Mission

The Office of Sustainability’s mission is to lead the integration of sustainability into the University of Oregon’s operations, curriculum, co-curriculum, research, and engagement with the community. We accomplish this by maintaining a diverse portfolio of activities that are organized into the following five focus areas. 

Leadership

Provide strategic advice, information and resources to faculty, staff and students working to integrate sustainability practices and policies into their programming.

Policy Development

Develop policies that promote environmentally-sensitive behavior by campus users and responsible development and stewardship of campus assets.

Projects & Programs

Create, implement and manage innovative programs and events, in partnership with other campus units whenever possible.

Monitoring

Establish metrics and track institutional sustainability performance.

Outreach

Share the University's sustainability story and encourage the campus community to support the growth and success of sustainable practices. 

History

The Office of Sustainability was established in 2007 to help set goals, monitor progress, make policy recommendations, support student, faculty, and staff initiatives, and tell the UO's sustainability story.  

Sustainability is about meeting our current resource needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Because our economy and society are dependent on a healthy environment, sustainability requires balancing economic success with environmental conservation, and social equity, also known as the triple bottom line.

The University of Oregon is committed to the triple bottom line and has become a national leader in campus sustainability through the efforts of administration, faculty, staff, and students. The University of Oregon is actively engaged in greening facility operations, innovative research, supporting and encouraging student initiatives, implementing environmentally and sustainability focused curriculum, and sponsoring public service initiatives.

The UO’s Office of Sustainability has launched scores of projects and programs and become a national leader in this new and growing field. Taking an incremental and entrepreneurial approach to our work, we collaborate with willing partners to drive sustainability principles, practices, and programming into operations, academics, co-curriculum, athletics, and community engagement. We take great pride in our contributions to the University of Oregon’s broad range of sustainability initiatives.

During these first eight years we assessed conditions on the ground and identified needs and opportunities to expand programming. We then developed a network of partners. The diverse portfolio of projects and programs we planted together are now established and bearing fruit.

Our website is focused on the work of the Office of Sustainability as an incubator and accelerator for the advancement of sustainability across campus, but we want to recognize that there are a variety of student groups, services, policies, programs and academic departments that advance sustainability performance, practices, and programs at the Unviersity of Oregon. Each of these vital efforts are constantly evolving and growing and new efforts naturally germinate to create a vibrant decentralized sustainability culture.