That's the vision behind Cal Poly Humboldt's Trillium Project—and the name itself tells the story.
Like the trillium flower with its three distinctive petals, this initiative represents sustainability across the curriculum, recognizing that climate education belongs everywhere, woven throughout all disciplines.
The Trillium Project sprouted from the work of Jen Ortega, Cal Poly Humboldt's Sustainability Faculty Fellow. She drew inspiration for the initiative from Geoff Chase's Piedmont/Ponderosa Project, which infuses sustainability and environmentalism into curricula. In 2022-23, Ortega gathered colleagues for a session with Chase, planting the seeds for what would become a professional development program.
The following year, Ortega successfully secured the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education designation as a Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum. This recognition expanded the project beyond campus, welcoming educators from across the region and around the world.
The Trillium Project isn't just about learning sustainability—it's about fostering relationships among people, places, and pedagogies. This October, in its third iteration, the Trillium Project Conference brought educators together to reimagine climate education through an interdisciplinary lens.
Guest speakers included Sarah Jaquette Ray, chair of the Environmental Studies department; Native American Studies Professors Kaitlin Reed and Cutcha Risling Baldy; Michelle Selvans and student Vermilion Walls from the Geology department; and Nick Perdue from the Department of Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis.
Participants explored everything from climate anxiety and student agency to decolonizing sustainability and honoring Indigenous knowledge systems. They examined how their own disciplines can reflect local wisdom and create space for diverse voices.
“The content serves as ‘food for thought,’ encouraging educators to sit with ideas and connect them meaningfully to their work,” says Morgan Barker, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Sustainability Librarian and chair of the Trillium Project. “Faculty left with renewed connections to sustainability initiatives, inspiration for course redesign, and projects that help students engage with complex, nuanced topics.
The Trillium Project doesn't stand alone. It connects to Cal Poly Humboldt's Undergraduate Institutional Learning Outcomes on sustainability and equity, sustainability course designations, and sustainability-focused and related degrees, all documented and measured every three years in the campus’s Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS). It's also part of a larger ecosystem that includes the TEK Faculty Fellowship, Indigenizing Your Curriculum Faculty Workshop, partnerships with organizations like Save California Salmon, the Social Justice Summit, and the Campus & Community Dialogue on Race.
As climate challenges intensify, projects like Trillium are a reminder that education itself must transform. When sustainability blooms across every classroom—from geology to literature, from engineering to art—students are prepared not only to understand climate change, but to be the creative, collaborative change-makers the world needs.
Find more information about the Trillium Project, including the 2025 Trillium Project Conference curated content, contact Sustainability Librarian Morgan Barker at mew11@humboldt.edu.