UI Office of Sustainability offers new vision, expands academic and research efforts under new director

Stratis Giannakouros. Photo by Tim Schoon.

The University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and the Environment is entering a new era of academics, research, and involvement on campus and in the community under the leadership of its director Stratis Giannakouros. In a Q&A for Iowa Now, Giannakouros talks about his Iowa roots, his lifelong interests in the environment and sustainability, and his plans for the office, which has added staff and involves students in research and engagement opportunities.

Tell us about yourself and why you are at the University of Iowa.  

I was hired as the director of the Office of Sustainability and the Environment in August 2018. While I’m fairly new to this role, I’ve been around the UI since I was a child. I am a native Iowan, from Dubuque, and I know how important the UI has been to my family and the state of Iowa. So, I relish the opportunity to contribute to the success of our university. It’s personal to me.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked with colleagues at leading higher education institutions in sustainability, including the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University, and the Center for Sustainable Communities at Luther College. My past experiences have been invaluable in preparing me for this role at the UI, and I hope to use my knowledge and experiences to build upon the outstanding work of my friend and predecessor, Liz Christiansen, who helped found and successfully led this office for the previous decade.

What does sustainability mean to you, and why are you interested in it?

I’ve been interested in the environment my entire life. I think my environmental focus started from growing up on the Mississippi River and in the forests of eastern Iowa. I wanted to protect our state’s natural legacy so it would be available to future generations of Iowans. In the same vein, sustainability gives us a way to think about what it takes to live well today without compromising the ability of our children and grandchildren to do the same. Sustainability is about more than just the environment; it’s about balancing the needs of society, the economy, and the environment so that we can continue to thrive as Iowans.

How does the UI value sustainability?

The UI has made a firm, standing commitment to sustainability. In 2008, former President Sally Mason declared, “sustainability must and will become a central priority of all aspects our university enterprise.” Our current president, Bruce Harreld, has described sustainability as “the most important issue of the 21st century” and has boldly committed the UI to be coal-free in energy sourcing by 2025. These are not just statements, either. The UI administration from the president to the provost has generously provided resources to support sustainability efforts campuswide. We have been very successful in setting and meeting 2020 goals around energy, transportation, waste, and education. Most recently, under the leadership of Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Susan Curry, we have a strengthened commitment to sustainability research, education, and outreach across campus and the state of Iowa.

We also have been fortunate to hire Blake Rupe as program manager for the Office of Sustainability and Environment. Blake is joining us from the Sustainable Water Development program in the UI College of Engineering, and we look forward to her enthusiasm and expertise in mentoring students and building upon our many initiatives.

Likewise, our work is supported by Recycling Coordinator Beth Mackenzie, who has been extremely important to our campus efforts around resource stewardship, recycling and waste reduction.

How does the Office of Sustainability and the Environment intersect with academics?

Recently, the Office of Sustainability and the Environment became part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We are thrilled with this development. This new administrative home gives us a tremendous opportunity to enhance efforts around student engagement, sustainability education, and sustainability research. We want to make sure students and faculty who want to become more engaged in sustainability have quality opportunities to do so both on our campus, in the Midwest, and internationally. We are working to expand internship opportunities for students in sustainability and environmental areas as well as develop a greater emphasis on sustainability education and research across colleges and in courses at the UI. Already, the College of Engineering, the Tippie College of Business, and the College of Public Health have supported our vision of building a more academically-integrated approach to sustainability and the environment.

We see the office acting as an umbrella or clearing house for environmental and sustainability research efforts across campus. The complex challenges associated with sustainability require us to think and collaborate across academic disciplines. There is already a lot of innovative sustainability and environmental research and education happening across campus—from the Center for Global and Environmental Research to the Public Policy Center and the water-sustainability faculty cluster—and we hope to connect and enhance these efforts. Recently, we were co-awarded an interdisciplinary research grant from the Provost Investment Fund to encourage faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students to work across disciplines on sustainability-related research. We aim to use this award, led by Dave Bennett, professor in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, to demonstrate the importance of student-faculty research in sustainability and build and expand this effort through fund-raising and efforts.

Our office is committed to student success. We contribute funds each year for students to engage in sustainability research through the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates. Creating opportunities in the classroom is important as well. We have more than 220 students enrolled in the undergraduate sustainability certificate program—and we intend to expand the number of students and courses in that program too.

Finally, exposure to sustainability is key. No matter a student’s academic interest, I believe every undergraduate should have a basic foundation in sustainability principles. It provides a unique value proposition to employers and communities seeking to navigate a changing economic, social, and environmental landscape. I believe the UI can and should prepare students with the educational tools necessary to help their communities and places of work address the sustainability challenges they will face.

How does the Office of Sustainability and the Environment engage outside campus?

Public research universities like the UI have been critical to the state of Iowa, and they will be critical partners in confronting the environmental and sustainability challenges we face this century. These are indeed grand challenges, but I see them as an opportunity to build deeper connections in the Iowa communities we serve. Our office strives to meet these challenges by bolstering our partnership with the Office of Outreach and Engagement, which works with conservation, environmental, and sustainability entities across Iowa. Our office will also continue to work closely with the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, which works directly with select Iowa communities on a variety of sustainability plans, from transportation to improving neighborhoods.

Iowa is a great place to live and work. I want to find ways to leverage the resources at the UI and the Office of Sustainability and Environment to help Iowa communities thrive. As a recent example, UI faculty and my office have been meeting to discuss how we can support communities in western Iowa that have been affected by unprecedented flooding. We hope to pull resources and expertise from the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences and the College of Public Health to help with the immediate challenges these communities face and to offer longer-term strategies to help these communities become more resilient to weather-related disasters.

I also think we need to make an impact beyond the state’s border: No matter how much good work we do in Iowa, many of the challenges we encounter are transboundary in nature and require that we work across state lines and national boundaries to solve them. The UI is uniquely positioned, as a nationally and internationally recognized institution, to play a positive role.

What roles do students take on in the Office of Sustainability and the Environment?

When I got to campus, I was surprised and delighted to see how many different activities related to sustainability are taking place, from academic colleges to student organizations. Our office’s role is to support these efforts and to create new initiatives. Eight sustainability interns now work in the office on various projects and initiatives, and we hope to add more. We work closely with student-led organizations, including the UI Student Gardeners and the Environmental Coalition, among others. We are keen to support other student-led sustainability projects across campus and in the community. Some student-led projects we have funded are pollinator gardens, recycling, and composting efforts. We are always working to create more research and engagement opportunities for our students.