Ecosystems

Food, water and energy are but a few factors to consider when examining sustainability.  We need to look holistically at ecosystems and the services they provide.  We need to ensure that we do not adversely affect part of the ecosystem while trying to find solutions in maintaining healthy ecosystems.  There are many passionate researchers at Illinois investigating ecosystems and their services.

Department of Plant Biology 
School of Integrative Biology 
Illinois Natural History Survey
School of Earth, Society, and Environment
Institute for Genomic Biology

Water

Illinois is home to many experts who research the myriad of issues surrounding water.  There are several centers or programs on campus that contribute innovative solutions.

* Illinois Water Resource Center

* Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program

* Water CAMPWS

* Long Term Recovery Council

* Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering

* Illinois State Water Survey 

* National Great Rivers Research and Education Center

Illinois Water Science Center 

The Midwest Technology Assistance Center for Small Public Water Systems

Center for Chemistry and Technology

Center for Groundwater Science

Center for Water as a Complex Environmental System (CWACES)

Center for Watershed Science

In 2009, the University of Illinois completed an extensive visioning process that included input from a diverse set of stakeholders. The resulting document points to Grand Challenges that we will continually address through our sustainability efforts.  Devoted to the following goals, Illinois will become a world leader in creating new knowledge and innovative solutions.

Grand Challenge 1:
Maintain or restore natural ecosystem function while providing essential human services. 

Grand Challenge 2:
To sustainably raise the quality of life for the world’s poor to acceptable levels. 

Unique Strengths of Illinois
During the visioning process, we saw more clearly our unique position as a campus that has strengths in water programs, agriculture, engineering, business, and information technology, to name a few.  A focus on the food/water/energy nexus emerged from this recognition, along with interest by our campus and community in working at the interface of these issues.

Center for the Advancement of Sustainability Innovations, U.S. Army
The CSE is tasked with expanding the strategic partnership between Illinois and the military around sustainability topics and research initiatives of mutual interest. The basis for the partnership was formalized in 2009 via a MOU with the Center for the Advancement of Sustainability Innovations (CASI) in the Office and the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and University of Illinois, Board of Trustees via the CSE. The CSE and ERDC-CASI have pursued several areas of collaboration including the Sustainable Innovations seminar series.

Courses and Syllabi

Participants in the Prairie Project were inspired to include sustainability in their courses.  Below you will find revised syllabi and some example assignments with clear linkages to the Sustainability Learning Outcomes.  In addition, there are resources from other universities that offer similar curriculum workshops and national organizations.  We encourage you to integrate sustainability into your course.

BADM 532 Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces

BADM 533 Sustainable Product Design and Business Plan Development

Example Syllabi for Sustainability-Infused Courses:

Courses of the 2010 Prairie Project Resource People and Participants

NRES 285: Wetland Delineation and Classification (PDF)

NRES 287 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY – SPRING 2010 (PDF)

Conservation and Ecosystem Health (PDF)

Ecotoxicology of the Northern Hemisphere (PDF)

IB 105: Environmental Biology Fall 2010(PDF) 
IB 105: Environmental Biology Spring 2010 (PDF)

Political Science - Learning Outcomes - Introduction to International Relations (PDF)
Political Science 280 Fall 2010 (PDF)
Political Science 280 Fall 2009 (PDF)

LAS 101 Fall 2010: Environmental Sustainability & World Citizenship (PDF)
LAS 101: Homework 5 on ecological footprinting and environmental sustainability (PDF)

CEE 498: Multilateral Environmental Agreements Fall 2010 (PDF)
CEE 498: Multilateral Environmental Agreements (PDF)

CEE 535: Environmental Systems Analysis II Sustainable & Resilient Environmental & Water Resource Systems (PDF)
CEE 535: Spring 2011 Upper Embarras Project Terms (PDF)

UP 204, Chicago: Planning and Urban Life, Spring 2011 (PDF)
UP 204, Chicago: Planning and Urban Life: Course Description (PDF)
UP 204, Chicago: Planning and Urban Life: Overview (PDF)

External Examples:

Association for the Advanceemnt of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) examples of courses on campus sustainability (PDF)

AASHE course inventories*

AASHE list of Web sites with example syllabi*

Ponderosa Project Web site, containing course syllabi and other resources

Piedmont Project syllabi and course modules

* These sites require a members-only login to the AASHE site. The University of Illinois is an institutional member and you can create an account for free with a uiuc.edu (and hopefully Illinois.edu) e-mail address.

