NYU’s Sustainability Task Force Offers New ‘Green’ Recommendations

By Christopher James

NYU’s Sustainability Task Force recently released its annual report highlighting major successes for 2007-08 and submitting to the administration new recommendations to improve campus environmental performance and to further advance NYU along the path toward sustainability.
    Recent projects include implementing a new energy strategy that substantially reduced electricity consumption, doubling the University’s recycling diversion rate with new composting and sorting initiatives, launching a Sustainability Advocate Program that has trained staff in 70 departments to “green” their work areas, renewing the wind power purchase to offset 100 percent of NYU’s purchased electricity consumption, and holding an energy conservation competition, called NYUnplugged, that involved thousands of students.
    Beyond these initiatives, the report notes the blossoming of independent “green” projects from every sector of the administration and many of NYU’s schools. It also describes progress made in implementing the 2006-07 Sustainability Task Force recommendations. With this effort, NYU increased supplies of local and organic food in dining halls, supported the interdisciplinary “Educating for Sustainability” lecture series, and began organic management of many of its largest landscaped open spaces, among other projects.
    “NYU has taken impressive strides toward sustainability since 2006, but much remains to be done,” said Lynne Brown, senior vice president for University Relations and Public Affairs and co-chair of the Sustainability Task Force. “The work of the task force, which brings together all segments of the NYU community, is critical to these efforts, and this report lays out a detailed set of recommendations to move us forward. Volunteers all, the members of the task force deserve our gratitude for their hard work and commitment to this central challenge of our time.”
    Key priorities underscored by the report include advancing NYU’s leadership in energy and “green” building, developing the University’s capacity to engage in ongoing environmental self-assessment, and launching a conversation about the NYU Center for the Environment, a potential hub of collaboration for both academic and non-academic “green” initiatives and a home for research and teaching resources that foster an intellectual environmental agenda.
    Important challenges for the University’s sustainability initiative are also cited. As NYU becomes the first global network university, the need to minimize adverse environmental impacts and achieve high performance is important not just in New York, but in Abu Dhabi, Florence, Ghana, and other sites as well. The report also cites a need for greater commitment to engaging the University community across academic and operational lines. And as environmental crises such as climate change become increasingly severe, it recommends expanding efforts to benchmark the effectiveness of various “green” initiatives and prioritize interventions accordingly.
    The full report and recommendations are available online at www.nyu. edu/sustainability/pdf/annualreport08.pdf