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Yale's Office of Sustainability, which reports jointly to the
Office of Facilities and the
Office of the Provost, was created
to generate increased momentum and facilitate the process of
developing and implementing best sustainability practices at Yale.
We intend to do this by adding new energy to the community's
historical grassroots sustainability efforts, and to the University's
early formal mechanisms, such as the Provost's
Advisory Committee on Environmental Management.
We are committed to a process that:
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Engages students, faculty, and staff in gaining understanding
of our current patterns and consequences of behaviors
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Calls upon creative dialogue to explore desirable
sustainable characteristics and the means to achieve them
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Incorporates sustainability principles into our operational
functions and educational framework in order to influence
our actions from the local to the global level.
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In 2004 Yale strengthened its commitment by creating the
position of Sustainability Director and, through her efforts,
the Office of Sustainability.
Integrating sustainability into a University requires process.
There are a range of complex issues sustainability engages-including
moral and ethical ones-that often require community debate and
resolution. True commitment to sustainable development, however,
once realized, has a wide range of benefits that make community
investment in its development important and worthwhile. Yale's scholarly
excellence in fields that contribute to sustainability, combined with
its ability to put into practice research and discovery connected to
it, allow the University to advance the national and international
dialogue on an important global issue. On the local level,
innovative actions and investments lead to changes in how
University departments operate, and these in turn lead to
public health and environmental benefits, as well as long-term
energy savings.
Yale has established a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy
that invites a broad based coalition of participation and is
iterative in nature. The strategy has two primary components -
"one time events" and "on-going actions".
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Recognition of the need for action and commitment
to a sustainable campus
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Appointment of a Sustainability Director
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Establishment of a management structure - The Associate
Vice President of Facilities, the Assistant Provost and the
Sustainability Director receive and review all policy
recommendations that emerge from the various ad hoc
Sustainability Committees. The intention of the
management structure is to critique, strengthen
and formally endorse recommendations prior to
submittal to the President and the Officers.
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These "one-time events" have been completed and have created the
foundation for the successful implementation of the "on-going actions".
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Creation of an institutional strategy and vision |
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Continued engagement and expansion of grassroots community efforts |
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Development of an Ad hoc Sustainability Committee structure that engages a broad based coalition |
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Establishment of Sustainability Metrics to create a baseline from which to set goals and measure progress |
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Frequent review of the data from the Sustainability Metrics to reshape goals feed results and keep the process in check. |
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The creation of a Sustainability Strategy for the Yale
campus is driven by a number of challenging questions:
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How is Yale consuming and impacting its natural resource base?
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Can the operational systems and processes in their current
state lead to a sustainable system? If not, what needs
to be changed?
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What is the long-term projected growth and development
of the institution?
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How can Yale most effectively embrace a comprehensive
vision of a sustainable campus?
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How can the growth and development of Yale be accommodated?
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The proposed Sustainability Strategy is framed by a
"spectrum of sustainability":
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Use of natural resources: air, water, land, energy, food
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Systems and processes: building design and construction,
energy, procurement, landscape, water management, transportation,
integrated waste management
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Culture: curriculum, research, human health, governance
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The sustainability spectrum serves three primary purposes:
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Provides a framework for assessing our current state
of the campus and implementing a plan of action;
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Offers a tool for communicating the complexity of sustainability;
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Provides room for growth and evolution.
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A long-term vision cannot be achieved without the continued
engagement and support of the Yale community. The formalization
of the process also provides the opportunity for others from
within the community who do not engage in grassroots efforts
to become involved via other means.
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In year one, Yale has chosen to focus on Energy, Transportation,
and Waste management as primary areas to develop a base line set
of information, short and long term goals, and create an
implementation plan to achieve those goals. This prioritization
has lead to the development of an
Energy Task Force ,
Transportation Policy Committee,
and
Integrated Waste Management Committee.
Recommendations are being finalized and will be reviewed.
In fiscal year '06, the committees will continue their work
and a new committee on Sustainable Building Design and Construction
will be established.
In addition to these operation specific committees, a
Marketing and Communication Committee,
composed of primarily students with staff support,
was established to oversee the development of this web
site and provide insight into community outreach.
Finally, the long standing
Advisory Committee on
Environmental Management (ACEM) has remained active.
ACEM is responsible for overseeing the distribution of
the
Green Fund as well as recommending a
set of long-term sustainability
targets.
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The recommendations that emerge from the committees in the
coming months will lead to a set of very specific short and
long term goals and quantitative targets. These recommendations
will be accompanied with a set of proposed implementation
tactics that will consider policy changes, new investments,
and potentially new ways of approaching old issues
(ie. parking, waste disposal, energy use).
One manner in which to set these goals and targets and measure
progress over time to determine if we are successful (or not) is via the
creation of a
Yale Sustainability Metrics.
The data we have and will continue to collect will enable
us to understand our current state of the campus and benchmark
our progress into the future. We will be able to monitor and
learn from progress to date to make further improvements
in the future.
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The iterative nature of the process will require a
consistent and continual review of the data from the Yale
Sustainability Metrics. This will require that we revisit our
goals, objectives, and process of implementation on an
on-going basis.
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