Bill Stewart, Professor in Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism and member of the General Education Board, responded to Ximing Cai with the following email on 12/3/21:

Hi Ximing,

I’m following up about the Sustainability Gen Ed Working Group that was formed this year.  The Provost has directed the gen ed board to form a working group with the following charge:  Sustainability General Education: A student group is continuing work to develop a proposal to create a Sustainability General Education requirement. This working group will meet with the student group and provide updates to the full board about the status of the proposal as well as feedback about the implications of a new requirement for evaluation of courses.  I’m serving as chair, with the following members of the working group:  Geoffrey Challen, Leon Decosta Dash, Stephen R Downie, James Robert Miller, and Sterling Raskie. 

We’ve met twice now, with the first meeting focused on discussing our charge along with the history of sustainability education on campus.  We invited Jessica Nicholson along with others from her team to our second meeting to provide an update on the proposal and the intended next steps.  We plan to take back the activity to the gen ed board, and garner feedback from them.  Notes from our recent meeting are attached.

Just keeping you in the loop here.

Best,
Bill

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For future updates, please see the Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement project page. 
See iWG assessment and transmittal of Engagement001 General Education Board Sustainability Sub-Group.
See original recommendation and submittal of Engagement001 General Education Board SUstainability Sub-Group here. 

The Sustainability Council is in support of further discussion about the Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design and broader rainwater management issues, as discussed at the meeting on November 29, 2021. F&S will get the committee together to discuss broad rainwater management issues, and one of the tasks will be to discuss the Vet Med challenge. For future project updates, visit the Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design project page here.

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See transmittal and iWG assessment of the LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design.
See submittal of LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design here.

Following the completion of iWG assessment for LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-design, the recommendation was transmitted to the Sustainability Sub-Council (11-10-21) and Sustainability Council (11-29-21). 

See the attached iWG assessment for LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-design.
See the Land and Water recommendation of LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design. 

Following the completion of iWG assessment for Engagement001 General Education Board Sustainability Sub-group, the recommendation was transmitted to the Sustainability Sub-Council (4-5-21) and Sustainability Council (4-28-21). 

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Dr. Ximing Cai sent the following message to Dr. Bill Stewart on 4-14-21: 

Dear Dr. Stewart:

Greetings! I’m writing about the ongoing student senate resolution on sustainability education. As you noticed, the Engagement SWATeam submitted a recommendation to support the resolution. Thanks for your comments as attached to the end of the recommendation. The iCAP Working Group (iWG) discussed the recommendation and concluded that “The iWG supports the creation of a General Education Board task committee to discuss feasibility and implementation of a sustainability gen-ed requirement as soon as possible. This is in support of the ISG resolution, which was approved February 2020.”

The Engagement SWATeam & iWG recommendation will be presented to the Sustainability Council meeting on April 28th as a discussion item, which will go after the introduction of the resolution by a student senate representative. iSEE Interim Director Madhu Khanna and I would like to invite you to join the discussion, given that you’re familiar with the resolution, the Engagement SWATeam recommendation and your membership with General Education Board.  In particular, you’re expected to answer some questions from the Council members, as well as provide relevant information.

We assume this effort will eventually go through the Senate mechanism. iSSE/iCAP hopes to show our support & engagement since it is consistent to some major education objectives of iCAP 2020. We also hope the discussion at the Council meeting chaired by Chancellor with attendance of Provost and Deans will speed up the process.

The meeting is at 10:00-11:30 on April 28th. The particular discussion will take about 20 minutes. I will tell you later the appropriate time at which the discussion will start.

Best regards

Ximing Cai

iSEE Associate Director on Campus Sustainability

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See iWG assessment of Engagement001 General Education Board Sustainability Sub-group attached.
See original recommendation and submittal of Engagement001 General Education Board SUstainability Sub-Group here. 

Attached are the notes from the Gen Ed Sustainability Working Group meeting, held on 12-1-2021. 

Congratulations to the newest recipients of our Green Event and Green Office certifications!

Green Event Certifications: 

Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) Environmental Career Panel-Certified October 2021

University of Illinois Foundation Board of Directors Basketball Game Watch-Certified November 2021

Office of the Chancellor State of the University-Certified November 2021

Green Office Gold Certification:

Department of Communication-Recertified October 2021

Thank you to each of our participants, keep up the great work!

Sustainability & Green Job Certification examples have now been included on the Institute for Energy, Sustainability, and the Environment (iSEE) Education Portal website.  Scroll down on the page to find and review Professional Certification Programs.  This list can be used to inspire and provide insight into green careers. Green Job Certification Topics include: 

Buildings & Energy

Environmentalism & Advocacy

Climate Change and Sustainability Professionals, Business, Reporting

Water

Outdoors, Gardening, Wildlife, Natural Resources

A downloadable Excel file titled "Job Certifications" provides additional detail about these certifications and these careers.

Please take this survey regarding the sustainability general education requirement: https://forms.gle/UGho4xcS8hx8Rw5aA

Proposal information is attached. 

This proposal calls for a 3 credit-hour Sustainability category to be added to the Natural Sciences and Technology gen ed requirement. It will give all undergraduate students the opportunity to take a course focused on sustainability topics to fulfill 3 credit hours of this existing requirement. Read through the attached proposal to learn more, and fill out the survey below to share your thoughts on this proposal. We appreciate all responses.

The Sustainability Council is in support of the formation of a Green Labs Committee, as discussed at the meeting on November 29, 2021. Jan Novakofski, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, also expressed support. A training component and Certified Greener Campus Program opportunities will be two items to include in committee discussions. For future updates, see the Green Labs Committee project page. 

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See transmittal and iWG assessment of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs here. 
See submittal of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs here.

Following the completion of iWG assessment for Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs, the recommendation was transmitted and discussed at the Sustainability Council meeting on November 29, 2021.

See iWG assessment of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs attached.
See submittal of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs here.