About Sustainability at NIU

NIU is dedicated to environmental and social responsibility. Our campuswide sustainability initiatives are the result of partnerships between academic programs, departments and the Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability (NICCS).

For decades, NIU has worked to keep campus beautiful while minimizing our environmental footprint. We’re proud to continue the university’s rich history of environmental stewardship, which includes land management, recycling and community gardening programs.

Today, there are many sustainability initiatives taking place on campus — a range of projects with both immediate and long-term impacts. We encourage students, faculty and staff to consider the impact of their actions and make sustainable choices that will positively impact future generations, on campus and around the world.

A Collaborative Effort

Sustainability is a collaborative effort, requiring participation from all departments on campus. We appreciate everyone who endeavors to promote sustainable choices on campus and beyond. All seven colleges, campus operations and student services, as well as many student organizations, are active participants in creating a sustainable campus.

Vision, Mission and Values

Our vision is to serve as a regional and national living model for sustainability. Our mission is to align research, artistry, teaching and outreach with campus operations in service of environmental, economic and social responsibility to people and the planet by:

• Training an educated workforce that considers sustainability broadly
• Demonstrating our stewardship of resources, health and well-being of our community
• Building regional partnerships to solve big environmental challenges

Our values align with the university’s core values:

• Curiosity and creativity:
  • We instill the knowledge and values of sustainability into our entire community.
  • We are open to continuous education on the principles and possibilities of sustainability and are willing to pursue innovative solutions.
  • We use our campus as a living laboratory for the NIU community to engage in learning about sustainability.
• Equity and inclusion:
  • We realize that sustainability must focus on interrelated environmental, societal and economic issues and resources at both the local and global levels.
  • We use inclusive decision-making processes to develop and implement sustainability goals and initiatives.
• Ethics and integrity:
  • We understand that decisions throughout the university have sustainability implications that must be considered and addressed.
  • We commit to transparent reporting of our sustainability goals, initiatives and progress to the NIU community and beyond.
  • We help build an educated workforce trained to consider sustainability broadly.
• Service and stewardship:
  • We respect the planet’s natural environment, embracing our interconnectedness with these ecosystems.
  • We commit to sharing our knowledge and experience in sustainability with the broader northern Illinois community.