Teaching Sustainability Workshop 2013

Providing skills, knowledge, and resources for infusing environmental sustainability into your courses

Sustainability is one of the great global challenges of the twenty-first century. Whether you teach accounting or aerospace engineering, Portuguese or pathobiology, you likely have something to contribute toward addressing this challenge.The Center for a Sustainable Environment will be hosting the Teaching Sustainability Workshop on April 12-13, 2013. Apply here.

Friday, April 12 - Reception
4:00pm
Temple Buell Art Gallery, 111 Architecture Building
Guest speaker David Schejbal, print flyer

Saturday, April 13 - Workshop
Allerton Park & Retreat Center, Monticello 

The workshop will bring together a group of University of Illinois instructors who want to learn more about adding sustainability to the courses they already teach. Participants in the workshop are typically professors and instructors who are curious about sustainability and want to engage it, but who also have too much to do to become experts in sustainability. After participating in the workshop, you will have a:
 

• Working definition of sustainability.

• Framework for understanding the components of sustainability and how each relates to your expertise.

• List of readings and short videos that you can use to prepare your class or use in your class.

• Draft of exercises you might use in your classes and examples of how other instructors have incorporated sustainability into their courses.

• Set of opportunities for exploring sustainability on campus through the landscape, buildings, operations, and transportation.

• Cohort of colleagues who have similar goals about infusing sustainability into their teaching and on-going support as you test your ideas in the classroom.

• Stipend of $500 that you can use however you see fit. 
   

Our goal is to provide you with a set of ideas, concepts, models, and examples that you can modify to fit your courses. You’ll get a list of readings and short videos that you might want to use in your classes. And we will work to craft some initial ideas for exercises that you might use as you teach. 

The workshop consists of five components that are designed to make it as easy as possible for you to add sustainability to your teaching.

1. Teaching Sustainability Reception. There will be a reception on Friday, April 12, 2013 at the School of Architecture, Art Gallery from 4:00-6:30pm. The 2012 participants will receive their certificate for completing the workshop, followed by guest speaker, David Schejbal. This reception will give you an opportunity to network with last year’s participants. 

2. Teaching Sustainability Retreat. We will meet on Saturday, April 13, 2013 at Allerton Park (http://allerton.illinois.edu) from 8:30 to 5:00. This is the main event of the Workshop. We will learn from experts who have the capacity to explain concepts about sustainability in a way that is accessible to those of us who are not experts. During the day, you will develop some initial ideas, lesson plans, and exercises that you can use in your courses. We will serve you a continental breakfast, lunch, and snacks. 

3. Feedback and Revision. During the summer of 2013, we will get together with sustainability experts to provide feedback on your initial plans and course revisions.

4. Fall Check-In. Near the end of the fall 2013 semester, we will get together for lunch to learn from the members of the group who taught their revised courses and discuss the lessons they learned and what they might have done differently.

5. Debriefing. During the spring 2014 semester, we will get together to share experiences, assess results, and make recommendations for how this process might evolve. We’ll get together with next year’s cohort.

Faculty and instructors will receive a stipend for participating in these five aspects of the Workshop. Graduate students and post-docs who will be assisting with modifications of existing courses or development of new courses are also welcome to attend. 

By applying for this exciting and interactive opportunity, Teaching Sustainability Workshop participants agree to:

• Participate in the events above.

• Commit to preparing and submitting a description of the course modification or creation by the end of the retreat, and revising as needed over the summer.

• Provide a final syllabus, course modifications, and brief summary of outcomes from the experience.

Please follow up with Amy Rosenbery (husted@illinois.edu) if you have questions about this opportunity. Based on current plans, we anticipate that 20 instructors will be accommodated. Applicants will be notified by mid-March if they have been selected to participate.

