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Sustainability at Northwestern

Going green at Northwestern University

Northwestern University is committed to promoting sustainability on campus and beyond. On this site, you can learn about NU's Green Initiatives, upcoming events, and ways to get involved in the sustainability movement. Our students are dedicated to making NU a haven for environmental advocacy, bringing in prominent speakers and organizing legislative initiatives. You can learn more about our students' sustainable achievements by reading the profiles of student environmental initiatives.

An in-depth look at sustainability at NU

Click on one the below photos to explore some of the fantastic people and projects coming out of Northwestern! We especially invite you to learn more about our students' engagement to sustainability in the profiles below:

Sleamaker strove to transform NU’s environmental group, Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED), from a small niche organization into a powerful advocacy group that could influence university policy. And based off of the group’s accomplishments in the last three years, it looks like he may have done just that.

Jesse Sleamaker, NU ‘09 graduate, accomplished many objectives while he was the co-chair of SEED.

"China is the place to study environmental policy because it's one of the most rapidly developing countries right now," says Emily Wright, a Weinberg junior at NU. "It makes for a really interesting case."

Emily Wright, NU class of ‘11, is one of the first Northwestern students to participate in a green study abroad experience.

Elisa Redish, NU class of ‘11, is co-chair of SEED and is taking NU's environmental agenda all the way to Washington.

ONE Book, ONE Northwestern

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman is the "ONE Book, ONE Northwestern" reading for the university community this year. Every 12 months, a specially-chosen book is integrated into the curriculum for first year student seminars. This year, sustainability comes to the top of the summer reading list and all first year students will be asked to participate in discussions pertaining to this book. The book will be supplemented with online discussions, projects and speakers. For information about the keynote address and other upcoming events, please visit the ONE Book, ONE Northwestern website.