Sustainability Strategic Thinking / Assets

Universities are incubators for the great ideas that propel the future.

Whether it's the heritage garden in collaboration with our student cultural centers, the multi-building geothermal system and LEED Certified smart design of Lincoln & Douglas Halls, the campus-wide recycling program and the thoughtful biowaste management at the UIC Hospital and College of Medicine, the organic soup kitchen at the Jane Addams Hull House, or the College of Education professors who are teaching the next generation of educators, UIC is an institution where ideas about sustainability are taking shape.  

On this page you will find examples that highlight UIC's progress toward becoming a sustainable community, and documents that catalog our work to identify these assets. 

Sustainable Innovations in the Dental Practice

Sustainability in Research & Teaching

Efficient & Responsible Resource Consumption in Labs

Douglass Hall: A LEED-Certified Building

Student Research

With guidance from the Sustainability Strategic Thinking Advisory Committee (SSTAC), UIC students spent the Spring 2013 semester identifying and interviewing individuals on campus whose work, independently or through their campus organization or department, represents the many facets of sustainability at UIC - we refer to them as Assets. The SSTAC was organized into four working groups in which the assets - nearly 200 - could be organized and further categorized.

Education & Outreach

Documented by Eduardo Muñoz and Agnes Otap

  1. Gender and Sexuality Center and Urban Innovation Symposium
  2. Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement and Intergroup Dialogue

Systems Use

Documented by Romina Castillo and Ryan Mitchell

  1. Electronic Visualization Lab, Bike Plan, Office of Technology Management, and Learning Management System
  2. Recycling Program, Office of the Registrar, and Urban Transportation Center

Physical Structure

Documented by Rosemarie Dominguez and Nina Pellizzari

  1. BURST (Building Urban Resilience and Sustainability) and Memorial Grove
  2. IDEA Commons and Prof. Moira Zellner, Urban Planning and Policy

Health & Wellness

Documented by Rhea Rashad and Jen Zoleta; view the entire presentation.

  1. UIC/NIH Botanical Center
  2. Campus Dining Services
  3. Chancellor's Initiative in the Humanities: "Food Studies at UIC: Local and Global Issues"
  4. Urban Health Program
  5. Midwest Latino Health Research, Training, and Policy Center
  6. Endocrine Disruptor Research
  7. Prof. Curt Winkle, Urban Planning and Policy
  8. Prof. William Kling, Public Health