University of Wisconsin–Madison
At 8 pm, the Lakeshore Nature Preserve is already pitch-black. Makeela Magomolla greets me near the entrance, armed with a headlamp and backpack, and we make our way down the path. By now, I’ve already missed sunset, the ideal time to see bats exiting the bat roost— which is hardly a 2-minute walk from the …
“I had never written a grant before,” said Loren Smith, a third-year food science major at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. But over the past year, she and a cross-disciplinary team of students, faculty, and staff did more than write a successful proposal to the UW–Madison Green Fund, a program that supports student involvement in campus …
The fourth-annual Sustainability Symposium opened with Paul Robbins, Dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, crediting students for the strides UW–Madison has made in sustainability, saying it was because they “would not leave this alone.” He noted that alongside the university’s net-zero goal, zero waste commitment, and RISE–EARTH initiative, UW–Madison recently earned its first …
In our “Where Are They Now?” series, current student interns interview former students about their experience at the Office of Sustainability (OS), particularly how that experience has helped them since graduation. In the following entry, Tia Gaffney relates her conversation with Rachel Schumacher, a student who was involved in the Zero Waste Team within the …
In February 2024, Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin announced a university-wide environmental sustainability initiative centered around five goals: launching the Sustainability Research Hub to accelerate interdisciplinary research and external collaboration; attaining STARS Gold as a framework to drive cross-campus involvement; creating widely accessible sustainability educational experiences for all interested students; becoming a zero waste campus through improved systems, engagement, and materials management; and …
In February 2024, UW–Madison Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin announced an ambitious set of environmental goals for campus. While several of these efforts focused on facilities and infrastructure, they also prioritized the teaching and research mission of the university. From there, the Sustainability Research Hub was born. A little over a year later, the team is …
This article is a contribution by Kim Wahl, who is a lecturer for the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Office of Sustainability. As part of University of Wisconsin–Madison’s comprehensive environmental sustainability initiative and goals, sustainability opportunities have continued to grow across campus. These opportunities include a sustainability internship program, a corporate sustainability internship program, …
Grandma Josephine Mandamin, an elder of the Anishinabek Nation, was known as the Water Walker. According to the Great Lakes nonprofit, FLOW, Grandma Josephine dedicated her life to raising awareness about water issues through “water walks.” Since beginning the walks in 2003, she logged more than 25,000 kilometers, or over 15,534 miles, walking around Lake …
The sustainability certificate at UW–Madison empowers undergraduate students to address sustainability challenges by integrating knowledge across diverse fields, from business and engineering to public policy and social sciences. This interdisciplinary approach helps students develop a broad skill set to create positive impacts in academic, professional, and community settings. Whether you’re pursuing the sustainability certificate or …
When Paul Robbins, dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, arrived at UW–Madison 12 years ago, “the idea that we would’ve had a sustainability symposium, net-zero goals, a zero-waste commitment, graduates working at major sustainability firms around the United States,” was “hard to imagine.” “I was bombarded my first day on the job, …