Category: Office of Sustainability

Anti-Racism and Environmental Sustainability | Part 3: Background and Resources

by Cecil Scheib

This blog post is 3 of a 3-part series on the Office of Sustainability’s efforts to be proactively anti-racist, combat white supremacy culture,1 and embed anti-racist actions into our work. The blog series is intended to document and provide transparency about the work we are doing internally and externally and to share our process, begun in 2018 and accelerated in 2020, that is far from complete.

Part 2 of this series describes some of the actions the Office of Sustainability is taking to be actively anti-racist and address white supremacy culture. (For background on why this is inextricably linked with sustainability work, take a look at Part 1.) Perhaps it will be helpful to others if we pull back the curtain a bit on how we’ve been going about discussing this issue, which so many wish to address but that can be very sensitive.

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NYU Ranks Top University for Responsible Consumption and Production 

THE Impact Rankings logo and rankingNYU ranked #38 globally and #4 in the US on Responsible Consumption and Production through the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production measures how universities are working towards an efficient use of resources and the minimization of waste.

Through initiatives such as the Cool Food Pledge, waste mitigation strategies like the Water Bottle Purchasing Policy, and ongoing efforts to increase sustainable procurement practices, NYU has demonstrated our commitment to ethically sourcing goods and increasing upstream solutions to waste.

The 2021 Impact Rankings is the third edition and the overall ranking includes 1,115 universities from 94 countries/regions. This ranking is based on the data NYU reports through AASHE STARS, which captures information about how environmentally responsible a school’s policies and practices are, and how sustainability is embedded into campus life. 

Sustainability at NYU is a team effort. We thank our partners especially in Procurement, Dining, and Grounds and Waste Management who helped us achieve this particular recognition. 

 

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Green Campus Tour

Welcome to the Green Campus Tour! In honor of Earth Month, learn about what makes NYU one of the greenest urban campuses and how you can get involved in sustainability on campus. Interested in taking this tour by bike? Fill out this form to receive a free Citi Bike day pass (while supplies last).  Read more

What will we Sustain? Reflections After One Year in the Pandemic

by Eni Owoeye

Fence at the entrance to a park with the sign that reads "Parks closed until first notice"

This time last year, the NYU community felt a collective shock. For students, the shock may have been a buzz of excitement at the prospect of staying at home because “Zooming” into class actually sounded thrilling. But for most, the shock slowly creeped into a panic as more blue, green, and white masks started to pop up around the City. Whatever the feeling was, we are now grappling with it one year later. The following are a collection of student stories about what they learned about themselves, their connections to others, and their connections to the environment this past year.

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