Combined, Columbia’s campuses include around 17 million square feet of various building types, ages, sizes and program uses. Capital project portfolios at each respective campus consist of a broad range of project types and sizes, from small renovations to ground-up buildings. Most capital projects on the historical Morningside campus generally rely on existing campus utility infrastructure for all services.
Through gradually transitioning its vehicles to hybrid and electric as they need to be replaced, Columbia University’s Department of Public Safety has greatly reduced its emissions.
The Office of Sustainability has released the Plan 2030 Year 2 progress update
Columbia has committed to quantifying and reducing its Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions not included in Scope 2, and that arise from upstream and downstream activities in Columbia’s value chain.
Studies were recently conducted to develop a Strategic Decarbonization Master Plan that would meet Plan 2030 and NYC Local Law 97 (LL97) emissions reduction requirements.
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Updates from the Office of Sustainability: including our name change, a new member of our team, and a promotion announcement.
On March 21, Jessica Prata from the Office of Sustainability participated in an Energy Week @ Penn panel discussion on the role of higher education institutions in Boston (MIT), New York City (Columbia), and Philadelphia (Penn) and how these institutions are advancing decarbonization efforts in the context of their communities.
On Thursday, March 23, 2023, a group of City College of New York graduate students hosted a “Decarbonizing CCNY Forum”, as a joint event with Columbia University.
The Office of Sustainability at Columbia University is proud to welcome Daniel Leal, an undergraduate Sustainable Development major from the School of General Studies, as their newest intern.
The NYC Smart Compost bin program is expanding throughout the city, including three new bins on Broadway near Morningside campus. New Yorkers can use these bins to drop off food scraps 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.
Two student capstone projects in 2022 focused on assessing and improving transportation sustainability on campus. An undergraduate Sustainable Development Workshop studied vehicle and charging recommendations approaching 2025, and the School of Professional Studies’ Master of Science in Sustainability Management (SUMA) Program tasked a capstone group with creating a strategy for tracking and reducing Scope 3 emissions from freight.
With help from IRN: The Reuse Network, Columbia Housing provided gently used bedroom, dining, and lounge furniture sets to seven charities, providing support to organizations in need, extending the life of useable furniture, and diverting 150,000 pounds of waste from entering landfills.