NIU Today

Huskies across campus strongly support sustainability and show concern for environmental issues, according to a recent student-led survey. The Behaviors, Attitudes, Resources, and Knowledge of Sustainability survey (BARKS) drew 978 respondents among NIU’s faculty, staff and students. Of those respondents, 80% are concerned or very concerned about environmental issues. The survey also found that nearly...

As an NIU mechanical engineering major set to graduate this spring, Ben Koranda has cracked plenty of books. But his most memorable and significant Huskie chapter is happening now in the nooks and crannies of DuSable Hall. There, along with classmates, he’s immersed in an energy audit of the 56-year-old building. “I’ve always been passionate...

Collaboration with ComEd and EPRI will produce vegetables – and data to improve regional food systems. In early December, a special delivery arrived behind NIU’s Anderson Hall. The 40-foot-by-8-foot box may look like a standard shipping container, but inside you’ll find a complete, self-contained hydroponic farming system. Dubbed “the Hydropod,” this container garden was provided...

NIU has its first detailed sustainability playbook, with aims on making the university an innovator and model of sustainable behaviors in the years and decades to come. After a four-month period of public review, NIU President Lisa C. Freeman and other members of senior leadership signed off last month on the sweeping Sustainability and Climate...

Students are invited to an upcoming Conversations with Purpose event to learn more about and provide their feedback on the new university-wide Sustainability and Climate Action Plan. Hosted by Student Affairs, the event will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center. Pre-registration to...

A sweeping new university-wide Sustainability and Climate Action Plan calls for NIU to “chart an ambitious path forward to become an innovator and leader in sustainability.” A task force appointed by President Lisa C. Freeman released the plan this week in draft form for public review and comment. The plan is expected to be finalized...

What are your thoughts on sustainability? Don’t know exactly what sustainability is? Are you an EcoGeek? Or, are you somewhere in the middle? Researchers want to hear from you — sharing your thoughts could get you $20 in cash for participating! The Behaviors, Attitudes, Resources and Knowledge of Sustainability (BARKS) Survey is NIU’s first-ever campus...

The NIU Green Team is made up of environmentally-minded students, faculty and staff who are implementing and introducing new policies and programs to reduce NIU’s environmental impact. The goal of the Green Team is to find cost-effective ways to lower NIU’s carbon footprint and improve sustainability. At meetings held every other month, members of the...

NIU’s Art Museum will present “Embarrassment of Riches,” a group exhibition of six Midwest artists curated by Peter Olson, to explore themes of sustainability. The exhibition opens Tuesday, Aug. 25, and runs through Saturday, Oct. 24, at the museum’s Altgeld Hall galleries. A public reception is planned from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10....

Each semester since the fall of 2012, Northern Illinois University’s Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy, along with Housing and Dining, has partnered with Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois to collect usable goods. Since the beginning of the partnership, more than 30,000 pounds of items have been collected and diverted from...

NIU student Angela Burke hails from blue-collar Burbank, Ill. With its prevalence of mom-and-pop restaurants and the regular roar of low-flying passenger jets from Chicago’s Midway Airport nearby, the southwest suburb certainly seems more city. So, for a week in August, it must have seemed to Burke like she was on another planet – or...

When it comes to sustainable technology, NIU students are learning that sometimes what’s old is new. Alexis Hitzeroth and Ben Stone, both environmental studies majors, worked with two international nonprofit organizations, CATIS and Isla Mexico, for 19 days in Mexico this past summer to learn more about the methods employed there to address local environmental...