News

Since 2018, the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo has partnered with local volunteers to monitor bats across Chicago. Northwestern’s Evanston campus has become one of the most recent study sites for this scientific effort. sustainNU invites you to join our monitoring team and contribute to vital research on local bat populations.

The Shakespeare Woods restoration project focuses on creating a habitat for local wildlife, like the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee, while boosting biodiversity by removing invasive plants and introducing native species. Led by Facilities Planning and sustainNU, with support from the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, the initiative gave students, staff, and local groups a role in ecological restoration from planning to design.

Congratulations to the most recent recipients of the Green Office & Labs Certification! These groups show that adopting sustainable practices is both achievable and impactful.

Northwestern will launch a new fleet of hybrid-electric shuttle buses in Fall of 2025, marking an exciting move toward reducing the university’s carbon footprint and improving air quality on campus and beyond.

What does sustainability mean to you? It is a multifaceted concept, touching on many different areas of human and ecological interest, and is rooted in different perspectives and realities.

Each year nearly 2,500 undergraduate students join our campus community. A group of returning students believed there was an opportunity for greater awareness of sustainability practices on campus and worked to incorporate a video into Purple Prep, the orientation for incoming students.

Northwestern University received the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year — Sustained Excellence Award for the fifth consecutive year from the U.S. EPA. This is the EPAs highest honor, recognizing businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to energy efficiency and the transition to a clean energy economy.