Participant Agenda
Teaching Sustainability Workshop Reception
Friday, April 12, 2013, 4:00-6:30pm, Temple Buell Hall Art Gallery, 111 Architecture Building
4:00pm - "The Changing Nature of Higher Education and the Role of Sustainability Education in the Process" presented by David Schejbal. Print flyer

Sustainability Curriculum Retreat,
Saturday, April 13, 2013 
8:30am-5:00pm, Allerton Park & Retreat Center
More details to come!

This event is supported by the Center for a Sustainable Environment and the Office of the Provost.

Scholarship of Sustainability - Spring 2014

Campus Series on the Scholarship of Sustainability begins Thursday, February 13

The Scholarship of Sustainability is a series of presentations and discussions that welcomes students, staff and the general public to explore the cultural contexts of contemporary environmental problems. The series is generously sponsored by the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment (iSEE), with contributions from the School of Earth, Society and Environment (SESE), the College of Law and the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics (SLCL).

The nine sessions will be held on Thursdays from 4-5:30pm at Room 149 of the National Soybean Research Center, 1101 W. Peabody Drive, Urbana, beginning on February 13. (There is a one-session hiatus on March 27, which coincides with spring break.) Ample metered parking is available nearby.

The 2014 Scholarship of Sustainability campus series begins with a recognition that human behavior underlies all environmental problems and that our behaviors are complexly linked with cultural patterns and the social institutions based on them. It will probe the root causes of our misuses of nature; consider the tension between animal-welfare and ecological perspectives; take a critical look at market capitalism and its embedded values; consider environmental justice in its broadest meanings; and ask whether and how religious thought can help and hinder environmental reform efforts. The final session will consider new directions for conservation. 

The series leader is Eric T. Freyfogle, Swanlund Chair and Professor of Law. His many relevant writings include Justice and the Earth (The Free Press), On Private Property (Beacon Press), and Why Conservation is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground (Yale Univ. Press). Sessions will also feature other UIUC faculty and community conservation leaders as well as several special guests. All nine sessions are open to the public, and UIUC faculty and graduate students are especially encouraged to participate. The Series is cosponsored by the School of Earth, Society, and the Environment; the College of Law; and the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics.

Readings: Participants can access readings for the series via links at the descriptions of individual sessions below. Readings are also available in spiral-bound form (317 pp.) for $24 from the College of Law Bookstore, 504 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Champaign (basement SE corner; open from 9-12 and 1-4 M-F). They will also be available for purchase by cash or check at the first two sessions.

Three U of I courses are associated with the series:
 

• ESE 311 Environmental Issues Today
• RLST 270 Religion, Ethics, Environment
• LAW 792 - Section JJ Current Legal Problems

Graduate-level students can participate in the series for academic credit by enrolling in Law 792JJ Scholarship of Sustainability; those interested in doing so should contact Professor Freyfogle at efreyfog@illinois.edu

Outline of Readings

Sessions

February 13 :: Beginning the Search.  Environmental ills involve human misuses of nature.  But how might we distinguish between legitimate use and misuse?  How might we best think about the proper human role in nature?  Is sustainability a useful measure, and what alternatives goals have been proposed? Ultimately, what are the root causes–cultural, cognitive, and material–of our misuses of nature? Speaker: Bill Sullivan, Department of Landscape Architecture. 

Session One Readings

February 20 :: The Costs and Possibilities of Capitalism.  Much environmental change is driven by businesses and other market participants. We’ll consider calls for a new, green industrial revolution.  We’ll also consider ecological critiques of capitalism and market competition and calls for major changes in our economic system. Speaker: Eric Freyfogle, College of Law.

Session Two Readings

February 27 :: Fragmentation and Cultural Flaws. According to environmental historians a major driver of our uses and misuses of nature has been the tendency to fragment landscapes and treat nature's parts as market commodities. We'll look at the issue of fragmentation–physically, legally, and intellectually–and its resulting problems while also considering the limits on our knowledge and its implications.

