UIC wins state award for sustainability
![Electronics recycling sponsored by UIC Office of Sustainability.](http://today.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_5608-387x258.jpg)
Surplus computers collected at an electronics recycling event sponsored by the Office of Sustainability. UIC collected 88 tons of unusable electronic equipment in 2012. Photo: Timothy Nguyen/UIC News
UIC was one of 27 institutions across the state to receive a Governor’s Sustainability Award for “significant achievements in protecting the environment, helping sustain the future, and improving the economy.”
The award recognizes 2012 achievements reported by the UIC Office of Sustainability, including:
- nearly 40 percent of UIC’s vehicles use alternative fuels
- 138 megawatt-hours of renewable energy in two buildings, producing the offset equivalent of 6.5 acres of trees
- retrofit of 20,000 lights
- collection of 88 tons of unusable electronic equipment
- $4/semester Green Fee approved by students for green energy, research and demonstration projects
- recycling of empty pipette boxes in lab buildings, diverting 7,200 pounds of plastic.
The awards, which have been given since 1987, were presented by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center during a ceremony in Peoria. The center is part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.