University of Nebraska - Lincoln
EN-10: Community Partnerships

In August 2017, the Joslyn Institution with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host its second Urban Thinkers Campus. It is one of only two in the United States selected as sites for advancing The New Urban Agenda by the World Urban Campaign. Cities are the vanguard in addressing immediate effects of climate change, population migration and growth, and infrastructure modernization in the United States. Amidst a general atmosphere of federal and state political deadlock, cities now face front line and more urgent demands with fewer resources to address them. Universities, on the other hand, are virtual laboratories of Big Data, technological breakthroughs, and innovative sustainability research and modeling. The Roles and Opportunities for Small and Mid-size Cities in Town/Gown Relationships: Actionable Urban/ Rural Planning for the New Urban Agenda is the topic of the conference. Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler and UNL Chancellor Ronald Green, along with Joslyn Institute President and CEO W. Cecil Steward, will host mayors, university administration representatives and other decision leaders from among the 14 cities and universities of the Big 10 Athletic Conference to discuss and lay the groundwork for how these universities and their host cities can collaborate, support, and strategize for long-term sustainability, resilience, and high qualities of life in the upper Midwest and Northeast areas of the U.S. http://joslyninstitute.org/initiatives/utc/

Garden Gang is a group of students interested in educating the youth of Lincoln, Nebraska about the outdoors in order to raise environmental awareness. Garden Gang runs two after-school nature clubs at Hartley Elementary to educate elementary school students about sustainability.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s (UNL) Partners in Pollution Prevention (P3) program has helped both area college students and Nebraska businesses since 1997. P3 is an outreach assistance program operated by the University of Nebraska Extension and College of Engineering and funded by the USEPA Region 7, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, and a wide variety of businesses and industrial partners. Undergraduate student interns provide one-on-one Pollution Prevention assistance to Nebraska businesses by performing waste assessments or other waste reduction and resource conservation projects, and providing each client with a written report detailing waste minimization suggestions. Clients who have participated in this program over the years range from small businesses such as dry cleaners and auto body shops to large manufacturing plants and agriculture producers. The P3 program has made a difference to the bottom line of many Nebraska businesses. We have assisted a total of approximately 730 clients from 1997 through 2017, while cooperating with a wide range of environmental and business assistance providers and partners. The program has worked in 90 different Nebraska communities ranging from Scottsbluff, to South Sioux City, to Omaha, helping Nebraska businesses save a potential $26 million dollars through waste reduction and resource conservation and divert over 313 million pounds of solid waste from landfills. Based on follow-up reassessments with recent clients, 52% of all recommendations made by the students were actually implemented. Unique to this program, P3 also has educational and outreach components. Over 200 interns have participated in the program since 1997 and thousands have heard the message that “Pollution Prevention means Good Business.” Today, the program continues to help Nebraska businesses reduce waste and strive for sustainability.