Sustainability Initiatives

The Buildings Department’s Sustainability Initiatives focus on the efficient design and operation of spaces on campus to reduce energy consumption and the resulting carbon emissions. Our architects, engineers, and facility staff are addressing climate change in a variety of ways—working with the university’s vast talent pool and the Tishman Center to develop methods to reduce our footprint and carry the mission of global environmental responsibility beyond NYC.

Sustainability efforts are channeled with effects on the following dimensions in mind:

• People: The well-being of our students, faculty, and staff is influenced by indoor air quality, space use, lighting, temperature controls, and building materials.
• Resources: The consumption of energy and water and the production of waste have increasingly costly political and economic implications.
• Planet: The health of the planet depends on the decisions we make regarding resource consumption and our commitment to creatively addressing environmental challenges as a community.

Read more about how we’re reducing energy and water consumption and waste production—including the operations that support our initiatives and the goals and commitments used to track and unify our efforts. Visit our new Climate Action website to learn more about climate and environmental justice and to find out how you can make a difference through everyday actions.