Unlocking Dartmouth's Sustainability Data: A DaLL Initiative

Written by: Tim Lee, MEM '26, Dartmouth Sustainability Intern

Picture this: You're a ‘28 at Dartmouth, passionate about climate action on campus. You know groundbreaking sustainability research is happening somewhere on campus—maybe in those geo-exchange bores humming beneath your feet, or in decades of forest data tucked away in the Woodlands office. But actually finding that data? Good luck.

When I started as a sustainability intern, this was the puzzle we were trying to solve. Amazing research was everywhere, yet nowhere. Projects vanished when students graduated. Datasets lived on random hard drives. Institutional knowledge sat trapped in filing cabinets across campus like dragons hoarding gold.

So we decided to build a treasure map.

Enter the DaLL Datasets and Projects Portal

For the past year, I've worked with Simone and Marcus to create the Dartmouth as a Living Lab (DaLL) Datasets and Projects Portal, a one-stop shop where anyone can discover, access, and contribute to campus sustainability projects and data.

Simple concept, right? Turns out, it’s hard to execute.

We quickly learned this wasn't just about building a website. We needed to understand what our community actually needed. So we went on a listening tour.

Professors Meredith, Marisa, Brenhin, Justin, Ed, and Carl from Earth Sciences walked us through their geo-exchange projects. Frank Roberts from Facilities Operations lit up while discussing how to connect campus operations (e.g., building electricity usage) with academic research. Biology Professors Mark McPeek and Craig Layne shared their vision for engaging students in long-term environmental studies on campus lands.

But my favorite conversation? It was with Kevin Evans, our College Forester, who literally has "hundred-year-old manuscripts" gathering dust in the Woodlands archives, just waiting for curious students to discover them.

We also reached out to our external Ivy+ peers like MIT's sustainability office—because why reinvent the wheel when you can just steal... er, borrow... their best ideas?

Building Something That Actually Works

Here's the thing about all this data: it comes in wildly different shapes and sizes. We needed a system that could handle everything from physical rock samples to sensitive financial data to a simple Excel spreadsheet someone wants to share.

Working with the team at the Library and Research Computing (shoutout to Lora, Stephen, Daniel, and Julia), we designed a tiered access system: secure when needed, accessible when possible.

To prove it could work, I built a champion project using our campus Scope 3 emissions data for business travel, creating complex automated pipelines that could scale from massive time-series datasets in SQL servers to basic files in Google Drive.

We're Live (And This Is Just the Start)

The pilot (beta) version is now live, and honestly? The feedback has been incredible.

But here's what excites me most: this portal isn't meant to be a static archive. It's designed to become a flywheel—each new dataset making the next project easier, each connection sparking new collaborations, and each new project getting incorporated to build that positive momentum.

Campus data shouldn't be buried treasure. It should be the foundation we build on together, helping our community to tackle climate and sustainability challenges by using our campus as a living lab.

The DaLL portal is live now. Ready to explore?

You can also access the portal via our Susty website