Every October, colleges and universities around the world celebrate Campus Sustainability Month. According to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the goal of Campus Sustainability Month is “to raise the visibility of campus sustainability and provide campus sustainability advocates with a platform through which to deepen campus engagement around sustainability. It provides an excellent opportunity to recruit new leaders and set goals for the rest of the year. It serves as a complement to Earth Day, which is held each year in April, and is often a time for celebration and recognition of the good work that took place over the course of the academic year.”
The following resources will help members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus community learn more about and contribute to sustainability efforts on campus. This list is extensive but not exhaustive. You’re encouraged to explore websites referenced below for further information or reach out to the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) at sustainability@illinois.edu with questions.
Staff members of the Prairie Research Institute (PRI), including the PRI Office of the Executive Director and the five State Scientific Surveys, can join the PRI Sustainability Microsoft Team to share resources, ask questions, and collaborate on solutions. Open the Teams app on your work computer and search for “PRI Sustainability” or contact Joy Scrogum to join. Staff from the Urbana campus Facilities & Services (F&S) unit, including the campus zero waste coordinator, also participate in this group.
Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). This plan, updated every five years, represents the university’s commitment to environmental stewardship and outlines strategies that are being pursued to reach carbon neutrality as soon as possible (no later than 2050). Objectives relate to energy, transportation, land and water, zero waste, education, engagement, resilience, and implementation. The latest edition of the iCAP was published in 2020 (which means a revision is currently underway). Check out the 2020 iCAP at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/files/project/5293/iCAP-2020-FINAL-WEB.pdf.
Progress toward iCAP goals involves detailed analysis, research, and formulation of recommendations by topical iCAP teams (previously referred to as Sustainability Working Advisory Teams, or SWATs) comprised of faculty, staff, and student members. Topics covered by these teams roughly correspond to iCAP objectives and include Education, Energy, Transportation, Land & Water, Zero Waste, and Engagement. Interested staff, faculty, and students can reach out to team chairs (listed as “Project Leaders” on the team pages) to express interest in joining topical teams. All recommendations made by iCAP topical teams are available on the iCAP Portal (described below).
Recommendations made by the topical teams are then considered by the iCAP Working Group, a committee of mid-level administrators as well as students, staff, and faculty members, which evaluates and routes them to appropriate campus units or to the Sustainability Council for further evaluation and implementation. The Sustainability Council is chaired by the Chancellor, vice-chaired by the Director of the iSEE, and is composed of campus decision makers at the highest level. The flowchart below illustrates the process of progress toward iCAP objectives.
The iCAP Portal: Launched in 2012, this is an online repository of information on various sustainability efforts across campus, including past projects, those currently underway, and those in the planning stages. The iCAP Portal features updates, historical context, metrics, and contact information for all current and past iCAP projects. Project descriptions are organized into 10 themes on the portal: Energy, Transportation, Land and Water, Zero Waste, Resilience, Reporting Progress, Engagement, Education, Research Opportunities, and Funding. A project’s status may be listed as Proposed (prior to approval), In Progress (projects actively being implemented), Ongoing (for projects running on their own, or for summaries of overarching efforts with multiple subprojects), Completed, or even Cancelled (for efforts that didn’t work out or ceased for some reason). The “Objectives Dashboard” can help portal users find updates and track progress toward the various objectives outlined in the current iCAP.
The iCAP Portal is a massive resource, and it contains a wealth of information about campus sustainability efforts, though many campus community members remain unaware of this repository. Content maintenance and portal design are led by Facilities & Services (F&S), iSEE, and the College of Education’s Office for Math, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE). Other contributors include the iCAP Working Group and topical iCAP teams (and associated student clerk and interns), under iSEE’s direction, as well as the Student Sustainability Committee (described below under “Student Organizations”). As you can imagine, keeping this type of extensive record up to date takes a lot of time and effort. The various projects the portal outlines are contributed to by students, faculty, and staff, which are all populations comprised of busy people with varying degrees of turnover. As a result, you may occasionally find outdated information (e.g., old contact names) or a lack of recent project updates on the portal. So, if you happen to have knowledge of a project and/or are browsing the iCAP Portal and see something that needs to be updated, use the online “Suggestions” form to inform the team working on portal maintenance. That same form can also be used to suggest ideas for new projects (after checking the list of existing projects, categorized by topic).
