For well over a decade, Notre Dame has advanced sustainability across campus operations and through its academic mission, building a strong foundation that has expanded in recent years through new initiatives, partnerships, and a renewed institutional focus on sustainability as part of Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework.
Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato si’, subtitled “On care for our common home,” inspires Notre Dame’s approach to all this work, from food waste diversion, green roofs, and renewable energy to a new global alliance for sustainability research and education in partnership with the Vatican.
Whether biking to work, researching water quality, or managing campus recycling bins, every member of the Notre Dame community plays a part in our sustainability efforts. As University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., recently said at Notre Dame’s sustainability summit in Rome, “Let us answer Pope Francis’s call to think boldly, to act courageously, and to work together to build a more just and sustainable world.”
Sustainability research, education, and action
In the academic core, this effort is led by the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative (JTS), one of several University-wide strategic initiatives that have been launched over the past two years as part of the framework. JTS brings together scholar-teachers from colleges, schools, centers, and institutes across campus with partners from around the world to advance transformative solutions for a more just and sustainable future.
Strong foundation
“Notre Dame has been engaged in sustainability research and education for many years across a wide range of disciplines, with important work already underway in many areas, from historians investigating the origins of climate change to freshwater ecology to sustainable built environments,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “The Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative allows us to build on that foundation—bringing this work into closer conversation, strengthening partnerships, and extending the reach of our scholarship.”
Partnership with the Vatican
One significant development is Notre Dame’s selection as the lead university partner for the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education. In March, JTS and the center launched the Global Alliance for Laudato Si’, an international network of sustainability leaders in academia and beyond dedicated to supporting integral ecology and global sustainability.
They gathered for an inaugural meeting March 9–10 at the Laudato Si’ Village in Castel Gandolfo, the pontifical summer residence outside of Rome. Nearly 100 researchers and institutional leaders—representing more than 60 universities across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa, as well as major international organizations—gathered to develop a shared research and action agenda and a long-term vision for the alliance.
“We feel that Notre Dame, a leading Catholic research university, is positioned to assist the Holy See in its objective to seek transformative change in a manner consistent with the best available science, as well as the foundational elements of integral ecology and integral human development,” said Arun Agrawal, JTS director and Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy in the Keough School of Global Affairs.
Regional and local efforts
In addition to global initiatives, JTS also strengthens regional collaboration through efforts such as the Midwest Sustainability Platform for Research and Curricular Innovation. This platform brings together leading universities across the Midwest to address region-specific challenges, including climate impacts, agricultural sustainability, and energy transitions. Through workshops and shared research agendas, participants identify opportunities for collaboration that enhance both local impact and broader systemic change.
Locally, JTS builds upon a strong foundation of existing partnerships across Notre Dame’s campus, including with several of Notre Dame’s colleges and schools and research centers and institutes such as ND Energy, the Environmental Change Initiative, and the Eck Institute for Global Health. Through its Nurturing Excellence in Sustainability program, JTS has invested in research collaborations co-produced and co-led by Notre Dame faculty and community leaders in South Bend.
Student engagement
In addition to spurring new collaborations that advance leading-edge research and knowledge creation, the initiative has created new programs aimed at cultivating and supporting a growing network of Notre Dame students dedicated to building a more just and sustainable world, both during their time at Notre Dame and through their future careers.
JTS launched a Sustainability in Action Fellowship and partnered with Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) and Office of Undergraduate Education to develop a week-long immersive learning course on the principles of integral ecology at Castel Gandolfo. Over spring break, faculty from the IEI traveled to Italy with a group of students to pilot the course, which explores the interconnected environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability.
“The course was deeply meaningful to me, as it helped me see a clear path for integrating sustainability into both my future career and everyday life,” said Eleanor Smith, a civil engineering student who participated in the pilot. “Being in such a unique environment, reconnecting with nature and others, and engaging with the vision of Pope Francis was incredibly inspiring.”
Follow the latest developments at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.
Striving toward a more sustainable campus
On the heels of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’, the University took a definitive step toward embracing integral ecology by publishing Notre Dame’s original 2016 Comprehensive Sustainability Strategy and further establishing small working groups to prioritize key focus areas of sustainability. Today, as Notre Dame celebrates a decade of impact since the strategy was first envisioned, the progress made across campus operations serves as a testament to the University’s collective commitment to care for our common home.
Operational sustainability at Notre Dame is not the work of a single office; rather, it is deeply integrated into the fabric of campus through units such as Facilities Design and Operations, Building Services, and Notre Dame Dining. By weaving sustainability into the daily functions of the University, Notre Dame has moved from high-level goals to tangible, measurable results. Reflecting on this decade of growth, four key areas stand out as pillars of operational success in our journey so far.
Decarbonization and energy transition
The University has made massive strides in campus decarbonization. Through an array of strategies—including the expansion of geothermal, the operation of the hydroelectric power plant at Seitz Park, solar arrays, and retrocommissioning buildings for efficiencies—Notre Dame has significantly reduced carbon emissions by 48 percent from the 2005 baseline.
Food waste recovery and diversion
Notre Dame recognizes the gift of food, and appreciates the intensive amount of human labor and natural resources needed to bring nourishment from the farm to the table. By implementing robust food waste diversion programs, including partnering with Cultivate Food Rescue and implementing the use of Grind2Energy systems and anaerobic digestion, the University has donated more than 453,000 meals to the surrounding community and diverted thousands of tons of organic waste from landfills.
LEED-certified buildings
Notre Dame’s physical landscape is evolving to meet the highest standards of efficiency and stewardship. While the campus footprint has grown by more than 22 percent, annual emissions have decreased by 25 percent over the past decade, thanks in part to the building standards that the Facilities Design and Operations team has established, which strive to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Today, the University has a portfolio of 26 LEED-certified buildings. Among many qualifying features, LEED-certified structures are designed to optimize water usage, minimize energy consumption through efficiency technologies, support human health, and reduce negative environmental impacts.
Expansion of green roofs
Across the campus skyline, a growing number of vegetative “green” roofs sit atop campus buildings. Over the past 10 years, green roofs have been established to cover 206,000 square feet of campus buildings. Green roofs—such as the expansive installation on the Joyce Center—do more than just provide aesthetic beauty from above. They have the capacity to manage stormwater runoff, reduce the urban heat island effect, support local pollinators, and provide natural insulation for the buildings.
The road ahead
Although campus sustainability efforts have come a long way, there is still much progress to be made. New climate action planning processes are underway, focusing on even more ambitious outcomes. Currently, Notre Dame Sustainability is partnering with key units across campus to continue work in campus food systems and landfill waste reduction. As the ND Sustainability team looks toward the next decade, it continues to be guided by its mission to ensure that Notre Dame remains a leader in operational sustainability.
Stay up-to-date with the latest operational sustainability news at green.nd.edu.