History
Sustainability at SIUC began in 1999 when SIUC became the first school in Illinois to sign the Talloires Declaration and in doing so, committed to taking 10 actions to move our institution towards sustainability. The signing of this document led to the development of Southern Sustainability which facilitated SIUC's first environmental assessment in 2000.
In the summer of 2007 SIUC signed the Illinois Sustainable University Compact and committed to accomplish nine sustainability goals by 2010. Plant and Service Operations has led the work on accomplishing those goals.
In the fall of 2007, students and staff launched Project Eco Dawgs to help the university establish a comprehensive and sufficienty funded institutional mechanism for furthering its efforts towards sustainability by enacting a green fee and forming a sustainability council.
After nearly a year students overwhelming - 73% - passed the Green Fee in a campus wide referendum.
Later that summer, Chancellor Sam Goldman called for the formation of the Eco Dawgs Task Force to facilitate the implementation of Project Eco Dawgs. The task force was chaired by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Larry Dietz and involved students, faculty, and staff from several departments. They prepared a Green Fee proposal to be presented to the Board of Trustess for official implementation.
In the fall of 2009 a student and faculty started the Campus Sustainability Project to develop an online database of environmental management data, policies, and programs for the SIUC campus (sustainability.siuc.edu), conduct research on sustainability in higher education and provide educators and students with resources to help achieve campus sustainability.
On May 7th 2009, the SIU Board of Trustess unanimoulsy passed the $10 per semester student Green Fee. The fee is effective fall 2009 and is projected to raise over $300,000 annually for on-campus renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainability projects and research.
Just this July, Chancellor Sam Goldman appointed the first SIUC Sustainability Council to make campuse-wide recommendations concering sustainability and allocate revenue generated by the Green Fee.
Throughout this time, Plant and Service Operations has largely led the way in putting SIUC on the susatainability track through myriad energy efficiency and recycling projects. University Housing and their dining staff have also shown remarkable leardership in sustainability over the years. Several other department level sustainability coordinating and planning has come up through the Student Center's Sustainability Committee, Touch of Nature and the Student Recreation Center's Green Team.