Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF)

M|Lands: Training Sustainability’s Workforce through U-M Land-Labs

Sustainability's labor force needs practical, hands-on experience that unifies systems, technology, and market innovations with ecological knowledge and stewardship. M|Lands will place the University of Michigan at the forefront of sustainability workforce development by mobilizing its more than 40,000 acres of land — of which fewer than 5,000 are actively stewarded — to develop a leading, place-based land stewardship training paradigm.

Led by Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum together with the School for Environment and Sustainability, the Office of Campus Sustainability, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and U-M Custodial & Grounds Service, the initiative pursues three interconnected aims: transforming and synergizing existing U-M sustainability degree programs by integrating experiential learning in Southeast Michigan land-labs; creating and implementing a "standard of care" for land management and stewardship across U-M's built and natural environments, as signaled in Campus Plan 2050; and designing and launching a continuing-education certificate program for land stewardship as sustainability workforce development, modeled after the U-M School of Social Work's Continuing Education Certificate Programs and aimed at early- and mid-career professionals as well as existing students.

By positioning land-based stewardship as a professional skill and reconnecting it to the sustainability sector, M|Lands will directly help U-M better steward its land assets and achieve healthier ecosystems and carbon neutrality, craft an interwoven educational model across U-M's land assets for existing students and programs, and create a revenue-generating workforce development paradigm through the proposed certificate program.