The university has announced its efforts to advance its sustainability commitments, including additional proposals in the university’s climate action plan, according to an email update sent by President Ron Liebowitz to the community. The additional initiatives include reducing our climate impact and improving climate change and sustainability education, according to the email.
The President’s Task Force submitted recommendations last August for how the university could move forward with its sustainability goals. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a delay in the review of these recommendations, wrote Liebowitz.
The Office of Sustainability has begun to work on the Task Force’s recommendations, including the creation of the Sustainability Committee in December 2020—a group meant to recommend and implement sustainability initiatives in university education and operations, according to their page. The committee will also be responsible for holding the university accountable to its long-term sustainability goals, wrote Liebowitz.
In the update, Liebowitz wrote that the Sustainability Committee has begun several recommendations including the reduction of our carbon footprint of food purchases, adopting a new green building standard for construction and renovations, alternative financing options for building improvements and making a plan to improve the sustainability profile of all university purchases.
In addition to reviewing the recommendations, the Sustainability Committee has also announced initiatives in the new climate action plan which the university will pursue in the coming years, wrote Liebowitz. The additional goals include: reducing our climate impact, improving climate change and sustainability education, implementing the best practices for sustainable and equitable transportation, implementing sustainable procurement practices and improving water conservation and management.
To rescue our climate impact, the Sustainability Committee plans to pursue carbon neutrality by creating a carbon mitigation plan. According to the update, the proposed plan will detail engineering and financial strategy which can help accelerate carbon reduction on campus. In addition the university will be joining the Cool Food Pledge, an initiative in which organizations reduce their climate impact in the food they serve, according to their page. The university’s dining carbon footprint can be viewed in the new dining sustainability dashboard.
The university will also begin planning an analysis of issues and inequalities related to climate change, according to the update, to help improve climate change and sustainability education. This campus-wide effort will engage the entire community to deepen our understanding of climate change as a social justice issue, wrote Liebowitz.
The Sustainability Committee also plans to review the university’s transportation system in its sustainability and equity. According to the update, the committee will evaluate on-campus parking resources and the cost of subsidized public transit in order to create a fair and equitable plan for transportation costs to campus. The committee will review how to reduce single occupant vehicles as well as improve biking and pedestrian infrastructure. While looking at transportation patterns, the university will take into consideration the changes made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To introduce sustainable procurement practices, the Sustainability Committee plans to reassess the university’s dining vendor contract at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year, according to Liebowitz’s update. The university’s current vending contract is with Sodexo, after a two-year extension was granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a BrandeisNOW article. The committee also plans to reduce single-use disposable items on campus in dining halls and department offices, as soon as public health guidelines permit the reduction of such items, according to the update.
The sustainability committee plans to purchase only electric vehicles for campus vehicles, unless an electric alternative is unavailable, according to the email. To support the electric vehicles there will be an increase to the charging infrastructure available on campus.
The final goal to improve water conservation and management will be tackled by the committee by creating a hazard mitigation plan, according to the email. This plan includes the potential for flooding during extreme precipitation events caused by climate change both inside buildings and along evacuation routes.
The Sustainability Committee also wants to install water meters to measure campus water usage and adopt sustainable landscaping to conserve water and reduce chemicals used on campus to treat the landscape.
The Task Force’s full recommendation list can be found in the Draft Climate Action Plan. The New Climate Action Plan, drafted in 2020, is the third climate action related plan released by the university since 2008 when the university signed the Carbon Commitment, according to the Office of Sustainability’s Climate Action page. This plan prioritizes plans for climate resilience and how to increase sustainability practices and climate change education on campus, according to the page.
The university also plans to review the fossil fuel policies set in November 2018 this coming November to observe the data from the past three years to direct future action on the subject.
