University of Wisconsin-Madison
EN-3: Student Life

The Office of Sustainability maintains a listing of sustainability-focused student groups organized by topic (https://sustainability.wisc.edu/student-organizations/). Currently UW-Madison has 35 sustainability focused student groups:
Business
- Ethical and Responsible Business Network
- Net Impact Chapter at WSB (Grad and Professional Students)
- Social and Environmental Business Advocates (SEBA)
Climate Change
- Sunrise Movement - Madison
- Wisconsin Student Climate Action Coalition (WSCAC)
Conservation
- American Cetacean Society Student Coalition
- Sierra Student Coalition, UW-Madison
- Wisconsin Society for Conservation Biology-Student Chapter
Energy and Engineering
- American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
- Campus Leaders for Energy Action Now (CLEAN)
- Engineers for a Sustainable World, UW-Madison Chapter
- Helios
- WiscWind
Food and Agriculture
- Campus Food Shed
- Challah for Hunger
- F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture
- Food Recovery Network, UW-Madison Chapter
- Slow Food UW
General Environment and Sustainability
- Greenhouse Learning Community
- ASM Sustainability Committee
- Badger Volunteers
- Geography Club
- Re-wear It at the University of Wisconsin- Madison
- Enactus
Health and Wellness
- Global Health, One Health Interest Group
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
- Students for Sustainable Healthcare
- Wisconsin MEDLIFE
Social Justice
- Black Life Activism Club
- Center for Law, Society, and Justice
- Dreamers of UW-Madison
- Social Sustainability Coalition
- Hoofer Ambassadors
- Social Justice Hub
Waste and Recycling
- REthink Wisconsin

The Edible Landscapes Project is a program by students, for students, in an effort to educate people and raise awareness about environmental issues centered around food. Most importantly the project serves as a resource for students who face food insecurity (http://ediblelandscapes.wixsite.com/edible).

The Eagle Heights Gardens are for growing food for the University and Madison communities. They are recognized as one of the oldest and largest community gardens in the United States. As a garden of faculty, staff, students, and at large community members, they have growing techniques and food culture from several countries (http://eagleheightsgardens.org/).

Slow Food UW's mission is to promote and model an alternative food system where food is good, clean, and fair for all by supporting sustainable food production, creating an inviting community around food, and advancing food justice in the Madison area (https://slowfood-uw.org/). Each semester, over 40 student interns and a team of nine student directors devote their time to furthering Slow Food UW’s mission. This makes up the entirety of this all student run staff.

One of the programs Slow Food UW runs is a weekly cafe, where they prepare and sell meals.

The Green Fund at the Office of Sustainability supports student-initiated projects that address the environmental footprint, social impact, and operating costs of campus facilities. (https://sustainability.wisc.edu/greenfund/). The Green Fund is not a revolving fund; however, cost savings and return on investment are important considerations in the proposal evaluation process. Equally important to the mission of the Green Fund is that students gain practical experience translating their ideas into operational realities, including the financial components of project planning and implementation.

Each year the Office of Sustainability coordinates a series of student focused events around Earth Day. In 2020 events included workshops and discussions addressing issues of Advocacy, Inclusivity in the Outdoors, Sustainable Business, and Equity in Responding to Climate Change (https://sustainability.wisc.edu/earth-week/).

Also, each year University Housing puts on "Sustain-a-bash" which is a resource fair that provides meaningful and tangible ways for students to practice sustainability in their daily lives (https://sustainability.wisc.edu/sustain-a-bash/).

There are number of on-going speaker series focused on sustainability issues and targeted at students, including:
- Weston Roundtable (https://nelson.wisc.edu/sage/weston-roundtable/)
- Sustainable Energy Seminar Series (https://energy.wisc.edu/events/seminar-series)
- Climate, People and the Environment Program (https://nelson.wisc.edu/ccr/events/seminars.php)

In addition, the UW System hosts an annual sustainability conference at one of the UW campuses. This meeting provides students the opportunity to engage in near-term campus, and long-term, state-wide sustainability planning. Information on meetings can be found here: https://www.wisconsin.edu/sustainability/annual-meetings/

