For OSU employees and students with innovative ideas about how the university can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, there’s a pool of $50,000 in grant money ready to help put those ideas into action.
“We really want grassroots initiatives and to empower people who have really good ideas around campus,” said Laura Rees, an associate professor in the College of Business and a member of the Faculty Senate Carbon Commitment Committee overseeing the carbon reduction grant pilot program.
In 2024, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution that created a dedicated fund to “finance carbon reduction projects initiated by students, staff and faculty, incentivizing innovation and engagement by colleges, units and individuals who take significant actions towards carbon reduction.”
The application portal is now open, with $50,000 from Facilities Planning and Management available for FY26, split into grants of $1,000 to $25,000 depending on the proposals.
Any current employee or student can apply; student groups must be linked in some way to an employee adviser so there is a unit index to receive the grant money. The grant program website has a budget template and a breakdown of review criteria to help applicants craft their proposals. Grant money can pay for student wages but not employee wages.
“Part of the thinking was, How can we put some money where our collective mouth is, and give ‘normal’ people more ability to do some of the cool ideas they have, hopefully without as much bureaucracy that can slow things down,” Rees said. “We don’t know all the ideas. People out in the community will have cool ideas that administrators don’t.”
Proposals are due Nov. 15, and awards will be announced Dec. 19. The earliest estimated project start date is Jan. 5.
“We have a number of funding programs that give similar amounts of money to researchers around campus, like the Advantage Accelerator. We already had some existing templates to roll this out pretty quickly,” said Dave Dickson, another member of the Faculty Senate committee and the senior IP and licensing manager in the Division of Research and Innovation. “It’s trying to make resources available to basically any group or any people on campus that can innovate — which is everyone.”
The Faculty Senate committee, carbon reduction grants and the 2024 resolution are all connected to the Carbon Commitment signed by then-president Ed Ray in 2007, in which OSU set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2025. As OSU has not yet achieved that goal, the carbon reduction grant program is a way to crowdsource the problem and try something new.
“There’s a massive sense of urgency — we need to do more, but that takes all of us stepping up. I don’t think we can legislate our way out of our carbon footprint from the top down,” Rees said. “This is a way to encourage those who might think ‘Oh, I can’t really have a measurable impact on OSU,’ that they do have the ability to do that. It’s a yes-and thing.”
The Faculty Senate committee is working closely with the Sustainability Office, and director Brandon Trelstad will be part of the subgroup responsible for reviewing and awarding grant proposals.
The main criterion will be feasibility, Rees and Dickson said: Projects must be implemented within the budget constraints, and completed within calendar year 2026.
To encourage students to submit, Rees and Dickson will be attending the Sustainability Council later this month, where all sustainability-related student groups meet together. After they present, they’ll leave time for the students to workshop ideas and applications.
“We are really excited to have students apply. I think they’ll have a lot of great ideas,” Dickson said. “I would encourage anyone, but especially students, to just take a shot. If they have a good idea and they’re not sure, just put it on the page and submit it. Tell us what you’re going to do and how much money you need to do it.”
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