Bella Conrad
Director, Student Sustainability Center
STUDENTS / STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY CENTER
Where student sustainability ideas come to life
Half resource center, half club. The creative home for student-led sustainability work at CSU.
The Student Sustainability Center (SSC) is the hub for sustainability clubs, teams, and projects working across campus and the wider Fort Collins community. We connect students to one another, fund creative solutions, and lead events that build sustainability literacy at CSU.
About the Center
The SSC doesn’t focus on a single sustainability topic. We help direct students to other sustainability clubs, run events that build sustainability literacy, and fund and lead creative student-led solutions to sustainability challenges. Over the years we’ve built, amplified, and led innovative sustainability work of all sizes and topics, alongside dozens of cross-campus events.
The SSC:
- Promotes relationships and information exchange among students from any major
- Engages CSU and community partners in sustainability work
- Builds awareness of sustainability challenges through events and outreach
- Connects undergraduates to the School of Sustainable Futures and the undergraduate minors offered through the School
- Shares jobs, internships, news, and opportunities across campus and the wider community
- Offers a welcoming environment for students from any discipline to build lasting connections
The SSC Club
The SSC Club is open to students of every major. It's where members learn, explore, and act on sustainability across the full range of topics. Recent club work has included building solar arrays, running sustainability fashion shows, and many other hands-on projects. Club members shape the direction of the Center, take on the practical challenges of sustainability work, and find a community while doing it.
Innovative projects
The Patchwork Initiative
A student-led, campus-wide clothing sustainability project working to reduce clothing consumption and grow a culture of slow fashion and clothing restoration. The Patchwork is led by the SSC and CSU's Department of Design and Merchandising.
Coalition for Sustainable Student Organizations (CSSO)
A partnership of registered student organizations chaired by the SSC and ASCSU. CSSO encourages collaboration and communication across sustainability-focused student groups to empower collective work on sustainability challenges.
Nitrogen Footpring Project
A student-led project to track the nitrogen use of CSU's campus. Started by SSC members, the project placed CSU among the world's first institutions to calculate its nitrogen footprint, and continues to inform sustainability work on campus.
Ecosia at CSU
The SSC has worked to spread the word about Ecosia, a search engine that plants trees with every search. The SSC has been progressively converting the default search engine in CSU computer labs to Ecosia and continues to push for campus-wide adoption.
The Green Bulletin
The Green Bulletin is the SSC’s online blog and monthly email. Subscribe for sustainability stories, opportunities, jobs, volunteer roles, and events in the CSU and Fort Collins community.
