NU Sustainable Fellows
Northwestern University’s commitment to sustainability is exemplified by its five-year partnership with Ameresco, Inc., a leading cleantech company specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. This partnership will reduce Northwestern’s carbon footprint through building and infrastructure upgrades, smart building technology implementation, building automation, and alternative energy systems. The partnership also creates experiential education opportunities for Northwestern students interested in sustainable energy management. These opportunities include funding towards an annual Sustainability Fellowship program that provides a tuition stipend for up to 16 students annually (NU Sustainability Fellows) as well as two paid, full-time co-op-style internships enabling students to apply energy and sustainability concepts to real-world problems and grow as leaders in sustainability.
Past Projects
Project Green Bus
Electric school buses remain a largely unexplored area of sustainable transportation, and Project Green Bus would result in the first Head Start Program to ever be served by an electric school bus. A nationwide shift to electric vehicles would translate to significant health and wellness benefits, particularly for low-income, disadvantaged communities that are systematically exposed to higher levels of air pollution. After a comprehensive assessment of School District 65’s bus fleet and the potential benefits of electrification, Project Green Bus is now working to secure Lion Electric Company’s LionC electric school bus with Compass Transportation.
Equitable Eating and Urban Technology
This project partners with Top Box Foods – a community-based non-profit that provides delicious and healthy food at affordable prices to food-insecure communities in Chicago and Lake County, IL. Fellows will examine source options to improve produce procurement. They will also provide alternative supply chain and organizational models for a network of urban farms.
Critical Mineral Recycling For Batteries
This project collaborates with ReCell Center, a national collaboration of industry, academic, and national laboratories working together to advance recycling technologies along the entire battery life-cycle for current and future battery chemistries. Fellows will provide technical and economic assessments regarding the EverBatt model and recommend how ReCell could improve EverBatt.