Session Three Readings

March 6 :: Other Forms of Life. A critical modern assumption is that humans are the only species to possess moral value. Is this morally defensible? We'll explore the considerable differences between animal-welfare and ecological modes of thought, while paying attention generally to the many ways we benefit from other life forms and how we might best think about them. As we'll see, our varied reasons for wanting to conserve other life forms can lead to widely differing policies and actions. Speaker: Dale Jamieson, New York University, Environmental Studies Program. Lecture: "Grass Fed Environmentalism: Living Responsibly in the Anthropocene"

This special event is part of campus Ethics Awareness Week. Ethics Awareness Week is an initiative of the National Center for Professional & Research Ethics and is sponsored by the Graduate College and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, with support from the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society.

Session Four Readings

March 13 :: Climate Change and the Role of Science. Climate change is perhaps the most serious of today's environmental ills. We'll consider the problem and its many implications. While doing so we'll also consider the common claim that environmental policy should be based on sound science. What is science, what are its proper roles, and how and why do we regularly misuse it? Speaker: Eric Snodgrass, Department of Atmospheric Sciences.

Session Five Readings

March 20 :: Seeing and Valuing Nature. Connections with the natural world play a significant role in human well being, and our dealings with nature are shaped by the ways we perceive it and value it. Better ways of living in nature will likely require us to see nature in new, more ecological ways and to appreciate the value of its countless living components and their complex interdependencies. Speaker: Rob Kanter, School of Earth, Society, and Environment.

Session Six Readings

April 3 :: Sharing the Earth. The good use of nature inevitably means sharing the planet in responsible ways. How should social justice enter into environmental issues? How should we divide up the earth's resources and capacities, and what weight should be given to historic patterns of use? Of special interest: sharing the atmosphere and its limited ability to absorb climate-changing gases–the particular topic of this session. Speaker: J. Michael Scoville, Eastern Michigan University, History and Philosophy Department.

Session Seven Readings

April 10 :: Otherworldly Religions. How have religious views affected our uses of nature, and how might religion today push us in good or bad directions? We'll consider historian Lynn White's famous argument and responses to it and also look at how we might evaluate religions–even individual congregations—based on environmental factors. Speakers: Robert McKim, Department of Religion, and Brian Sauder, incoming Director of Faith in Place. 

Session Eight Readings

April 17 :: New Directions for Conservation. Efforts to address environmental ills, off to a promising start in the 1970s and 1980s, have greatly slowed in recent decades, with major problems largely unaddressed and with Congress in political deadlock. We'll look at ideas for a revitalized citizen-led movement to bring about needed major changes and some of the challenges that such a movement would face.

Session Nine Readings

Illinois Climate Action Plan

In 2008, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign signed the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment. This action committed the campus to carbon neutrality by the year 2050. This Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) describes a path toward the fulfillment of this commitment.

As the flagship public university in the state of Illinois, the campus has a moral and ethical responsibility to lead, to set aggressive goals, to work to meet them, and to serve as a model for the community, state, and nation.

The Plan represents a roadmap to a new, prosperous, and sustainable future for the University. It outlines strategies, initiatives, and targets toward meeting the stated goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Please click here to download a PDF of the Climate Action Plan.

A Letter from our Future Chancellor.

Campus and Community Resources

The daily decisions that you make about how to travel, what to eat and drink, whether or not to recycle your trash, what to wear, and a myriad of other decisions all have an impact on the health of our planet. Wondering how your daily decisions could possibly affect the planet? After all, you are just one of 6.8 billion other people living on the planet. And that’s the point. The collective decisions of 6.8 billion people, whatever those decisions may be, will determine if we have enough resources to sustain the health and well-being of ourselves, future generations, and the other living creatures that share the Earth with us.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding communities have a lot to be proud of when it comes to sustainability. The resources listed in this section are just a sample of what our campus and community has to offer. To get you started, University of Illinois Extension has developed 57 Ways To Protect Your Home Environment.

For a list of academic, campus, community and research groups, please click here.

Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact

On Friday, August 27, 2010, University of Illinois former President Michael Hogan and former UIUC Chancellor and current President Robert Easter joined Governor Pat Quinn in signing the second Sustainable Campus Compact (pdf) as part of the fifth annual Sustainable University Symposium. The University is the first institution to sign on to the new five-year compact that commits us to continue energy and environmental improvements.