Advancing the Illinois Sustainability Vision

The Office of Sustainability will be hosting a conference on February 19, 2010 at the Illini Union. The conference willexamine our progress and explore opportunities for continued collaboration in achieving our sustainability goals. 

Call for posters from University of Illinois faculty, staff, and students doing work relaed to the Illinois Sustainability Vision, which addresses the following global grand challenges:Please click here for the latest version of the document.

1. To maintain or restore natural ecosystem function while providing essential human services:and
2. To sustainably raise the quality of life for the world's poor to acceptable levels.

The first challenge focuses on the need to maintain natural ecosystem function and adapt human-dominated ecosystems to restore critical functions of natural ecosystems.  This will require creative, system-level design of essential human services (e.g., food, water, shelter, energy, transportation, information, social interactions, security, and health care) that emphasize environmental as well as social and economic criteria. The second challenge focuses on impoverished communities, where a lack of essential human services, often accompanied by rapid population growth, threaten both local and global sustainability and create serious challenges to success on the first grand challenge.

If you would like to submit a poster to present at our conference, please click here to fill out a submission form. The submission forms are due January 25, 2010. For instructions on submitting and presenting your poster, please click here.

 

Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities

Climate Change and the Humanities

Thanks to generous funding for the Environmental Change Institute and the Office of Sustainability, the IPRH has organized a lecture series focusing on humanities perspectives on climate change. Please visit www.iprh.illinois.edu for more information

 

Collaborating Toward Sustainability

Memorandum of Understanding

CERL, University of Illinois to collaborate on sustainability R&D

By Dana Finney, ERDC PAO

During a September 18 ceremony at CERL, ERDC Director Dr. James R. Houston signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to support joint research activities in advancing sustainability innovations.

The challenge of developing sustainable institutions, expertise, and practices attracts broad interest at both UIUC and ERDC. In 2006, ERDC established the Center for the Advancement of Sustainability Innovations (CASI), with the CASI director located at CERL. CASI supports the Army strategy for sustainability, which pursues sustainable practices in all Army operations. UIUC established its Office of Sustainability in December 2008 to:  provide leadership to its campus units, enhance communication and coordination across campus, and promote synergies with external constituents in implementing the UIUC strategic plan for sustainability.
Specific objectives of the MOU are to:

    • Leverage the technical capabilities of UIUC and ERDC toward advancing sustainability innovations in matters of mutual interest.
    • Open opportunities for UIUC faculty and research students to learn and develop professionally through collaborative research and development studies.
    • Improve the visibility of collaborative research between UIUC and ERDC at the university’s three campuses, ERDC, and throughout the Army.
    • Appoint points of contact at ERDC and at UIUC to address issues and coordinate efforts regarding joint research for advancing sustainability innovations.

Caption: (click here to view picture)

Participating in the MOU signing ceremony were (back row, l-r) ERDC Deputy Director Dr. Jeff Holland, UIUC Office of Sustainability Outreach Coordinator Jeff Courson, CASI Associate Director Michelle Hanson, CERL Director Dr. Ilker Adiguzel, and CASI Director William Goran. (Front row, l-r) Dr. Steve Sonka, UIUC Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement and Dr. Houston.


 

State of Illinois


Executive order to reduce the environmental impact of Illinois State Government operations, please click here to view Executive order #11.


Sustainability at Illinois

Please help advance sustainability at Illinois on August 21st

During the past year, a high level visioning process for sustainability on campus was endorsed by the Sustainability Council and is described as The Strategic Opportunity in Global Sustainability Challenges: a Vision for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Please click here for the latest version of the document.
 
Five long-term goals were outlined in the vision statement:

Goal 1: Create a new forum for in-depth, cross-disciplinary engagement on the sustainability grand challenges.

Goal 2: Create and implement a sustainable campus operations plan to design operations that mimic natural ecosystems.

Goal 3: Infuse sustainable thinking into campus missions through new education activities.

Goal 4: Create incentive programs that spur sustainability activities to meet the above goals.

Goal 5: Create a viable financial plan for sustainability activities.

The Sustainability Council has asked that we now identify actions that can be taken soon to advance these goals, as we also develop our plan for the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)

(http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.php).
We invite you to participate in a brainstorming session from 9 AM – 12 PM on 21 August at the I-Hotel and Conference Center on campus. The meeting will be designed to help us develop the ACUPCC plan and to identify near-term steps and targets to address the sustainability goals for our campus.

Following the input from the meeting on August 21st, we will be enlisting Task Forces to help frame up the ACUPCC plan and to address priorities and action steps for our campus in the coming year.  We hope that you will participate in the meeting on the 21st and engage in this opportunity to advance sustainability at Illinois.

If you are not available on the 21st and would like to provide input or serve on a Task Force, please click on the Suggestion Box on the left side of this page.

NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

 

Read about Campus Sustainability

* Campus making progress on sustainability
* Student-run farm to supply produce to dining halls
* Dining Services tests eco-friendly alternatives
* Students find gold in first e-waste design competition

 

A Vision for Sustainability at Illinois

Dear Colleagues,

As you may know, last year the Chancellor took steps toward ramping up sustainability efforts at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Illinois). These steps included establishing the Office of Sustainability, and forming the Sustainability Council. The Sustainability Council is chaired by Chancellor Herman. The Sustainability Council also includes the Director of the Office of Sustainability (Vice Chair), Provost, the Vice Chancellors, the Executive Directors of the Facilities & Services and the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, and one representative each of the Council of Deans, the faculty and students.

In recent months there have been efforts underway that have now produced a draft Strategic Vision for Sustainability at Illinois. The visioning effort has been led by Associate Provost Fellow Barbara Minsker and me. We are now in the process of broadly engaging our community in considering this high level vision, which at this point is meant to speak to what we collectively aspire to accomplish relative to sustainability over the long term. The Sustainability Council will soon begin to consider how the results of this visioning process will be formalized and operationalized.

There are a couple of near term opportunities for you participate in this visioning process:

Please click here for the latest draft of the vision statement. Please click here to submit feedback about the vision.

There will be a forum to present and discuss the vision on Wednesday, April 8th from 9 am -1 pm at the Illini Union in rooms B & C. The forum will include a roundtable discussion of sorts whereby participants work in small groups to prioritize feedback and potential near term action steps.

I encourage you to participate in this important visioning process for sustainability at Illinois!

Dick Warner, Professor and Director
Office of Sustainability

 

Illinois Governor visits campus to push 'green' universities initiatives

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn joined U of I officials at the Business Instructional Facility on the Urbana campus on February 18th to celebrate the signing of the Sustainable University Compact. Please click here for full details.