Bentley University
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Our Lifelong Learning and Engagement focus area in our CLimate Action Plan aim to engage our community in sustainability.

Goal 1 - Students: By 2026, all interested students will be presented with guidance for integrating sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency into their careers.
Strategy 1 -- Support: Map opportunities for integrating sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency into career paths by major.
Strategy 2 -- Build Capacity: Provide professional development in sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency by increasing experiential learning and co-curricular education programs.
Strategy 3 -- Connect: Increase university recruitment connections with organizations, nonprofits and public sector functions that are institutionalizing sustainability.

Goal 4 - Faculty and Staff: By 2026, Bentley faculty and staff will be engaged in sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency education and action.
Strategy 1 -- Institutionalize: Outline sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency alignment with each Bentley division, encourage measurable divisional commitments to the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan.
Strategy 2 -- Engage: Create a sustainability working group, that oversees and hosts a bi-annual workshop to educate and inspire faculty and staff to take action on sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency.
Strategy 3 -- Research and Teaching: Support interdisciplinary sustainability research and teaching by creating sustainability research networking opportunities for Bentley faculty.

Our Lifelong Learning and Engagement focus area in our CLimate Action Plan focuses on engaging students, alumni, faculty and staff in sustainability, climate justice and climate resiliency action and supporting the Waltham Community in these same efforts.

Goals 1 - Students: By 2026, all interested students will be presented with guidance for integrating sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency into their careers.

Goal 2 - Alumni: By 2026, at least 50 Bentley alumni are engaged and connected to sustainability at Bentley using the following strategies:

Goal 3 - Waltham Community: By 2026, Bentley will support sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency work in the Waltham community.

Goal 4 - Faculty and Staff: By 2026, Bentley faculty and staff will be engaged in sustainability, climate action, climate justice and/or climate resiliency education and action.

Our Outreach and Education focus area in the climate action plan focuses on encouraging sustainability action by informing community members on specific, relevant sustainability practices and celebrating the university’s sustainability accomplishments.

Goal 1 - Inform: By 2026, the Bentley community is consistently informed about the university's sustainability efforts and achievements.

Goal 2 - Global Context: By 2026, the Bentley community understands the university's sustainability efforts in a global context

Our Energy and Building Systems, Transportation and Mobility, and Materials Management focus areas in our Climate Action plan are set out to address sustainability in operation.

Energy and Building Systems:
Goal 1 - Decarbonize: By 2026, Bentley will have continued to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, remaining on track to achieve carbon neutrality no later than 2030.
Goal 2 – Energy Use: By 2026, Bentley will have decreased its campus energy use intensity (energy use per square foot).
Goal 3 - Water Use: By 2026, Bentley will have improved water efficiency across its natural and built environments.

Transportation and Mobility
Goal 1- Commuting: By 2026, Bentley will have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from commuting by 10% and increased use of sustainable,low-carbon modes of commuting to and from campus.
Goal 2 – Infrastructure: By 2026, Bentley will have improved infrastructure to support zero-carbon modes of transportation within and around campus.
Goal 3 - Travel: By 2026, Bentley will have reduced emissions from business and academic air travel.

Materials Management
Goal 1 - Material Disposal: By 2026, Bentley will have reduced the total volume of materials disposed of across campus operations by 10% as compared to fiscal year 2019.
Goal 2 – Sustainable Purchasing: By 2026, Bentley will have increased sustainable purchasing and contracting at the university.

Bentley University's strategic plan contains five focus areas. The fourth focus area is Access and Opportunity. The two goals in this section are:
- Build a roadmap for broadening access to Bentley for a diverse set of learners.
- Promote a sense of inclusion and equity across the campus so community members feel they belong to Bentley and Bentley belongs to them.
To find out more about this section of Bentley's strategic plan visit: https://www.bentley.edu/about/strategic-plan/focus-area-4

In addition, each department are asked to set Racial Justice Committments annually. The 2022-23 Racial Justice Commitments from the Office of Sustainability are as follows:

1. Focus on Anti-Racism in Sustainability and Climate Action Plan Implementation

During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Office of Sustainability led a sustainability strategic planning effort to update the university’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan. The process focused on broad engagement of the campus community in ideation and goal setting for Bentley’s sustainable future. A key criterion for this work was that every goal, strategy or tactic identified in the process had to be reviewed for its impact on diversity, equity and inclusion with a focus on anti-racism. This focus will continue through implementation of the plan which will begin during the 2021-2022 academic year. Detailed implementation plans for each focus area will be created with diversity, equity and inclusion in mind and carefully reviewed to ensure a focus on antiracism strategies.

2. Indigenous Land Acknowledgement Project

The Office of Sustainability will partner with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Multicultural Center to spend the Spring 2022 semester exploring the possibilities of an official Indigenous Land Acknowledgement for Bentley University.

3. DEI trainings for Office Staff and Student Leaders

The Office of Sustainability will coordinate two diversity, equity and inclusion trainings for office staff and students in the Sustainability Student Leadership program. The training will include environmental justice and anti-racism education. Student Sustainability Leaders will work closely with Office of Sustainability staff to incorporate environmental justice programming and initiatives into the office’s campus education and engagement work.

Bentley University defines sustainability with the triple-bottom line: people, planet and profit. We aim to model triple-bottom line thinking in the operations of our university while educating our students to employ this mindset in their lives and work.

Diversity is a core component of Bentley’s strategic plan - two years ago, we began a process of connecting Diversity and Inclusion formally to our university strategy. Diversity and Inclusion was named an “enabling feature” of the strategic plan, which means the university can only achieve success if our diversity and inclusion efforts are a success. We reaffirmed Diversity as a core value and the faculty voted to include cultural competence as a learning outcome in the redesign of the university's curriculum.