This page has resources to get you started on the specific topics you've chosen.  Use the links in the table of contents area (left margin) to go to specific topics.

Notes:

1. Sustainability and the environment, and healthier living are both very broad topics.  Below are ideas on how you could focus ...
2. Search in ABI/Inform Collection (from ProQuest) for coverage of trade publications which cover current business news, and for coverage of scholarly business journals. Trade publications will be most useful for topics/questions that have a clear business angle (e.g. fast fashion).   
3. Search in Education Resource Complete (from EBSCO) for the best coverage of things related to education. 
4. Search in Environment Complete (from EBSCO) for the best coverage of the environmental sciences scholarly literature.  
5. Search in Web of Science (from Clarivate Analytics) for multi-disciplinary coverage of top-tier scholarly journals. Be aware that it has very little full-text, so using the Find It @ MU links is truly required.
   Here's a short video showing how Find It @ MU works.

Use the resources directly below, under Education, to find some background and stats about education in general.  Below are some items that are more specific to the question about textbooks and their costs.  This includes the option of open educational resources (OER), or open access textbooks.

Background sources:

Specifically about Milwaukee/Wisconsin:

This app and program tries to help students make new connections on campus, especially social life connections.  

Below are a couple articles I found that could be useful.  Searching for articles was more difficult than I anticipated, because so many articles focus more on creating connections in the more pedagogical, or learning, setting, rather than the social setting.  But Education Source Complete is probably the best database to search. 

Marquette webpages about the project:

Issues:

In Milwaukee (and Wisconsin):

Below are links to several articles from the local NPR affiliate, WUWM, by their environmental reporter Susan Bence. They have good local news coverage.

Initiatives that work with companies:

Below are links to relevant Marquette webpages ...

Student efforts and initiatives: