Saint Louis University
EN-9: Community Partnerships

The Center for Sustainability is an ongoing supporter (since 2010) of St. Louis Earth Day, a local organization cultivating environmental stewardship and engaging individuals, governments, businesses, schools and the non-profit sector in celebration, education and action to support a healthy and sustainable future. The Center is a financial sponsor and participant in the annual Earth Day Festival in Forest Park. Faculty and staff also participate in the planning and execution (and sometimes financial sponsorship) of St. Louis Earth Day's annual sustainability symposium, an annual educational and networking event for local government, students and planning professionals. It provides tools for implementing environmental initiatives in new projects throughout the St. Louis area. Additionally, graduate students in the Sustainability and Urban Planning and Development programs engage with local community organizations each year to conduct capstone projects and internships. These applied projects advance sustainable development in the St. Louis region while satisfying the requirements for the respective graduate programs.

Saint Louis University has collaborated with the St. Louis Chamber annually since 2010 on the St. Louis Green Business Challenge. This is an effort to help "green" regional business through the sharing of best practices governed by a sustainability scorecard. Participating organizations use the scorecard to address sustainability metrics across multiple dimensions such as transportation, energy, waste, water, food, education, and community building. As a participant in the challenge, Saint Louis University supports the challenge financially and through regular attendance of meetings and award ceremonies where local organizations convene to support each other's sustainability endeavors and celebrate successes.

Since 2011, The Center for Sustainability has collaborated with other Universities and local non-profit and government organizations such as East-West Gateway Council of Governments and the City of St. Louis to develop a sustainability plan for the region. Two faculty in the Center for Sustainability were involved in major projects to help lay the groundwork for a sustainability plan for the St. Louis region. In 2011, the Center received $669,000 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to aid in developing a regional plan for sustainable development. Sarah L. Coffin served as managing PI and Center Director, John Woolschlager as one of two additional co-PIs from the University. The SLU team, along with five graduate students developed a data portal, online toolkit, and a series of scenario models to assist regional stakeholders in understanding how sustainability can influence planning and development in the region. Center for Sustainability students also conducted research and helped to write the "OneSTL" plan, a regional framework for sustainable development that citizens, non-profit organizations, businesses, and local governments can use to make better use of resources and better meet the aspirations and needs of residents. Researchers from the University of Missouri – St Louis and Southern Illinois – Edwardsville additionally developed an evaluation protocol to report outcomes back to the funding agency. The University partners were one of 11 subawardees on the larger $4.7 million grant. The larger project engaged many aspects of sustainability planning, drawing in a wide range of stakeholders from across the region. To learn more about the plan or explore the toolkit please visit http://www.onestl.org/. To explore the data portal please visit http://stlouisdata.org/