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Sustainability is more than just a hot buzzword, it’s something that is crucial for the survivability of this planet, and faculty at NIU’s Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability, or NICCS, are at the forefront of rising to meet these environmental challenges through innovative, multidisciplinary research.

According to NICCS Director Matthew Deitch, one of the two main goals of NICCS is to provide a structure to bring these bright faculty together from different disciplines around common sustainability-related themes.

“NIU’s researchers and creators accomplish so much in their labs, programs and creative spaces, but they’re under a lot of pressure to produce results and it’s easy for someone who is successful in their own field to compartmentalize and remain in their own space,” he said. “As important as these innovations are, I think the value for innovation and discovery increases geometrically when people across disciplines work together around a particular theme.”

Deitch said the concept of looking at a challenge from a variety of perspectives is commonplace at agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

“These agencies use the term ‘convergent’ to describe topics that pose major societal challenges and, when viewed together from multiple perspectives of expertise, can lead to new paradigms and discoveries,” he said.

To Deitch, sustainability is the best example of a convergent topic that he can think of.

“More than 100 researchers and creators here at NIU work on topics related to sustainability, and much of their work relates directly to the four main NICCS themes: food systems innovation, water resources security and quality, environmental adaptation—how ecosystems change, and how people and other organisms adapt—and energy,” he said. “These relate to a lot of critical challenges that have substantial opportunity to affect peoples’ lives and, when implemented, can develop stronger communities.”

The second goal of NICCS is to connect research and discovery at NIU with the challenges faced by communities in northern Illinois and the region and address them through research, Deitch said.

“The solutions we create in our region can have application to communities across the US and across the globe,” he said.

Deitch said they are still in the early stages of building partnerships relative to NICCS, but that he can envision several other types of partnerships with stakeholders, with researchers and creators working on issues such as critical minerals important to energy technology, new solar panel battery technologies, and advanced sensors that can help farmers.

“They are developing these technologies with opportunities for high impact, but they are eager to find partners to find ways their technological creations can be used,” he said. “All of these have strong connections with local and regional government, and have potential to inform a broad range of private industry.”

These connections and partnerships have great benefits, he said.

“For example, developing connections beyond the university helps people beyond campus see the value of the work we do here,” he said. “Discovery and innovation in sustainability is intended to improve people’s lives: it may help our pocketbooks, or our own health and the health of our families, or the wellbeing of the communities where we live.”

Deitch imagines that NICCS can connect with a variety of partners, from private sector companies to local governments, to help them provide solutions through discovery and innovation.

“For example, municipalities across Illinois are interested in exploring options for saving money through energy efficiency,” Deitch said. “NIU has long had strengths in building energy efficiency, and the university’s new partnership with Trane will help us to test different efficiency measures and demonstrate the benefit to stakeholders who might be interested. These may especially be of benefit for municipal and county managers as they deal with aging building infrastructure and competing needs for financial resources.”

Although it hasn’t been constructed, there is a lot of anticipation about the NICCS facility, which could be built as soon as 2027.

“The NICCS building will be a showcase for sustainability in building design, highlighting advanced systems controls and energy use through visualization tools throughout the building,” Deitch said. “It will be used as a demonstration site for new building construction, as well as serve as a meeting space where local sustainability-themed community groups can convene.”

To Deitch, the purpose of NICCS is simple, yet powerful.

“To me, it’s the potential to improve our lives and our children’s lives, and the strength of our communities, that makes me most excited about NICCS,” he said. “Making those connections between research and community needs is not something that is done easily, but it’s an important task and one that NIU is committed to.”

To learn more about NICCS, please visit myniu.com/NICCS