Moraine Valley Community College
IN-1: Innovation 1

MVCC has always had a commitment to making its grounds an inviting space for people and has been recognized for the past 3 years as a recipient of the City of Palos Hills’ Beautification Awards. A recent major expansion of buildings and grounds on the college’s main campus led to a larger tree canopy: replacing every tree, that had to be removed for construction, with 3 new trees. The campus operations director had the foresight to appreciate and understand that the older trees still had value and was able to relocate most of them, keeping the original older trees. This effort, along with meeting a list of other criteria, led to Moraine Valley Community College becoming the first community college in Illinois to be honored with the Tree Campus USA designation. While the College does not formally prioritize native plants at this time, efforts are being made to encourage more native plantings; during recent renovations and landscape design phases, for the first time biology faculty were invited to review the plans and make recommendations for native and “living lab practical” plants and trees. The new additions are labeled with common and scientific names and are frequently used by faculty for teaching moments.