Students Create Graphics to Connect Environmentalism with Communication

The Campus as a Living Laboratory program is an FSU Sustainable Campus initiative that aims to use the campus or Tallahassee community as a place of experiential learning that contributes to understanding or advancing sustainability. 

In Fall 2024, students in the Media, Culture, and Environment course, taught by environmental communication specialist, Kellie Keys, partnered with various organizations in the Big Bend to create engaging environmental graphics. The students were put into large groups, for each organization, and further split by topics. Sustainable Campus provided ten topics for the students, including fast fashion, greenwashing, native Florida ecosystems, and sustainable transportation. 

Media, Culture, and the Environment, IDS 3164, connects the understanding of the natural world with the role of communication. Students were asked to create a graphic on Canva that could be used by the organization to engage the FSU and Tallahassee community. Keys expressed to her students the importance of having the skills to create environmental messaging that will inspire and engage.  

Sustainable Campus strives to educate the campus community on sustainability initiatives, solutions, and opportunities. Although the team includes communication specialists, there is always a need for more ideas to reach the target audience and encourage pro-environmental behaviors, such as riding your bike, walking, or carpooling.  

Among the ten topics, some had outstanding final products, including a flyer about greenwashing. There are seven main ways companies can use greenwashing tactics, so they are often called the seven sins of greenwashing. The flyer is aesthetically pleasing and concisely explains each of the seven sins. To learn more about greenwashing, check out a previous blog post here.  

Another strong piece was a social media post about protecting Florida native ecosystems. In north Florida, flora, fauna, springs, and more are beneficial economically, to people’s wellbeing, and are simply beautiful to look at. The student used a mix of digestible statistics and action items to call readers to action. 

The third piece of student work that the communication team enjoyed was about the importance of voting. The students used FSU colors and imagery to call viewers to action and to inspire them to use their voices, while clearly implying an environmentally conscious attitude to have while voting.  

Partnering with a class focused on communication and the environment is advantageous for Sustainable Campus and the other organizations who benefited from the student work. Facilities Communication Specialist, McKinnon Bell, oversees the Sustainable Campus social media and is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Keys’ class.  

"Having the opportunity to see the graphics created by the students and the ways that they interpret the various topics we provided for them provides Sustainable Campus with valuable insight into how students perceive and engage with a variety of sustainability topics. Plus, we have the opportunity to share these works across our platforms, providing content that can engage other college students and give the students in Media, Culture, and the Environment real-world experience in promoting messages to audiences," Bell said. 

To learn more about the Living Lab program and how it connects students with community partners to tackle real-world challenges, visit FSU's Office of Sustainability website at https://sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/living-lab-program.