The Rhetoric students typically are encouraged to ask for interviews in sustainability related fields for one of their course papers.

Green Your Dorm will be a month long competition held at LAR. We are aiming to get students especially in the Sustainability LLC to participate. During February, there will first be a week in which participants will receive a checklist of ways to "certify" their room. These include things such as putting in CFL bulbs and adding a recycling bin. After a week, rooms will be reviewed and can get certified. From then on out, there will be weekly challenges and ways to earn points for continuing to live "green" and having a green dorm.

The Urbana-Champaign Energy Star Challenge invites commercial building owners and managers to benchmark their 2013 energy use, then track and improve energy use throughout 2014, all with US EPA’s free online tool, Energy Star Portfolio Manager.   Participants can access free in-person assistance using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager program to manage their building’s energy use.  Additionally, participants will be connected with financial incentives to move their projects forward and technical support to help pinpoint building energy savings.  

Competitions bring awareness to sustainability through campus life. Through education, demonstration, and organization, these short term events and national competitions highlight specific conservation areas and everyday routines in a way that creates change in lifestyles and encourages reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Earth Day – April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the environmental movement. Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a billion people participate in Earth Day campaigns every year.  On our campus, we typically celebrate the entire week. Earth Week is a time to enact change and real movement toward consciousness about how our decisions affect our campus environment and the planet.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks to be an active partner with our local communities to build resilience to climate change.  We will participate in the development of regional plans related to climate change, sustainability, and resilience.

Rob Kanter began teaching an ESE 360 writing class in FY13, and invited Morgan Johnston to speak at the course to give an overview of the iCAP.  In FY14, he is teaching the course again, and has asked the students to learn more about the iCAP.  Rather than getting a presentation about the Climate Action Plan, he asked Morgan to simply answer questions posed by the students.  They had a number of questions and were very actively engaged.

Professors Warren Lavey and Jodi Endress are developing a course to teach students how to evaluate the holistic impacts of various sustainability projects.  They are considering projects that have been done on campus, in town, or even globally.  There are often multiple dimensions of returns from these projects, which are not always captured in a financial Return on Investment analysis. 

Students for Environmental ConcernS (SECS) is UIUC's oldest and largest environmental group. We work with all things green on campus and around the community. Check us out at our weekly meetings every Wednesday @ 6:30 at the Channing Murray Foundation.

SECS Groups

This project  involves encouraging more bicycle uses for employees. Packages can be sent out and delivered through the use of a bicycle. Bicycles can also be used for hauling objects to specific locations with the help of special equipment built by the Campus Bike Center.  Student and Staff employees will be involved in the process.