Vanderbilt, TSU students tour Nashville’s environmental history and sustainability initiatives

In March, students and faculty from Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University took a field trip around Nashville, funded by the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy, and Climate. The students learned about the city's history and recent sustainability projects to improve the environment.

The tour included students from Vanderbilt's Planetary Health Approach to Resource Sustainability course, co-taught by Yolanda J. McDonald, assistant professor of human and organizational development, and Kayla Anderson, a Ph.D. candidate in Community Research and Action. Members of Vandy Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility as well as TSU students from the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences Program and the Environmental Sciences Club were also on the tour.

TSU faculty members David Padgett, associate professor of geography, and Reginald Archer, associate professor of agriculture, guided the tour. Their research focuses on climate change, built environments, and environmental justice, and they contextualized visits to 14 Nashville sites with historical and scientific knowledge. Padgett discussed Nashville's history, from plantations to the city's significant role in the Civil Rights Movement to its "it city" status today. Archer shared extensive knowledge of geographic information science.

At Hadley-Lillard Park, once the site of the Hadley plantation, Padgett shared that the latter half of the name honored Kwame Leo Lillard's contributions to society. Lillard was a TSU mechanical engineering graduate, a civil rights leader, and a Freedom Rider. At the park, students measured surface and air temperature, humidity, and soil moisture and reflected on their findings in relation to the area's built environment contributing to the urban heat island effect.

In addition to battling urban heat, some Nashville neighborhoods are food deserts, areas where residents lack access to healthy, nutritious, or affordable food. However, at the site of Germantown's Kroger, Padgett discussed how residents of the public housing complex, Cheatham Place, advocated for their grocery store to remain open. Today, Germantown residents have maintained access to nutritious food because of the efforts of these residents.

"Although many of the undesirable land uses visited during the tour have been remediated, the aftermath includes 'green gentrification' and increased urban heat. Other challenges that remain are urban food deserts and inadequate public transit systems," Padgett said.

Several leaders of local non-profits working on sustainability initiatives also joined the bus tour. At Bicentennial Mall, Erik Hoke, design director at the Nashville Civic Design Center discussed the center's efforts to create a sustainable built environment for downtown Nashville. Jason Sprouls, urban forestry program manager at the Cumberland River Compact, spoke about a recent de-paving project installed at the downtown Nashville Farmers Market to reduce flooding and the urban heat island effect.

Representatives from Urban Green Lab also discussed their collaborations with Vanderbilt Peabody College and TSU. Camille Mayle, director of partnerships, and Sofia Guerrero, sustainable classrooms manager, shared that Urban Green Lab and Chris Vanags, director of the Peabody Research Office, are developing K-12 curricula and classroom training around sustainability. Urban Green Lab also works with TSU's Padgett and Archer on the Nashville Environmental Justice Initiative to protect and empower Nashville's most marginalized communities from environmental hazards.

"This field trip provided an immersive, collaborative experience for Vanderbilt and TSU students to see how the concepts we're exploring in our classes apply to real-world situations," said McDonald. "It was also a wonderful way for students to appreciate the collegiality and collaboration between our universities and local non-profits."