Every time lights are turned on in Champaign-Urbana, there is an environmental and human cost, according to Jeff Biggers, author of “Reckoning at Eagle Creek, The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland.” Biggers and Interim Chancellor Robert Easter kicked off Sustainability Week at Gregory Hall on Monday night.

Easter said the University has made progress toward being more environmentally friendly, and he said he believes there is a plan in place that is achievable.

Biggers stressed the importance of the consequences of coal and strip mining in Illinois. Three coal miners die daily because of black lung disease, he said. However, Illinois plans to triple coal production in the next two years.

Eli Chen, Sustainability Week chair of Students for Environmental Concerns, senior in LAS and Illini Media employee, said the purpose of Sustainability Week is to make campus more eco-conscious.

“We want people to know ‘Hey, the University does care,’ and that we’re doing all we can to make our community a better place to live,” she added.

Amy Allen, president of Students for Environmental Concerns, junior in Engineering and former Illini Media employee, said there are three sustainability campaigns the group is currently working on to promote renewable energy on campus: the Wind Turbine Project, energy conservation and encouraging the University to speed up the transition from coal to natural gas.

Allen said she hopes the Abbott Power Plant will transition entirely to natural gas by 2013 under their Climate Action Plan. As a result of the University’s Wind Turbine Project, a proposal will be going out within the next couple of weeks to construct a wind turbine. A single wind turbine will eliminate 1 percent of the campus’s electricity demand, “which is a tiny fraction, but a great first step,” Allen said.

Chen said Biggers was a perfect candidate for a kickoff speaker because of the relationship between his experiences with coal mining and the University’s initiative to eliminate coal as an energy source.

Sustainability Week is an opportunity to spread awareness to students on campus, Allen said.

“There are many exciting topics to learn about, and I think it’ll be a catalyst for more people to be aware about these issues and take action,” she said.

Stephanie Lage, assistant to the director of the Office of Sustainability, said in order to begin implementing change at the University, raising awareness is the first step. She added that the more people are made aware the more they can change people’s attitudes toward sustainability.

A “Beyond Coal” strategy session will be held at the University YMCA on Nov. 4, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.