In Champaign-Urbana, more than 20 different food truck vendors can be found regularly circulating through the cities. Many of these food trucks can be found around the University of Illinois streets, students being a primary consumer of their offerings. Businesses, especially those which serve food and drink, have a unique opportunity to address sustainability within their operations. To-go, delivery, and food trucks have the unique addition of disposable products as part of their service to customers.

The Illini Union is in the early stages of implementing a pre-consumer waste composting pilot program. Several businesses already participate in a composting program with the City of Urbana Landscape Recycling Center. More information to follow!

Coca-Cola is partnering with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a "Don't Waste" campaign to bring recycling and waste awareness to campus. The company is partnering with the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, University Housing, the Illini Union, the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, F&S, and others to keep plastic and metal drink containers out of the campus waste stream.

Funded in early 2022, this project seeks to develop a network of academic researchers and social justice organizers to empower communities of color to address health disparities rooted in systemic racism. It will target communities affected by hazardous waste from former manufactured gas plants (MGPs), using a neighborhood in Champaign, Ill., as a living lab. 

Under the umbrella of OIIR and along with several partners throughout our community, we seek to explore the feasibility of a multifunctional space which will allow for in-depth examinations of the complex layers of diversity, equity,and inclusion. Said space will accommodate our interest in building upon existing campus conversations and knowledge generation with regard to sustainability and environmental justice.

Sustainable World Network. Details coming!

Single-use plastics reuse and elimination protocols. Details coming.

According to the U20069: Pavement Analysis Study 2020ofUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [1], out of the total pavement network(2.8 million ft2), nearly 33%(0.9 million ft2) of the campus pavements requires intervention and are in poor, very poor, serious or failed condition.This project has two principal goals: 1) low-cost inspection of campus pavements using student smartphones and drones, and 2) development of sustainable sealants to repair the identified sections of interest.

The CETACEAN project will culminate in a public performance built around an enormous marionette -a full-scale blue whale puppet suspended and “swimming” through the air of the University of Illinois Stock Pavilion. Using recycled plastic, the 100-foot-long creature will be built by local students—a haunting, crowd-sourced ghost whale.

The project plan is meant to incorporate art with sustainability, specifically to be representative of renewable energy. The objective of painting a mural on the utility boxes would be to remind students of the urgency of the situation regarding making the switch between energy usage; as we all know it is easy to maintain "out of sight, out of mind" mentality that facilities disregarding the bigger problem. Therefore the project goal brings to the forefront the concept of renewable energy to encompass the "in sight, in mind" concept.