• A bicycle repair station encourages commuters to use bicycles, rather than cars. This results in a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
• The bicycle repair station is located at the south entrance to PAC.
• Thank you Scheels for your donation!
• Proposal:

1. Bike Repair Station

• Replacing turf grass with native grasses, such as Buffalo Grass, reduces required maintenance.
  • Projects like this will result in saving water and reducing carbon emissions.
• See the Buffalo Grass in the circle drive by Parking Lot G.
• Proposal:

1. Buffalo Grass

• A garden has been built at the Cox Children’s Daycare.
• By teaching children about sustainability, they will hopefully grow into sustainability-minded adults.
• Proposal:

• Children’s Garden

• UIS offers parking for low-emissions vehicles and carpools.
• Currently 23 LEV and carpool parking spaces are reserved for low-emissions vehicles and carpool parking.
• To see if your vehicle qualifies as low-emissions and is authorized to park in these LEV spaces, use Purdue's Low Emission Vehicle List.
  • If your vehicle is on the list of low-emissions vehicles, then you can utilize these spaces.
• Proposal:

1. Low Emissions Parking

• Spiral herb gardens encourage people to grow their own herbs, rather than driving to the store to buy herbs from all around the world.
  • This results in carbon emissions being reduced in the transportation of herbs.
• Spiral herb beds create micro-climates ranging from dry to moist.
  • This allows plants requiring different amounts of water to be grown together.
• See the spiral herb bed in the UIS Community Garden.
• Proposal:

1. Spiral Herb Garden

• These stations will prevent the consumption of countless plastic bottles,
  significantly reducing the university’s plastic consumption.
• Proposals:

1. Enrollment Management
2. PAC
3. Residence Halls
4. SAB
5. VPA
6. WUIS
7. Brookens Classroom 4th Floor
8. TRAC
9. HSB Upper Floor

• Signs will be placed at sustainable landscaping projects around campus to explain how the plants and landscaping help to make UIS more sustainable.
• This project has been revived in the 23-24 project cycle in conjunction with the Pollinator's Paradise proposal. It will have the same goal as the original, which is to better educate people about sustainable projects on campus.
• Proposals:

1. Sustainable Signage Project proposal
2. Sustainable Signage

• By putting up more recycling bins in residential areas, students will be able to dispose of their home-generated waste in a more sustainable manner.
• There are small, personal bins for each dorm room, and there are larger recycling bins in each of the residential laundry rooms and common areas in the dorms.
• Proposal:

1. Residential Recycling Bins

• A composter in the children’s garden will teach them about composting at an early age, encouraging them to develop into sustainability-minded people.
• The composter will also help the teachers to develop an understanding of composting and gardening techniques.
• Proposal:

1. Kids for Compost

• A solar-powered charging station for phones and laptops has been placed at the Student Union on the South second floor Starbucks terrace.
• This station will reduce our reliance on non-renewable energy by providing students with access to solar-powered charging.
• Here are the specifications of the UIS Charging Station:
  • 10 W on-board solar panel.
  • 2 5V 2.1A outlets, providing 480 watt-hours of power.
• Proposal:

1. Solar Charging Station

• Composting at the Student Union will significantly reduce our food waste by converting our food scraps into compost.
• We will be using 2 composting tumblers until we can upgrade to more comprehensive composting facilities.
• Proposal:

1. Compost Bins

• 1,000 reusable clam shells were initiated in Fall 2019.
• By giving students reusable clam shells, we are encouraging the students to save money and reduce the waste they produce when they take food home.
• Proposal:

1. Reusable Clam Shells

• Heavy duty magnets have been placed on recycling dumpsters in the residential areas of the UIS campus.
• These magnets promote recycling by informing students what to place in the dumpster, and this helps to reduce the contamination of the recycling dumpsters.
• Proposal:

1. Recycling Dumpster Labeling

• This project provides a safe structure for native bees to build their habitat as they live on our campus and pollinate plants around UIS.
• There are five bee hotels located around campus, and they are made out of sustainably sourced bamboo.
• You can check out their locations here on the campus sustainability map.
• Proposal:

1. Bee Hotel

• This proposal added permanent, outdoor recycling bins to 8 different locations around the UIS quad area.
• These bins allow for proper disposal of recyclables, diverting them away from the trash stream and back into the consumer cycle.
• You can check out their locations here on the campus sustainability map.
• Proposal:

1. Recycling Bins

• A catchment system at the UIS Community Garden will allows us to water our plants and vegetables using captured rain water.
• This project increases sustainability in the following ways:
  • Saving water.
  • Reducing erosion and flooding.
• This structure at the garden alleviates much of the demand placed on piped water sources required for watering our plants.
• Proposal:

1. Rainwater Catchment System

Completed Spring 2021!

