Sustainable U is a student-engaged educational initiative that creates short, accessible call-to-action films for the Northeastern University and broader college campus community. The initiative grew out of a 2021–2022 Northeastern Humanities Center grant awarded to Dr. Madhavi Venkatesan, who serves as Sustainable U’s faculty advisor. Since its inception, the project has engaged students from across Northeastern’s colleges, bringing different disciplinary perspectives to the communication of complex sustainability challenges.
Sustainable U’s first film, Plastic Linings, examined the single-use convenience mindset that has made disposable plastic an embedded part of everyday life. The film connected routine consumption choices—single-use plastic cups–to the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment and the increasing presence of microplastics in human bodies. In doing so, it challenged the perception that single-use products are inexpensive simply because their market price is low: convenience carries costs that extend beyond the individual transaction to human health and the planet. Plastic Linings was screened in Blackman Auditorium in April 2022 before approximately 700 students, with sponsorship from 25 student organizations and the Department of Economics.
Sustainable U’s current film extends this systems-based approach to the food-consumption-waste cycle. It considers how food choices and consumption habits connect agriculture, human health, food waste, and environmental quality. Importantly, the cycle does not end with consumption. Human waste enters sewer or septic systems and ultimately interacts with wastewater treatment, environmental discharge, and water quality.
The college setting is particularly important. Research has highlighted the college years as a formative period for establishing habits that can persist throughout adulthood. Sustainable U therefore uses the campus not simply as a place to communicate information, but as an environment in which more sustainable practices can become normalized. Understanding true cost is central to this effort. Navigating an economic system that relies heavily on market prices requires recognizing that those prices frequently exclude environmental and social costs.
Across both films, the central theme is the interconnectedness of human and natural systems, even as modern consumption increasingly distances individuals from the ecological systems upon which they ultimately depend. Sustainable U seeks to make those connections visible and translate awareness into action. Its underlying message is simple: human convenience is an expense the environment cannot afford.
Members of the 2026-2026 Production Team: Ember Wenitsky-Stone, Maya Sarimsakci, Nadeen Makhzomi, Tanush Wahi, Carys Popat
Meet the 2026-2027 Production Team
