CHAMPAIGN – Gov. Pat Quinn joined top officials at the University of Illinois on Friday to sign an updated agreement pledging the Urbana campus to be a leader in sustainability.

Quinn, UI President Michael Hogan and Urbana campus interim chancellor Robert Easter signed a campus sustainability compact at a symposium at the I Hotel.

"I think this is the challenge of our time," Quinn said, "to have a 'green' way of thinking and a 'green' way of acting. And that's what universities and community colleges are all about."

Sustainability, he said, "basically means we have to look at everything we do with fresh eyes. We cannot look at the things we've been doing with the eyes of the past. We have to understand that in the 21st century the most important thing we can do is embrace energy efficiency, embrace renewable energy, embrace water conservation, really embrace a sustainable way of life."

In what amounted to a pep talk to several hundred people at the conference, Quinn said, "You are the front line. You are the troops that are going to take us to the promised land. You're landing on the beach at Normandy and we're going to win this green revolution."

The crowd gave the Democratic governor a standing ovation.

Hogan said the UI would be a leader in energy conservation and other environmental programs.

"This new sustainability compact we're signing here today raises the bar by encouraging campus levels of participation at bronze, silver and gold levels. Of course being the University of Illinois we're going for the gold," the UI president said. "The overall theme of the new compact is integrating sustainability into all aspects of campus life: planning, operations, into our curriculum, student events, with specific goal-setting and precise measures."

Hogan noted that in the first compact created in 2005, the UI pledged to increase energy efficiency on campus "and we have done so.

"We pledged to construct new buildings with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications, promised to promote sustainable transportation options. We promised to purchase local food for our residence halls. We're well along the way there. We promised to increase our composting efforts and reduce pesticide use, and we're making progress in that area too," Hogan said.