Various projects aiming to help Oregon State University lower its greenhouse gas emissions were awarded a total of $50,000 for the first time since the program was launched.
This money came from a fund created in 2024 by Facilities Planning and Management, along with the Faculty Senate, with the goal to finance carbon reduction projects.
The proposed projects were sent to a group of volunteers from the Faculty Senate Carbon Commitment Committee — or the C Three. The committee was created in 2018 to help OSU reach the goal of carbon neutrality by 2025 — a goal that was set in 2007.
As 2025 came and went, the university’s goal was not met.
According to the Sustainability at OSU website, “The program accelerates OSU’s path to carbon neutrality by investing in short, high-impact projects that reduce carbon emissions at OSU. It empowers bottom-up ideas and activities from students, faculty, and staff, channeling their creativity, expertise, and passion into practical actions that make a measurable difference.”
In June 2024, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution to speed up OSU’s carbon emission reduction efforts. The new grant program was then introduced to help OSU meet its goal of carbon neutrality.
According to the Sustainability at OSU website, applicants could propose projects ranging from technology to behavior change. “What matters most is a clear, defensible reduction in emissions.”
Receiving a grant involved an application process which opened on Oct. 1 — to students, faculty and researchers — and closed on Nov. 15, 2025. The awardees were notified on Jan. 23, 2026, though these awardees are not known to the public as of March 6.
“It really is meant to invest in things that stay on campus or behavior change; invest in people, but not things people would take home for personal use,” said Brandon Trelstad, a sustainability officer at OSU.
“We came up with a score sheet based on the criteria we outlined in the requested proposals,” said David Dickson, senior licensing manager for the Division of Research and Innovation and member of C Three.
“We had criteria for overall impact,” Dickson said. “How sustainable would the project be? Would it be one and done at the end of funding or would it have some sort of way to sustain itself over time?”
There was also criteria for cost effectiveness, education, outreach and student involvement.
According to Dickson, for several of the awards, the grant funds requested were awarded, assuming that their requests lined up with the scope of their work proposal.
The grant program was opened to all OSU employees and students and the proposed projects were expected to have a direct connection to reducing OSU’s carbon impacts.
“I would say we would have a pretty good diversity of projects,” Trelstad said.
The grants ranged from $1000 to $10,400, according to Trelstad.
“We want action at all levels, so we want to empower people who have great ideas but maybe don’t have the funding, or there is too much bureaucracy or they don’t know where to turn to implement those ideas,” said Laura Rees, associate professor in the College of Business and member of C Three.
“We need to do more and we need to do it more quickly,” Rees said. “So, how can we support projects … as effectively as possible?”
The committee is hopeful that the grant program will return next fall.
According to Rees, the more research is encouraged and facilitated, the closer the community will be to a carbon-neutral future.
“There’s a lot of us who care, who are trying to do good work and who really want to see us reach that carbon-neutral goal,” Rees said.