Student Sustainability Center

The Student Sustainability Center, housed in CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES), serves as the center of our campus’s constellation of studentled sustainability work! Half resource center, half club, the SSC is the creative incubator for student sustainability clubs, teams and projects working on campus and in the community.

We’re unique on campus, as we don’t focus on a specific sustainability topic or issue, and rather help direct students to other sustainability clubs, educate on sustainability issues via events, and fund and lead creative student-led solutions to sustainability issues. Over the years, we’ve built, amplified and led unique and innovative sustainability solutions of all sizes and topics and led dozens of cross-campus events.

The Green Bulletin

Sign up for the Green Bulletin for more information on sustainable initiatives, job opportunities, volunteer opportunities, and events. The Green Bulletin is a weekly email with updates, events, and opportunities in the Fort Collins Community.

The Student Sustainability Center Club

The SSC Club is open to students of every major and provides opportunities to learn, explore, and act in all aspects of sustainability. From helping to build solar arrays to organizing sustainability fashion shows, the SSC Club participates heavily in sustainability-focused activities and guides the direction of the Center. It is ready to take on the challenges of sustainability and have a great time doing it.

The Student Sustainability Center:

Promotes relationships and information exchange among students from any major and across campus
Engages CSU and community actors in sustainability endeavors
Raises the awareness of sustainability grand challenges
Connects undergraduates to SoGES and the minor in Global Environmental Sustainability
Provides valuable information on jobs, internships, current news, and opportunities around campus and community
Provides a fun, engaging environment for students from all disciplines to build lasting connections

Graduate Chapter of Sustainability Student Center

The Graduate Student Chapter of the Student Sustainability Center seeks to equip graduate students who are interested in sustainability-related careers with professional skills that are relevant in graduate school and beyond. Members will have the opportunity to attend sessions and workshops led by various sustainability professionals where they will learn skills applicable to future work as a sustainability professional.

These sessions will focus on developing seven crucial aptitudes identified by ANGLES (A Network for Graduate Leadership in Sustainability):

Fostering Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Building Emotional Intelligence
Collaborating for Impact
Communicating and Engaging
Strategic Thinking and Planning
Working Productively and Efficiently
Making Your Work Matter

The Graduate Student Chapter is available to students in Master’s and Ph.D. programs and will serve as an excellent way for graduate students from departments across the university to meet and network.

If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please reach out sscgradchapter@colostate.edu.

Innovative Projects

THE PATCHWORK INITIATIVE – The Patchwork Initiative is a student-led, campus-wide clothing sustainability project on CSU’s campus with the goals of reducing clothing consumption and growing a culture of slow fashion and clothing restoration. Led by the SoGES Student Sustainability Center and CSU’s Department of Apparel and Merchandising, the The Patchwork works in many spaces by; educating community members and students on environmental, social and economic issues within the fashion and textile industry via engaging expert panels, tabling events and outreach campaigns; offering interactive, community-centered free or low cost educational workshops on basic clothing repair, reuse and “upcycling”; reducing seasonal clothing waste at CSU by periodically collecting pre-loved and lightly used seasonal clothing from students, faculty, staff, and community members to use second hand; offer low-cost, anonymous opportunities for students in need to access professional clothing.

COALITION FOR SUSTAINABLE STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS (CSSO) – a partnership of registered student organizations chaired by the SSC and ASCSU. The coalition encourages collaboration and communication across sustainability-oriented student groups to empower collective efforts that address sustainability challenges. If you are a part of an RSO that engages with sustainability in any capacity and are interested in joining the CSSO, please email Director Sam Moccia sscdirector@colostate.edu

NITROGEN FOOTPRINT PROJECT – an endeavor to track the nitrogen use of CSU’s campus. This student-led project was started by members of the SSC and placed CSU among the world’s first institutions to calculate its nitrogen footprint and continues to innovate and inform sustainability on campus. In 2020-2021, the calculation of nitrogen was done by Megan Pierson and Cody Sanford as part of their project for the Skills for Undergraduate Participation in Ecological Research (SUPER) Program. Their research poster, “CSU’s Nitrogen Footprint and Potential Reduction Strategy” won an award for Energy Institute – Excellent in Energy and Climate Solutions at the 2021 Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creative showcase. View the poster here.

ECOSIA @ CSU Campaign – The SSC has worked diligently over the last two years to spread the word on ECOSIA, the search engine that plants trees with every search made! The SSC has slowly converted the default search engine in computers across campus labs to ECOSIA, and is hoping to completely change CSU’s default search engine to Ecosia by the end of 2022!