Any Illinois organization, business, manufacturing facility, institute of higher learning, government entity, public utility, or institution may request one free technical assistance site visit (per location) at no cost to the facility. Schedule your free site visit today by completing our online request form.
If you are interested in services not reflected on our online request form, you may contact us at istc-info@illinois.edu. Please note that some of our services (e.g., Institutional Water Treatment assistance, waste characterizations, etc.) tend to be offered exclusively on a fee-for-service basis. We occasionally have grant funding to cover the costs of certain types of assessments and implementation projects for specific sectors. Our staff will inform you of any such restrictions or opportunities during initial discussions in response to your request for assistance. We may also prioritize our staff time to assist sectors or groups covered by current grant-funded projects to ensure adherence to project timelines; other entities requesting assistance may be placed on a waiting list. Again, our staff will inform you of any anticipated delay in scheduling your site visit when responding to your request for assistance.
During your site visit, our staff members meet with key personnel to learn about the organization’s situation, facilities, concerns, and aspirations related to sustainability. We may tour your facility as appropriate to observe processes, infrastructure, equipment, etc. We then develop an initial recommendation report based on this visit—again, at no cost to the facility. The recipient facility is under no obligation to act upon any recommendations provided, but if they do decide to implement, they are free to pursue implementation using their own staff, engage our technical assistance experts to assist with implementation on a fee-for-service basis, or engage a third-party consultant. We respect the need for clients to protect sensitive or proprietary information. Interactions and recommendations provided as part of a free site assessment are kept confidential. Again, to be clear, free site visits result in the delivery of an initial recommendation report. We can assist with establishing your baseline, implementing recommendations, and/or documenting the impacts of changes implemented on a fee-for-service basis.
Beyond facility assessments, we can also help your organization assess or create its sustainability goals or help you determine your next steps in making your operations more sustainable. If you are interested in sustainability visioning, goal-setting, planning, reporting, other stakeholder engagement, or similar services not listed on the online site visit form, contact us at istc-info@illinois.edu to express your interests. We’ll follow up to arrange an initial discussion to determine how we might assist you. Please be aware that these more complex forms of assistance may need to be provided on a fee-for-service basis.
Please also be aware that organizations are eligible for only one free site visit for facility assessment. See our Fee for Service page for more info.