Climate & Sustainability Projects
A significant amount of research and education on climate and sustainability topics occur at SIUE in and around the classroom in a variety of forms:
SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative
SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) is a cross-disciplinary program that supports one-year partnerships between the University and communities in Illinois to advance local resilience and sustainability based on community-identified environmental, social, and economic issues and needs. Our mission is to connect communities with the students and faculty of SIUE.
Graduate Student GREEN Research
SIUE graduate students benefit from challenging environmental research opportunities. The SIUE campus has a variety of research sites and green infrastructure, including more than 17,500 square feet of green roof space. Dr. Bill Retzlaff, Dr. Susan Morgan, and Dr. Serdar Celik have been leading the green roof research projects at SIUE, collaborating with other institutions and green roof industry, and supervising graduate studies on green roofs which has resulted in more than 25 theses. GREEN Roof Research Video
Mississippi Project
In 2011, Dr. Connie Spurlock Fry and Kevin Adkins created the Mississippi Project which sponsors annual curricular workshops. (Mississippi Project VI was held on August 11, 2016.) The workshop is modeled after the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University and the Piedmont Project at Emory University, which have both drawn national attention for their innovative approaches to curricular change. The workshops explore how faculty can meaningfully integrate sustainability – broadly defined – into their classrooms.
Sustainability in the Curriculum
In 2009, as part of a SAG-sponsored sustainability audit, conducted by ENVS GA Ron Morlen, University faculty were asked to identify courses that concentrated on sustainability, including its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, as well as courses that included sustainability as a course component or module. Over 40 courses were identified in fields as diverse as Biology, Business, Anthropology, Engineering, Philosophy and Environmental Science.
Degree Programs
Environmental Science
SIUE offers an undergraduate minor in Environmental Science and at the graduate level, offers a Masters in Science with six possible areas of emphasis: Environmental Biology; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Education; Environmental Policy and Public Administration; Environmental Technology and Assessment; Environmental Toxicology. The University also offers a Professional Science Master's (PSM.)
Civil Engineering
To address the needs of the civil engineering profession, the SIUE Department of Civil Engineering has created two professional development sequences (PDS) for post-baccalaureate study. Both highlight aspects of sustainable development relevant to civil engineers. The PDS for Sustainable Infrastructure includes courses on sustainable engineering (CE 596), intelligent transportation systems (CE 578), and municipal infrastructure (CE 460). The PDS for Sustainable Planning includes courses on sustainable engineering (CE 596), solid waste management (CE 588), and transportation planning (CE 475).
Mechanical Engineering
In the Department of Mechanical Engineering, two elective courses have been developed addressing sustainability, clean energy, and energy efficiency. Dr. Serdar Celik has been teaching HVAC (ME 417) since 2008. The course focuses on sustainable and energy-efficient forms of heating and air-conditioning technologies as well as HVAC basics. In 2018, Dr. Celik developed another course, Alternative Energy Systems (ME 420), which covers sustainability topics and renewable energy resources. The annual SIUE Energy Symposium was initiated as a result of this course.
Department of Geography
The Department of Geography now offers an Area of Specialization in Sustainability. This area of study offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human-environment systems and interactions in terms of their sustainability across space and over time. Sustainability generally refers to the capacity to meet contemporary social, economic, and environmental needs in a balanced manner and in ways that do not compromise the capacity of future generations to also meet these same needs. Students who concentrate in this area of study will be better prepared for a wide range of careers, including resource and ecosystem management, sustainable facilities management and business operations, environmental policy, consulting, education, and advocacy, and urban and regional sustainability planning.
Sustainability LibGuide
The Sustainability LibGuide is a resource from the Lovejoy Library that provides a central point for locating resources to help you to learn about sustainability. This guide can be used to help you find eresources, databases, multimedia, research tips, faculty resources, and more.
CAS Interdisciplinary Roundtables
In order to contribute to the understanding among scholars across disciplinary lines, the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville launched a new initiative: Interdisciplinary Roundtables. One of these roundtables approved in Fall 2009 is "SIUE - Nature Preserves Partnerships." The roundtable members are: Jennifer Rehg - Coordinator (Anthropology);Elaine M. Abusharbain (biological Sciences); Peter Minchin (Biological Sciences); Rick Essner (Biological Sciences); Kurt Schulz (Biological Sciences); Elizabeth Walton (Geography and Environmental Sciences); Chris Pearson (Philosophy); Connie Frey (Sociology & Criminal Justice Studies); Laura Perkins (Speech Communication).
The roundtable is exploring the potential for the university and local nature preserves to collaborate in research, teaching, and community outreach. Its goals are to highlight the many research and education opportunities for SIUE faculty and students that already exist in natural areas on campus and at local preserves, and to identify ways to enhance and expand these opportunities.
Research
SIUE faculty members are engaged in research efforts to enhance sustainability initiatives on campus through the following:
- Dr. Bill Retzlaff, Dr. Susan Morgan, and Dr. Serdar Celik have been leading the green roof research projects at SIUE for over a decade. In 2018 Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the Green Infrastructure Foundation named SIUE a Living Architecture Regional Center of Excellence (LARCE). SIUE is one of four sites in the nation chosen to work collaboratively to develop the living architecture industry on a regional basis.
- Dr. Serdar Celik’s energy research group has been conducting solar energy research in various applied topics including solar tracking systems, solar panel cooling, and thin-film solar panels. Solar panel cooling project received the Best Paper Award in Paris in 2014.
- Invasive Species Control - The University provides one of the few natural areas in the region for enjoyment and research. Non-native invasive plant species are threatening this unique and valuable resource. The University has made a long-term commitment to controlling the invasive Species and restoring native species. Control efforts have been underway for several years, but a cohesive plan was lacking. In 2008-2009, a Biological Sciences faculty member began:
- Conducting and documenting a campus-wide inventory of invasive plant species;
- Recommending control methods based on best practice and field research;
- Developing a control plan and beginning more organized control efforts.
- Dr. Kurt Schultz, completed an inventory and progress has been made in removing garlic mustard and several other invasive Species.
- Endangered Habitats - In Fall 2008, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) awarded funds to Richard Essner and Peter Minchin, both associate professors in the SIUE Department of Biological Sciences, for their project, "A Multivariate Habitat Model for the State Threatened Cerulean Warbler and Other Neotropical Migrant Songbirds in Southwestern Illinois." The object of the study will include establishing 140 permanent vegetation plots on the SIUE campus and the adjacent Bohm Woods State Nature Reserve. Data is expected to be collected on the composition and structure of the forest community, looking at both woody and herbaceous plant species of the area. The study also includes a census of the area to generate baseline data for future efforts aimed at monitoring population trends within the designated area.
- Dr. Nic Guehlstorf (Political Science), a 2008 Urban Scholar, is researching Brownfields in Metro East and ways to effectively address them. As defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Brownfields are properties whose expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.
- Laura Bernaix PhD and Cynthia A. Schmidt PhD, School of Nursing, have performed research in prenatal lead screening and prenatal blood lead levels within St. Clair County, for which they received a $10,000 grant from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) in 2003.
