The mission of the Undergraduate Environmental Union, founded in 2018, is to serve as the hub of all undergraduate environmental activity, communications, and programming at Duke. The union seeks to support environmental undergraduate groups with their own projects and missions, foster collaboration among student organizations, and facilitate partnerships with academic and administrative offices to accomplish major projects. They also serve as a communal place for groups to share support and information, host programs or initiatives that are too big for any one student group, and create a unified student voice to advance and publicize environmental issues on Duke’s campus.
This past year, students led by the Undergraduate Environmental Union and representing Duke’s environmental student organizations, gathered to discuss the details of how the Climate Commitment should be executed and how to involve student voices in future decisions. This work has led to a more formalized Climate Commitment student leaders’ advisory group that helped the Office of Climate and Sustainability develop and implement two student town halls, listening sessions to gather student input, explore opportunities for student initiatives and the administration to work together and hold each other accountable in achieving climate commitment goals.