Written by BBE students Emma Dinger and Eilee Keske
Daniel Rudolph, a senior in the Sustainable Systems Management (SSM) program demonstrates the numerous opportunities for SSM and BBE students to have a positive impact on the University and surrounding communities.
Daniel's choice to pursue an SSM, an interdisciplinary degree, has equipped him with the applicable skills to be a leader in solving complex problems related to sustainability. This is thanks to classes such as natural resource consumption, life cycle analysis, sustainable manufacturing, and statistics for environmental managers.
One example of Daniel’s impact is the important work he’s done with the University of Minnesota’s Clean Energy Leaders program, which is designed to empower students to engage with clean energy issues and develop leadership skills in this critical field. The program’s focus includes leading initiatives in energy conservation, reducing carbon footprints, and promoting sustainable recycling practices.
Through the Clean Energy Leaders program, Daniel has successfully led interdisciplinary teams on two key projects with the Office of Sustainability, showcasing his commitment and leadership in the field. These projects are:
Green Labs Program (Aug - Dec 2023): As a leader in this initiative, Daniel collaborated with an Institute on the Environment (IonE) team to enhance the Office of Sustainability's Green Labs Program program by developing an assessment template that promotes sustainable practices in campus laboratories.
This initiative helps address the significant energy and resource consumption of our research facilities especially with relation to the university’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) goals to be Carbon Neutral by 2050. With laboratories accounting for about 25 percent of the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities physical space but consuming around 60 percent of total energy, this project targets a crucial area of environmental impact. With the help of the Office of Sustainability, our laboratories can now be empowered to reduce their environmental footprint of their lab operations by identifying and implementing customized solutions.Is your laboratory Interested? Find more info in the UMN Green Lab Certification Process & FAQ Document
- UMN’s Biodiversity STARS Accreditation Project (Feb - Apr 2023): Daniel helped orchestrate a crowdsourced UMN Bioblitz using the iNaturalist application during the 2023 Earth Week to assess the biodiversity of the UMN-TC campus. The efforts yielded 786 new biodiversity observations and identified 259 research-grade species.
Additionally, by integrating retroactive data, the assessment resulted in a total of 6,354 observations and 3,898 research-grade species using the iNaturalist platform. This project was to involve the university's STARS (AASHE) accreditation by identifying the variety and number of species, including endangered ones, to advance plans for campus greenspace and species protection. This initiative not only supported the university's STARS accreditation goals, but also established best practices for biodiversity assessments across other U of M campuses.
Daniel presented his Green Labs project at the Institute on the Environment’s (IonE) 2024 Sustainability Symposium, which focused on Equity in Urban Design. This event showcased multidisciplinary projects from students across the University of Minnesota, addressing pressing challenges such as waste management and clean energy while highlighting their commitment to a more just and sustainable future
As a result of this presentation and his other outstanding achievements, Daniel was recognized at the 2024 Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability (UMACS) Conference. This event serves as a vital platform for institutions across the Upper Midwest to share best practices, resources, and innovative initiatives aimed at enhancing sustainability in higher education.
With over 300 attendees from 49 U.S. campuses and 27 community partners, the conference emphasizes collaboration, education, and advocacy to tackle pressing environmental challenges in academic settings. Daniel represented the SSM major and BBE department at this event.
In addition to these accolades, Daniel completed an internship over the summer with the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP), an outreach and assistance program with a mission to care for and respect Minnesota’s natural resources. They pursue this goal by supporting businesses and organizations in Minnesota as they work to achieve reduced pollution, increased sustainability, and more efficient use of resources.
MnTAP offers an internship program for college students which places them with a company or facility. During the program, the interns work on projects focused on improving energy efficiency and reducing or handling waste.
Daniel enjoyed being able to apply his technical skills in sustainable manufacturing and statistics that he had learned in SSM to a real engineering system design project at Donaldson Company in Bloomington, MN.
A number of SSM and BBE students have completed internships with MnTAP. Learn more about the MnTAP internship program.
Daniel plans to stay active outdoors, complete his undergraduate degree in SSM, while also obtaining an integrated Master’s in Bioproducts and Biosystems Science, Engineering, and Management (BBSEM) through the 4+1 program offered by our department. His Master’s research will be related to wetland restoration in northern Minnesota by promoting the protection of the state’s peatland carbon stocks as a nature based climate resilience strategy. This work is currently being researched by BBE Research Associate Professor Chris Lenhart.
Congratulations to Daniel Rudolph for his hard work and achievements!