Sustainability Projects

The following are examples of some past (completed) sustainability projects I’ve worked on in my career. This is not an exhaustive list; some of the projects I worked on over the decades resulted in products for clients that are not publicly available, or which involved non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). If you’d like further information about anything on the list below or are interested in collaborating with me, feel free to contact me. Please note that listing projects I worked on at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), does NOT constitute an endorsement of me, this website, or any personal opinions I share on this site by ISTC, the Prairie Research Institute, or the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. These projects are listed roughly in reverse chronological order, with more recent efforts at the top; many efforts overlapped and existed simultaneously. This page is a work in progress; my career has spanned more than two decades and I’m not done yet! Check back for additional project descriptions as they’re added.

Zero Waste and Sustainability Planning Technical Assistance—Description coming soon

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) course–Reuse as a Sustainability Strategy—Description coming soon

Green Lunchroom Challenge: Launched in 2015, the Green Lunchroom Challenge (GLC) was a voluntary pledge program for K-12 schools to improve the sustainability of their food service operations. By registering, participants were accepting the challenge to reduce and prevent food waste in their facilities. The GLC website provided suggested activities that ranged in complexity and commitment, to allow participants to best suit their situation, budget, and available community resources. Participants were not required to complete activities, but with each activity that was completed successfully, they earned points toward recognition at different levels of accomplishment. When the project ended, material from the original website was folded into a topical blog which also including information on food waste reduction for sectors besides K-12 schools. The archived blog is available at https://wayback.archive-it.org/6086/20250528191406/https://green-lunchroom.istc.illinois.edu/ . See https://tap.istc.illinois.edu/2016/12/07/green-lunchroom-challenge/ for further project information.

Illini Gadget Garage (IGG): A spin-off project of the Sustainable Electronics Initiative, the IGG was a do-it-together repair center for personally owned electronics and small electrical appliances. The purpose was to keep electronic products in use longer and out of the waste stream, while subtly introducing concepts of planned obsolescence; design for recycling/repair/disassembly; sustainable materials management; the impacts of sourcing materials; and related concepts to the public. The website is archived at https://wayback.archive-it.org/6086/20220615183342/https://illini-gadget-garage.istc.illinois.edu/.

ENG/TE 498, Sustainable Technology: Environmental and Social Impacts of Innovations: Taught Spring 2014 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Brian Lilly of the Technology Entrepreneur Center was the professor of record for this course, which was developed and taught by me, Joy Scrogum, and Kirsten Walker of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI). The class introduced the environmental and social impacts associated with technology at each stage of the product life cycle (design, manufacture, consumption, and disposal/recovery). Electronic products were used as a special case study and provided the framework for discussion of complex legal, economic, social, and environmental considerations. For their final course project, student groups could choose to prepare a mock entry for the then-defunct International Sustainable Electronics Competition or to work on developing an online repair guide via the iFixit Technical Writing Project. UIUC participation in the iFixit Technical Writing Project continued through the Illini Gadget Garage (see above).

International Sustainable Electronics Competition–Description coming soon

Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI): Established in 2009 by Dr. Tim Lindsey of ISTC, in collaboration with William Bullock of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Art + Design, and Willie Cade of PCRR (a Chicago-based business focused on refurbishing PCs), SEI was originally conceived as a consortium with members including representatives of academia, non-profit organizations, government agencies, manufacturers, designers, refurbishers, and recyclers. The original purpose of SEI was to conduct collaborative research; facilitate networking and information exchange among participants; promote technology diffusion via demonstration projects; and provide forums for the discussion of policy and legislation related to sustainable design of electronics and responsible end-of-life management. My initial role was to develop the SEI website and content for it; I developed and maintained site content throughout the life of the project. I also helped plan events and help develop a student competition focused on electronic waste. The competition became a key project of SEI; it began on the U of I campus in 2009 and grew into an online international student competition, which I coordinated until its end in 2013–see “International Sustainable Electronics Competition” above. I served as a teaching assistant for a course taught by Tim, William, and Willie (ARTD 299/499, Introduction to E-Waste), and later on developed and taught a course on sustainable electronics for the UIUC College of Engineering (see “ENG/TE 498, Sustainable Technology: Environmental and Social Impacts of Innovations” above). Ultimately, I became co-coordinator for SEI as it became geared toward disseminating information to foster integration of sustainability into the curricula and educational experiences of engineers, industrial designers, computer scientists, and others involved in the design, manufacture, consumption, and end-of-life management of electronic products. A campus consortium of interested staff, students, and faculty met regularly to discuss sustainable electronics issues and potential solutions. I helped develop project publications, participated in several outreach events to discuss sustainable electronics issues, advised students working on relevant special projects, and developed an interactive digital display called “The Secret Life of Electronics” which was also featured on the SEI website. The Illini Gadget Garage (see above) also grew out of SEI efforts; by that time the main SEI program had ended, and I was maintaining a legacy topical blog also called the Sustainable Electronics Initiative. The archived blog is available at https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-997/20250428160215/https://sustainable-electronics.istc.illinois.edu/. To access archived information related to SEI, including the student competition (2009-2013), see https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/units/192. Two research symposia were associated with SEI, held in 2010 and 2011. See https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106989 and https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106988 for archived materials related to the symposia.

Greening Schools–Description coming soon

Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR): For several years, beginning in 2001 when I was hired at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC; known then as the Waste Management and Research Center), I developed services, online and print resources, and marketing materials for GLRPPR. GLRPPR was a professional organization dedicated to promoting information exchange and networking to pollution prevention (P2) professionals in the Great Lakes regions of the United States and Canada. It was funded by US EPA Region 5 and was a regional pollution prevention (P2) information center that was part of a national network of such centers known as the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx). The project served the Region 5 states (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, & WI) plus NY from Region 2, PA from Region 3, and the Canadian province of Ontario. The GLRPPR website, which I developed a great deal of content, featured several compilations of resources (called Sector Resources) relevant to industry sectors and broadly applicable sustainability topics. It also provided an extensive database of individual contacts throughout the Great Lakes region, highlighting those individuals’ areas of expertise; a calendar of regional and national events; a database of funding opportunities; and a list of “Topic Hubs” developed by various P2Rx centers (including GLRPPR). Topic hubs were web-based guides to peer-reviewed pollution prevention information and expertise on a particular subject. For example, see the Technology Diffusion Topic Hub. We also had a newsletter (called the Link; I served as editor for several years) and a blog, which I helped develop and launch. For most of the project’s lifespan, annual conferences were held in various locations throughout the Great Lakes region. Click here to see examples of GLRPPR blog posts that I wrote. Archives of the Link newsletter are available online here. See the Internet Archive for snapshots of the GLRPPR website over the years. Other archived project information is available as a University Illinois LibGuide.