Green Guide: Published in spring 2025 through a collaboration of F&S, iSEE, and Student Affairs, this document is designed to highlight opportunities for campus sustainability engagement. It overlaps with much of the information provided below, while providing a few specific examples of student organizations, cultural and resource centers, key campus programs, relevant facilities that you can tour, and tips for sustainable behaviors for individuals to pursue.
Student Sustainability Home Page: This section of the Urbana campus Student Affairs website is the gateway to student engagement in campus sustainability efforts. Included are subsections on the following:
- Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) and the Illinois Green Fund (IGF). The IGF is North America’s largest university sustainability funding pool, financed by two student-initiated fees, the Cleaner Energy Technologies Fee (CETF) and the Sustainable Campus Environment Fee (SCEF). The SSC is a student-led university funding board charged with distributing IGF funds. Working with staff and faculty advisers, the SSC allocates $1.5 million annually toward the development and seed funding of projects that have an environmental impact on the university community.
- Students, faculty, and staff can learn more about getting involved with the SSC by clicking here. Learn more about applying for IGF funding (aka SSC grants) for your campus sustainability project by clicking here.
- Student Organizations. There are over 1,000 Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) related to sustainability or environmental issues on the Urbana campus. A comprehensive list is available online. A few examples include:
- ActGreen, which is focused on sustainable business.
- Students for Environmental Concerns (SECs), the oldest and largest environmental student organization on campus.
- Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). This group serves as a hub to facilitate collaboration and communication between student groups, administration, and community members; spearhead and assist educational programming; and advocate for students’ campus sustainability concerns.
Sustainability Training Videos: These videos can help individuals understand how they might contribute to the iCAP objectives. Different videos are available for students, faculty and researchers, and for other staff members, administrators, and community members. Links to surveys are available for viewers to provide feedback on what campus is doing right and what needs to be prioritized moving forward.
Campus waste management. Check out the F&S Waste Management & Recycling web pages, as well as their Zero Waste pages. In the latter, you can explore the recent Campus Building Waste Characterization & Opportunity Assessment conducted by ISTC’s Center for Economic Impacts & Societal Benefits (CEISB) in collaboration with F&S. (If you’re curious you can learn more about various work CEISB has done with F&S over the years.) Check out the online Recyclopedia to assist with questions about materials recycled on campus. You can also email questions to recycling@illinois.edu.
Greener Campus Certification Programs: Did you know that your office, sorority or fraternity chapter, or your campus event could receive recognition for the implementation of simple, inexpensive sustainable actions? This section of the iSEE website outlines the campus green certification programs and how to participate.
Sustainability research on campus. Each year, iSEE calls for proposals to provide seed money for faculty-led teams to engage with interdisciplinary sustainability issues on campus or in neighboring communities as part of the Campus as a Living Lab research program. The goal is to leverage this seed money to attract external funds for research relevant to achieve the iCAP objectives. Check out the link above to learn about previously funded projects and watch that space for information on calls for proposals.
Additional information on sustainability research happening on the Urbana campus can be found at https://sustainability.illinois.edu/research/ and https://www.istc.illinois.edu/.
News and events. The iSEE Sustainability Calendar is a great way to keep track of sustainability-related events campuswide, and the iSEE email newsletter delivers updates and on campus projects and events to your inbox. The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Calendar can help you track sustainability-related events throughout the state and beyond. If you’re reading this post, you’re familiar with the ISTC Blog as a source of information. You can also subscribe to ISTC’s quarterly newsletter or its Technology Acceleration Program newsletter. The former will focus mainly on ISTC projects, while the latter may feature ISTC efforts, but will also provide broad coverage of news and research of interest to clients and partners of the ISTC CEISB. You can also subscribe to the ISTC Sustainability in the News blog to keep apprised of worldwide sustainability research and headlines.
Sustainability Education Opportunities: Finally, be sure to check out this section of the iSEE website for more information on sustainability education opportunities on the Urbana campus. These web pages offer a wealth of information on sustainability-related fellowships, certificates, and programs (including courses, majors and minors) that students can pursue.