What is USEE
The Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE), a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit, has been a statewide leader in promoting high quality environmental education in Utah since 1981. USEE encourages environmental literacy by teaching Utahans how to think, not what to think, about the environment. To achieve this goal, USEE serves as an umbrella organization and information resource for environmental educators, K-12 teachers, higher education, and the Utah community at large. These efforts will help ensure economic, social, and environmental sustainability for Utah.
Read USEE's 2008 Annual Report
Our Vision:
The Utah Society for Environmental Education provides leadership to advance environmental education and, in turn, an environmentally literate citizenry.
Our Mission:
To promote excellence in environmental education by providing support, resources and networking to Utah's community of educators.
Professionalizing Environmental Education
USEE helps educators and programs achieve a high of level of professionalism by establishing standards of knowledge, skills, experience and conduct.
Professionalizing Environmental Education goals include, but are not limited to:
- Increasing constituent access to resources and ideas;
- Implementing programs that model quality EE pedagogy and content;
- Providing professional qualifications for environmental educators;
- Identifying and promoting best practices.
Inform Decision Making
USEE serves as a statewide leader to provide best practices, research driven data and national trends to inform policy and decision making that affects or influences EE.
Inform Decision Making goals include, but are not limited to:
- Keeping abreast of and disseminating national environmental education trends and issues to utah's community of educators;
- Disseminating community identified EE needs to Utah's educators in an effort to encourage discussion and partnerships;
- Representing Utah EE on statewide issues and projects.
Facilitate Partnerships
USEE acts as a leader of EE in Utah by creating partnerships and building relationships at both a state and national level.
Facilitate Partnerships goals include, but are not limited to:
- Increasing membership through increased recruitment activities, and benefits;
- Engaging strategically with stakeholders to expand the breadth of EE in Utah;
- Providing increased opportunities to network across a range of constituent groups.
Communicate Environmental Education Accomplishments
USEE works to improve and strengthen EE by promoting the diverse range of EE initiatives and celebrating accomplishments.
Communicate Environmental Education Accomplishments goals include, but are not limited to:
- Increasing EE awareness in local print, broadcast, and social media;
- Increasing educator, organization and program recognition activities;
- Increasing communications between organizations.
Facts about USEE
- Established in 1981, USEE is a 501 (c) 3 Environmental Education (EE) nonprofit membership organization with a mission to provide state-wide leadership expanding the quality, scope, and effectiveness of environmental education in Utah.
- USEE's members include individuals and diverse institutions and organizations such as the Department of Environmental Quality, Momentum Recycling, and the Ogden Nature Center.
- USEE's vision is to ensure economic, social, and environmental sustainability for Utah as a result of environmental consciousness built upon sound ecological knowledge.
- USEE teaches people "how to think, not what to think," about the environment based on science-based knowledge while also trying to help teachers integrate EE into their regular classrooms.
- As an affiliate of the North American Association for Environmental Education, USEE serves as an umbrella organization that links state and national EE efforts by guiding, informing, and serving as a voice for those who provide EE in Utah (including teachers and non-formal educators).
- USEE establishes standards of knowledge, skills, experience, and conduct for EE and promotes those standards to educators via professional development opportunities, training and support services, community events, and an Annual Environmental Education Conference.
- USEE helps cultivate leaders in the field of EE by providing professional development and networking opportunities and disseminating high-quality programs and resources.
- USEE's programs, often supported by state and federal grants, teach non-biased information that works within the Utah state core science curriculum.
- Rather than working directly with students in their classrooms, USEE trains and offers curriculum and activity ideas to more than 200 teachers each year who are then able to teach EE to kids in the classroom.
- USEE also offers EE programs in the form of community-based discussion courses developed by the Northwest Earth Institute in 1993, including Menu for the Future, Choices for Sustainable Living, Global Warming: Changing CO2urse, Exploring Deep Ecology, Voluntary Simplicity, Healthy Children-Healthy Planet, and Discovering a Sense of Place. As a partner with the Northwest Earth Institute, USEE helps small groups in homes, workplaces, churches and community centers explore important environmental and sustainability issues and create discussion around personal values and habits that affect our environment.
- USEE is currently conducting the Utah Project for Excellence in Environmental Education, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which will strengthen the quality and effectiveness of environmental education throughout the state through partnerships with non-formal environmental education providers and teachers.
- USEE has been recognized with numerous awards for its efforts at both state and federal levels including: the National Environmental Education Achievement Award, the Environmental Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Conservation Education Outstanding Achievement Award from the US Forest Service.



