About the SOS

The purpose of the SOS is to allocate the UW-Eau Claire Green Fund for projects, programs, and events addressing the various sustainability areas of transportation, energy, waste, climate change, water, food systems, campus ecology, education, and outreach. This is done through the collaboration of UW-Eau Claire students, faculty, staff, and administration whose collective efforts generate positive behavioral and infrastructural changes that serve to support the growth of our University as a sustainable institution.

What is the Green Fund?

The Green Fund is a capped, annual $200,000 student-segregated fee allocation. The Green Fund was created in 2008 through a student referendum, where students voted to invest approximately $8 per semester into an environmental responsibility account. 

How Was the Green Fund Created?

In 2008, a student referendum, conducted through a campus wide email, favored the creation of a Campus Green Fund. Therefore, students’ voted to increase their student-segregated fees in order to establish a Green Fund at the University. In 2009, the Green Fund was established—the Board of Regents approved the Fund, and the Student Senate created the Environmental Endeavors Commission (EEC) to manage the Fund. Being the establishment year of the Green Fund, only $1 per student was collected, and the EEC could not allocate funds based on a negotiation between the Board of Regents and the Chancellor.
In 2010, the first year the Green Fund was allocated, the EEC operated as a granting body. The EEC would receive proposals, hold a series of hearings and deliberations, and then grant funding to various proposed environmental projects on campus. This model proved ineffective at project oversight and did not allow for continuous program development. These issues were addressed through the creation of the Student Office of Sustainability (SOS). In 2011, the Student Senate created the SOS, then a special committee, to replace the EEC and operate using a collaboration model to allocate the Green Fund. In 2014, the Student Senate adopted the SOS as an official Student Senate Commission with Commission Bylaws that established the organizational and budget structure now used by the SOS and detailed in this Director’s Manual.

Structure + Staffing

Past Achievements

Since its establishment in 2008, SOS is proud to have aided in the following programs and initiatives:

• The creation of a Student Sustainability Resource Center (SSRC) in Davies
• Funding for students to become certified in a global green building program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
• Funding for students to attend sustainability conferences such as UMACS, AASHE, and the UW Annual Meeting
• Supporting UWEC LED lighting switches across campus
• Supporting LEED Certification of Sonnentag Event Center
• Pack It Up, Pass it on, an annual event that allows students to recycle dorm and housing essentials such as bedframes, dressers, and microwaves
• Making UWEC a Tree Campus through the Arbor Day Foundation
• Clothing swaps and sustainable fashion shows
• Nitrile Glove Recycling in the library archives and nursing labs
• Earth Claire, an annual sustainability event during Earth Week
• Providing reusable menstrual products and tote bags to the campus pantry
• Making UWEC Bee Campus USA Certified
• Establishing a Food Recovery Program that freezes leftover food from Hilltop for the campus pantry
• Various sustainable art projects on campus, such as the Smelt Glass Mural outside of Haas
• Composting and battery recycling on upper campus
• Bikeshare program in collaboration with student pantry
• Establishment of water filling stations across campus
• Bike "fix-it" stations across campus