Land

The Evanston and Chicago campuses span 265 acres. We aim to keep our campus, including Lake Michigan, as healthy as possible.

Preserving campus green space

Since it’s founding, Northwestern University has preserved and maintained natural green space in the campus landscape. Today, we work to preserve these natural spaces by:

• Planting adaptive, low-maintenance, and drought-tolerant plants where possible to limit the need for fertilizer and irrigation
• Choosing perennial species in our landscape design.
• Nurturing existing plants, like our mature trees.
• We also encourage walking by constructing wide, plentiful walkways and placing new parking lots on the perimeter of campus where possible.

Limiting impact on Lake Michigan

Our proximity to Lake Michigan is one our campus’ greatest assets. Our goal is to limit any impact we may have on this important body of water. This includes:

• Monitoring and extracting invasive plants and bugs on campus.
• Preventing erosion by planting native plants along shoreline to hold soil together.

Strategic Initiatives