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 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.
There’s no better time than the present to...clean! Cleaning your office or living space creates more space and can also help the environment. Columbia University Facilities and Operations and our partners across campus want to help. As part of our award-winning “Clean + Go Green” program, we will make large bins available across the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses at no cost to you for the recycling, reuse or proper disposal of large, unwanted items. Best of all, Facilities and Operations will separate and recycle your items. That way, when you clean, you “go green.”
October is Campus Sustainability Month, and we are proud to share with you the work being done across the University to contribute to a more sustainable future. Click here to read the full newsletter for October, 2022.
Sean Scollins is the new Assistant Vice President of Engineering and Energy for Columbia University Facilities and Operations. We've asked Sean some questions about sustainable energy management at Columbia. Check out his answers below!
As part of Climate Week NYC, Columbia's Office of Sustainability hosted a panel webinar focused on sustainability in transportation at institutions of higher education. Running from September 19 through 25, Climate Week NYC is the biggest global climate event of its kind.
To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up on the Transportation website.
Transportation professionals from peer institutions met at Columbia for a weekend of presentations, tours, and exchanging of information.
The feature highlights Columbia's efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint under Plan 2030 with a focus on building energy systems, technological advancements, and sustainable construction. Read the full article here.
In honor of Earth Day, we are proud to share with you the Sustainable Columbia Plan 2030: Year One Progress Report and highlight the work being done across the University to contribute to a more sustainable future. Click here to read the full newsletter for April, 2022.