• Adding a kayak rack to the UIS Field Station on Lake Springfield gives Campus Recreation a convenient place to store kayaks for student use.
• This rack will hold kayaks, allowing them to be stored properly right on site.
• Students can contact TRAC to rent kayaks and take them out for a nice adventure on Lake Springfield.
• Time spent outdoors increases student interest in the environment and makes them more likely to work toward a more sustainable future.
• Proposal:

1. Field Station Kayak Rack

• This project improves sustainability at UIS by increasing the presence of native trees on campus, while in turn helping to remove dead ones to allow for new growth.
• These new trees will not only aesthetically improve the look of our campus, but will also help provide habitat for native birds and animals and reduce our carbon footprint.

• The Green Fee Committee worked with Residence Life to revitalize the Go Green Go Home event which was cancelled during the pandemic.
• Go Green Go Home is an event that encourages students to donate objects they would have otherwise thrown away during move-out to charity.

• This collaboration between the Green Fee Committee and the Women’s Center provides free menstrual cups to students.
• Menstrual cups are a reusable alternative to sanitary tissues and tampons. They last longer and help students save money in the long run.
• Proposal:

1. Menstrual Cup Initiative

• This project funds the placement of recycling bins across townhouses and apartments on campus.
• This promotes recycling by making it more accessible and easier for students to properly recycle in their home.
• Proposal:

1. Residential Recycling Bins

• This project funds reusable bags to be given away on campus to help reduce our dependence on single-use plastic bags.

• Around fifty photocells were bought by the Green Fee Committee and placed on outside lighting fixtures across campus.
• The photocells make the lights turn on and off in response to darkness (e.g., nightfall or a storm) instead of being on a timer. They help reduce energy usage and light pollution on campus. Electricity is our most expensive utility.
• Proposal:

1. UIS Photocells

• The UIS Green Fee Committee provided funding for a bus for students to go across various thrift shops in Springfield for a day. It included a meal at a restaurant with a sustainable/local food focus.
• The intent of the event was to bring together students interested in sustainability and show how accessible second-hand fashion can be.
• Proposals

• Thrift Crawl 2025
• Thrift Crawl 2026

• A space for pollinator plants on campus; planted to benefit native pollinator species with more habitat.
• Proposal:

1. Pollinator Paradise

• Battery-powered flush toilets around campus have issues working and end up needing to be replaced if they don’t function properly. The Union is meant to be sustainable, but lost water and batteries which can’t be recycled conflict with this goal.
• The new dual-flush toilets allows more water to be saved and prevent battery waste.
• New dual-flush toilets around campus have replaced battery-operated toilets!
• Proposals:

1. Dual Flush Handles TRAC
2. UIS Student Union Replace Battery-Based Toilets
3. Low Consumption Toilets

• The UIS Gallery has installed new track lighting to replace the original, 20-year-old track that was in use at the gallery.
• The new track increases sustainability by cutting out the use of halogen bulbs which require frequent replacement and are energy-intensive, installing a new track, and using LED lights at new angles with dimming capabilities. This also better benefits artists using the gallery space by providing better lighting.
• Proposal:

UIS Gallery Light Replacement

• Older lights on the central colonnade have been replaced with LEDs.
• Proposal:

1. Colonnade LED Lights

• The Student Union now provides compostable straws to help reduce single-use plastic waste!
• Proposal:

1. Student Union Straws

• The UIS Green Fee funded a tree-planting event that took place during Earth Day week 2025!
• This event helped replace trees lost to the emerald ash borer, helping increase sustainability on UIS campus.
• Proposal:

1. Earth Day Event

• These gardens consist of native plants and help to reduce flooding near the UIS Legacy Campus.
• They will help increase sustainability while making the campus look beautiful.
• Proposals:

1. Legacy Campus Raingarden Pt.1
2. Legacy Campus Raingarden Pt.2