Schaumburg’s Sustainable Future: student research, social media, and suburban sustainability

The Schaumburg’s Sustainable Future (SSF) online social media project is a student-faculty collaboration at Roosevelt University that addresses sustainability issues, challenges, and solutions in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and, more generally, suburban communities. Conceived as an experimental class assignment in 2011, the SSF website and blog has become a locally relevant publication venue that engages sustainability topics in an interdisciplinary fashion and provides constructively critical information for the public about local suburban communities’ efforts to become more sustainable in government operations, use of water and energy, and transportation systems. Students and faculty benefit from the opportunity to produce meaningful and potentially useful research and commentary through specially focused class writing projects (both individual and collaborative), the university community has become more aware of its role in the “edge city” suburban community of Schaumburg, a major employment and shopping center in suburban Chicago, and local organizations have connected with the university in mutually beneficial ways through the website. In a time when urban sustainability is a primary focus of city planning, parkland development, urban farming, and green infrastructure projects—all worthy endeavors most assuredly—the SSF Project (1) highlights the need for and impact of suburban-focused sustainability initiatives in public/active transportation, stormwater reduction and water conservation, and restoration of native ecosystems and (2) demonstrates the role colleges and universities can play in this process.