The University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and Environment is excited to share its new space in Jessup Hall with the campus community!

The Office’s headquarters has relocated from the Communications Center to 3 Jessup Hall on the ground floor in the former location of ID Card Services. Doors open to students and the campus on Monday, December 2, 2019 for anyone who wants to explore sustainability at Iowa, from learning about steps the University is taking toward a more eco-friendly future, to opportunities to get involved with student groups and research projects..

Read more about our exciting move on our website.

As Iowa enters the season of winter, temperatures begin to decline, bringing cold, wet, and icy mornings. As students and faculty ride into campus on their bikes, there are many new safety concerns to be aware of. Here are tips to ensure a safe ride back and forth to campus during those cold fall and winter months. 
 
Knowing and utilizing the resources offered in Iowa City and at the UI is an easy way to ensure a safe ride. If this winter is anything like last year, we've got a lot of snowfall heading our way. Coming out of class to a bike covered in three inches of snow is not ideal, so utilize the sheltered bike parking found throughout campus, like the new one outside the Seamans Center so you don't spend 10 minutes clearing it off. Not only will this save you time, but it will also prevent the gears and brakes from being cemented under layers of frozen ice.

Read more about the safe biking on our website.

November 2019 marks the two-year anniversary of a program developed on campus to reuse the uber amounts of packaging materials shipped in boxes to the University of Iowa on a daily basis. The program came as a collaboration with Mailboxes of Iowa City in an attempt to provide the business with packing materials which they can reuse as a shipping and packaging store.  

At launch, four bins were placed throughout the Seamans Center with the hope to expand across campus with increased funding. Once these bins have accumulated enough packaging materials to fill it up, Mailboxes of Iowa City is contacted to come and empty the bins at the given location. Since the start, the program has expanded to multiple locations throughout campus, not isolated to the Seamans Center. 

The packaging materials are brought back to Mailboxes of Iowa City's location where Keriann, one of their employees said, "We reuse these materials in the packages we send out for our customers to fill up extra space in boxes and/or add protection to items.” 

The program was a hit from the start according to Rachel Marek, who helped implement the bins on campus. 

Read more about the program on our website.

Access to fresh, healthy food is tough for college students. But, the University of Iowa Student Gardeners hope to make it just a little easier by establishing a student garden on campus.

The group is $15,000 away from their goal of $90,000 to construct the first phase of a garden beside North Hall in the heart of the UI campus. The current student garden is far from central campus, located near the Hawkeye Commuter Lot on Hawkeye Park Road. The new garden would bring free, organic, student-grown food right to the campus community.

Read more about the fundraising website on our website.

There are rallies on the Pentacrest, mobs of people traipsing through downtown Iowa City, and conversations unfolding within classroom walls — all in response to the decline of our planet’s health.

There is a shift happening — with a white-knuckled grip on policy and advocacy efforts in regards to our changing environment something must be done. But what about the devastation we’ve already seen?

Read more about the fight for heightened climate awareness on The Daily Iowan.

University of Iowa Student Government secured funding for a new UI campus prairie restoration — a project that’s been nearly two years in the making.

UISG passed a resolution Tuesday to allocate $1,300 to the UI Prairie Restoration Project. The money will be used to buy seeds that will diversify the prairie on the campus cross country course.

Read more about the prairie restoration funding on The Daily Iowan.