The Education and Outreach Team strives to advance sustainability through student-focused, peer-to-peer education on the UW–Madison campus. The team works with student organizations and campus partners to produce cross-collaborative events that implement strategies to improve student access to sustainability dialogue, resources, and education. The Education and Outreach team seeks to engage students with the UW–Madison’s institutional sustainability goals and Office of Sustainability initiatives while providing accessible outlets for students to engage with campus sustainability efforts.
Goals
- Host a variety of sustainability programming with campus partners and student organizations
- Improve student, staff, and faculty access to educational resources on sustainability topics
- Create a forum for discussion and collaboration toward advancing institutional sustainability at UW–Madison
- Support and advocate for campus organizations working to improve sustainability at UW–Madison
Projects
Student Roundtable
The Sustainability Roundtable dinner is a semesterly no-cost meal to learn about sustainability-focused student leaders and organizations on campus.
Sustain-a-Bash
The Education and Outreach team hosts individual events as part of Sustain-a-Bash, highlighting sustainability-focused student organizations and initiatives, community resources, and hosting interactive events to get involved with sustainability.
Sustainability Walking Tours
The intern-led walking tours explore exciting sustainability initiatives on the East and West sides of campus. The tour visits significant sustainability sites and innovative sustainability efforts.
Campus Sustainability Scavenger Hunt
The Campus Sustainability Scavenger Hunt invites participants to explore the Campus Sustainability Map, which highlights over 300 sustainability features at UW–Madison.
Chadbourne Garden Beds
In partnership with University Housing, the Office of Sustainability Green Fund, and The People’s Farm, the Office of Sustainability Intern Program maintains a raised garden bed outside of Chadbourne Residence Hall.
Earth Fest
The Education and Outreach team helps coordinate Earth Fest every year. See the link below for more information on Earth Fest 2025.
Past Projects
- Food Waste Survey
- Following the implementation of Leanpath technology at Rheta’s Market, Green Fund staff conducted a survey in partnership with University Housing Dining. The survey captured feedback from Market staff on the technology and food waste. Interns supported the survey roll-out.
- Free Food Alert
- UW–Madison is taking a pioneering step towards combating food waste by offering a pilot program of the Free Food Alert system to the campus community. Read about the initiative here.
- Food Access Survey
- The Office of Sustainability is preparing a survey to evaluate the food access levels of students. The information gathered from the survey will be shared with campus food organizations to better allocate, provide, and communicate food resources to students. Interns supports the development and implementation of the survey.
- UW–Madison Food Resources
- Click here to take a deeper look at food access resources at UW–Madison and surrounding communities.
- “Cook with Us” TikTok Series
- Interns shares their favorite seasonal and sustainable recipes through TikTok videos posted on @sustain_uw.
Interns created this series of talks to help recenter voices that have historically been excluded from sustainability conversations on our campus and across mainstream environmentalism.
Learn more on the ABVS series, here.
Intern-curated suggestions for what to read over your breaks!
Learn more about the Books for Break, here.
Office of Sustainability Cookbook:
The UW–Madison Office of Sustainability Cookbook started as a passion project for interns. Upon recognizing that many of the OS staff and interns are passionate cooks and gardeners, interns wanted a way to share some of their knowledge, insight, and favorite recipes with the greater UW–Madison community. The cookbook features vegetarian, vegan, culturally significant, and seasonal foods to encourage readers to eat sustainably.
Check out the digital cookbook here!
Get Involved
Join the community
- To join our email list and learn more about upcoming events with the Education and Outreach team, please email osoutreach@g-groups.wisc.edu