Including one-off as well as on-going series, UW-Madison has a number of sustainability themed culture events and installations, including:
- "Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials" features contemporary artwork investigating the complex cultural and material nexus that is “Plastic.” Organized around the curatorial concept of entanglement – which describes the literal entanglements of animals and plastic detritus as well as the plasticity of global networks – the exhibition assembles artistic investigations of humanity’s reliance on a material that is at once ubiquitous and, for that reason, virtually invisible. (https://chazen.wisc.edu/exhibitions/plastic-entanglements-ecology-aesthetics-materials/)
- The Flow Microgrant connected UW student artists with water professionals across Wisconsin to share a wide range of water issues across a diverse range of art forms. Artists spanned UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Green Bay, and worked with researchers at UW universities, scientists with the Department of Natural Resources, outreach specialists at the Wisconsin Sea Grant, and project managers at the Green Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. From the microorganisms of wetlands to changing ice cover to the health of our Great Lakes, this year’s Flow project is a testament to Wisconsin’s wide range of water research and efforts to sustain our precious resources. (https://water.wisc.edu/flow/)

We have many outdoor programs (led primarily by Hoofers: https://www.hoofers.org/) and while they offer Leave No Trace focused events they do not consistently follow Leave No Trace principles.

UW-Madison's First-Year Interest Groups are clusters of (usually) three courses, linked together to explore a common theme, and offered to incoming freshmen who attend these classes together as a cohort (https://figs.wisc.edu/catalog/). There are a number of themes available to students covering sustainability related topics, including:
- Global Biodiversity and the Sixth Mass Extinction (https://figs.wisc.edu/fig/?wdt_column_filter[fig]=2021fall21)
- Natural Hazards of Weather (https://figs.wisc.edu/fig/?wdt_column_filter[fig]=2021fall37)
- Listening to Land: Indigenous Education, Language, and Foodways (https://figs.wisc.edu/fig/?wdt_column_filter[fig]=2021fall33)

UW-Madison offers a Sustainability-focused living experience called GreenHouse (https://www.housing.wisc.edu/residence-halls/learning-communities/greenhouse/). Joining GreenHouse gives students an opportunity to go beyond a conventional residence hall experience and is designed for the type of person who is interested in being active in their environment and community, the GreenHouse can provide them with the network, tools and knowledge to get involved. As member of this learning community, residents will also have exclusive access to numerous unique programs like seminars, field trips, shared meals, volunteering opportunities, and discussions that focus on the theme of sustainability. It’s hard not to be inspired here, as the community is literally surrounded by sustainability, located in the LEED gold certified Leopold Residence Hall, which includes an on-site rooftop greenhouse for residents.

The Office of Sustainability offers a year-long internship program in which student teams work to raise awareness of sustainable practices, influence consumer behavior, and train partners across campus in individualized strategies for implementation (https://sustainability.wisc.edu/student-intern-program/). Interns work closely with campus offices, departments, and auxiliary units like University Housing or the Wisconsin Union Directorate. Students gain concrete knowledge of sustainability solutions as well as professional development training in an upbeat, collaborative environment.

University Housing has a student Sustainability Coordinator Assistant position to assist the Dining & Culinary Services Sustainability Coordinator. This position works 10 hrs/week during the academic year and 20 hrs/week over the summer and assists with Sustainability Move In and Move Out, initiatives of the Housing Sustainability Committee, and peer education and outreach programs related to sustainability.

A collaboration between the Office of Sustainability and the Associated Students of Madison created a social media based opportunity for students to voluntarily pledge to "...incorporate positive social and environmental practices into my life after I graduate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, including being mindful of my ecological footprint, treating other people with compassion and care, and actively encouraging sustainable values within any organization for which I may work" (https://m.facebook.com/SustainUW/photos/a.467234143309526/3243429319023314/?type=3&source=48&__tn__=EHH-R)

The UW Campus Food Shed is a project thought up by undergraduate student Hannah DePorter (https://www.campusfoodshedmadison.com/). Funded by a grant from the Kemper Knapp Bequest written by Irwin Goldman and Hannah, the Campus Food Shed is designed to collect produce from research farms and from the F.H. King Student Farm and make it freely available to all UW Madison students, staff, and faculty.