or markets as well.
Before designing the label, I sent out a survey to Duke students, faculty, and staff about the connection between diet and sustainability and their thoughts on/use of current food labels. This survey was necessary to show that , even among a highly-educated population, lack of knowledge about the connection between diet and sustainability persists.
I based my label design on the FAO's definition of a sustainable diet, which includes four main facets: environmental factors, social factors, economic factors, and nutrition. I then determined metrics for assessing how sustainable a food item is in each of the categories. Since I had limited resources, I could not include more than four metrics for each. To choose which measures to prioritize, I conducted a literature review of existing ways to assess food system and diet sustainability. I also consulted with Duke sustainable food and nutrition experts to ensure that my choices were representative of what sustainable food experts are prioritizing as well.
The graphic below outlines my project in more depth. It covers the underlying problem, how the label addresses this problem, the components and results of the sustainable diet survey, the development of and metrics included in the label, examples of the label applied to four Duke Dining menu items, and my references.
Readings and Reflection
In this course, we had two main readings: Sustainability by Design by John R. Ehrenfeld and Sustainability by Leslie Paul Thiele. During each class we discussed selected chapters along with current events pertaining to sustainability. Our conversations were dynamic and engaged deeply with how to understand, communicate, and address pressing environmental problems. However, there was also room for humor and understanding if you didn’t understand something or needed time to process.
Overall, the Capstone course was the perfect way to round out my certificate experience. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take another class with Dr. Philipsen, who has guided me on my journey from the gateway course through the certificate's completion. We touched on many of the same themes and even had some overlap in readings/videos from the gateway, which allowed me to reflect on how my feelings about and knowledge of those topics have changed over the past two years. In the gateway, I also worked closely with Emma, another student in the capstone seminar, and really enjoyed the opportunity to connect back to our experience together throughout the semester.