NYU was recognized by the Sustainable Purchasing and Leadership Council (SPLC) with an Outstanding Case Study Award on the NYU IT Sustainability Initiative along with 10 other honored institutions during the 2021 SPLC Leadership Awards.
Tag: Operations
NYU Ranks Top University for Responsible Consumption and Production
NYU 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.
Are Zoom Video Calls Destroying the Planet?
Learning, teaching, research, work, and travel can be a challenge during a global pandemic, but the changes we’ve all made have also added up to a record drop in global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also caused a dramatic increase in the amount of time spent on Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, or other virtual meeting platforms. A recent study1 conducted by researchers at Purdue, MIT, and Yale suggests2 that due to the way that conferencing data is processed and transferred across the Internet, turning off the camera during video calls could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of virtual conferencing by 96%. Should we all be leaving our camera off during our next virtual meeting to “save the planet”?
NYU Makes Top 50 Green Colleges List
NYU ranked #43 on the Princeton Review’s 2021 Top 50 Green Colleges list!
The Top 50 Green Colleges ranks schools that have strong sustainability practices, academic opportunities, and a healthy quality of life for students.
Our commitment to sustainability is deeply valued by members of the NYU community. Our administrators are committed to incorporating sustainability policies and practices into their office operations; Faculty are leading sustainability research and instructing related courses; and students are engaged in peer-to-peer efforts through student government and clubs. Prospective NYU students are also concerned with our sustainability efforts. According to the Princeton Review’s College Hopes & Worries Survey, sixty-six percent of college-bound individuals and their families said that knowing a college’s commitment to the environment would affect their decision to apply to or attend a school.
Building Energy Scores Posted
Beginning in 2020, many NYC buildings are required to post letter grades that represent their energy efficiency performance, as the city strives to reduce both local pollutants as well as greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
Under the NYC law, most buildings with over 25,000 square feet of floor area must report their energy usage each year, a process called “benchmarking”. A federal energy analysis tool called ENERGY STAR then assigns a 1-100 energy efficiency rating to the building – but only if it falls into a limited number of categories, including apartment buildings, student residence halls, hotels, K-12 schools, offices, supermarkets, and warehouses. Based on that score, buildings then receive a score of A (85-100), B (70-85), C (55-69), or D (54 or below). Buildings also may post an F (if they failed to submit energy use data) or N (if they are not required to report a letter grade, perhaps because ENERGY STAR does not provide a score for that building type).