Northwestern’s central utility plant is hard to miss as Weinberg fourth-year Martha Santiago walks across campus. The plant sits along the path that nearly every student walks past while traveling between South and North campus.
“You just see those billows of smoke,” she said. “Even though we say all these things about committing to renewable energy.”
With nine Gold LEED-certified buildings, an Energy Star award and 21 recognized environmental student groups, Northwestern has no shortage of sustainability credentials. More recently, the University has invested in hybrid shuttles, green infrastructure and partnerships aimed at cutting energy use.
sustainNU, the University’s central office for sustainability, coordinates initiatives to reduce Northwestern’s environmental impact and releases an annual report outlining its goals and progress. Northwestern last released a sustainability report through sustainNU for the 2021-22 academic year and a greenhouse gas emissions report for the 2022-23 school year.
Its work spans areas such as energy and emissions, buildings and infrastructure, transportation, water and ecology, waste, academics and community engagement. According to the sustainNU website, Northwestern categorizes emissions as direct, electricity-related and supply chain in its three scopes. Northwestern plans to reduce them through efficiency and renewable energy, with a 30% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
Yet to Santiago, a member of Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED), the central utility plant is one of many examples of the University’s lack of transparency regarding its sustainability goals.
Student initiatives and hopes
As a member of SEED, Santiago said many student groups and staff participate in sustainability efforts, including recycling. However, additional communication and transparency from the University are needed.
Sustainability-related student organizations, such as the Associated Student Government’s Sustainability Committee and Fossil Free NU, attend quarterly meetings with sustainNU, according to Santiago. These meetings are meant to inform each group about what other sustainability organizations and clubs are doing. However, she said she was uncertain about the level of transparency the University provides to student organizations regarding broader sustainability decisions.
Northwestern purchases renewable energy certificates, which allow institutions to offset their electricity use by paying for renewable energy generated elsewhere. In doing so, the University can count this renewable energy toward its carbon reduction and sustainability targets. But Santiago said the campus itself does not operate entirely on renewable energy.
“Some of the goals are about renewable energy, for example, but a lot of times, it seems hypocritical,” Santiago said. “A lot of our renewable energy is just from renewable energy credits … instead of actually using that as our energy source.”
Recycling and composting on campus
Weinberg second-year Danni Bowyer, one of the presidents of Cats Who Compost, said she would like to see an expansion of student-led sustainability initiatives to counteract gaps in services currently offered by the University.
“The main reason we exist is because there is no free composting service in Evanston,” Bowyer said. “We wanted to make it more accessible for students.”
While sustainNU has announced goals to increase recycling rates and reduce waste across campus, Bowyer said students still face barriers when trying to participate in those initiatives, in part because of the inconvenience of composting locations.
“Northwestern doesn’t make it super accessible for students in dorms or for dining halls,” she said. “Those big food hubs where this could really make an impact aren’t really being addressed yet.”
Even where recycling bins are available, Bowyer said confusion about what can and cannot be recycled often leads to contamination or misplaced waste. Composting, she added, is mostly limited to off-campus students or designated drop-off points that are difficult for dorm residents to use.
Another concern, Bowyer said, is the plastic water bottles offered in meal exchanges at Norris University Center. In a typical meal exchange, students get their order with a second item, but some items, like the bottles of water, are usually made of plastic.
“I would say Northwestern is definitely working on being more green,” Bowyer said. “I wouldn’t say they’re fully there yet.”
Sustainability update
Weinberg second-year Sophia Cheng has been involved in sustainability work with SEED and local climate initiatives in Evanston. She has led SEED’s social media campaigns on environmental policies and serves as co-chair of the youth Climate Coalition with Climate Action Evanston. But when it comes to Northwestern’s own sustainability progress, she said she’s in the dark.
Cheng said that while the University widely distributes an annual crime report via email, similar communications are not sent for sustainability reports. She said she and other students might be more likely to read the sustainability report if it were distributed in the same way.
“One of the main reasons people choose Northwestern — and this was true for me — is how natural, green and grounded the school is,” Cheng said. “I wish the school did a better job reporting and holding itself accountable.”
