Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.97
Liaison Stephen Ellis
Submission Date Aug. 2, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Boston University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Dennis Carlberg
Associate Vice President for Sustainability
BU Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Boston Green Ribbon Comission

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:

President Brown is a member and active participant in the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, a 34 member organization comprised of a diverse set of business and civic leaders with a shared desire to make Boston a national leader in the green economy and the fight against global climate change. Recently, a report commissioned by the City of Boston was published, titled "Building Resilience in Boston." The report focuses on neighborhoods -in underprivileged areas in particular- in relationship to climate change. Climate change in Boston involves sea level rise, rising temperatures, and heavier winds.

Boston University Sustainability Director Carlberg also participates in two of the Commissions' working groups: the Higher Education group and the Climate Preparedness group. With the objective of advising the City on policies and initiatives leading to green house gas emission reduction for each sector. Members of the Higher Education group recently collaborated with the team focused on Health Care to work on a program destined to lower the emissions of high energy labs.

Boston University, in collaboration with other members of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission Higher Ed Working Group provides guidance to the City on sustainability initiatives. Examples include the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) and the resilient design questionnaires for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

In 2016, Mayor Marty Walsh asked the GRC for help with the development of strategies to achieve its targets of carbon neutral by 2050, with interim goals of a 25 and 50 percent reduction by 2020 and 2030, respectively, relative to a 2005 baseline. In response to the Mayor’s request, the Green Ribbon Commission organized a collaboration with Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) to produce a Carbon Free Boston (CFB) report in 2018, for the purpose of informing the next phase of Boston’s de-carbonization strategies and actions. The CFB report will quantify the most effective combination of technologies and policies to reduce GHG emissions across the energy, buildings, transportation, and waste sectors; it will also inform the City’s 2019 Climate Action Plan update.

Participation:
1. http://www.greenribboncommission.org/people/members/
2. http://www.greenribboncommission.org/work/higher-education-working-group/

Material or Financial Support:
1. BU's Institute for Sustainable Energy is developing strategies for Boston's 2018 Climate Action Plan update - http://www.greenribboncommission.org/document/carbon-free-boston-initiative/
1a. http://www.greenribboncommission.org/2017/11/boston-launches-new-initiative-achieve-climate-goals/

Multi-year and ongoing time Frame:
1. https://www.bu.edu/ise/2016/12/06/ise-tapped-to-head-carbon-free-boston-work/
2. http://www.bu.edu/pardee/2017/08/02/upcoming-event-reducing-emissions-by-pricing-carbon-how-microsoft-and-yale-are-leading-the-charge/

Sustainability Focus:
1. Social Equity and wellbeing: The Health Care Working Group (HCWG) of the Green Ribbon Commission promotes ""advancing health care system, facility and infrastructure resilience in the face of climate-accelerated public health threats and extreme events...Ongoing work helps hospitals assess and respond to their climate vulnerabilities while acting as anchor institutions to support resilience in the communities they serve"". Furthermore, the HCWG works closely with Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries working to transform the health care sector so it does no harm, and instead promotes the health of people and the environment. Headquartered in Boston, they have led efforts on the “greening” of the health care sector.
1a. URL: http://www.greenribboncommission.org/work/health-care-working-group/
1b. URL: http://www.greenribboncommission.org/people/partners/
1c. URL: https://noharm.org/
2. Economic prosperity: The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Working Group of the Green Ribbon Commission is a group of leading Boston property owners accelerating leadership of Boston’s CRE organizations to help the City meet the goals of its Climate Action Plan while simultaneously enabling continued economic prosperity.
2a. URL: http://www.greenribboncommission.org/work/commercial-real-estate-working-group/
3. Ecological Health: The Carbon Free Boston Working Group of the Green Ribbon Commission is an initiative that signals the need to transition from old, dirty carbon-based fuels to 100% clean and renewable energy sources in every sector of the economy in the greater-Boston area.
3a. URL: http://www.greenribboncommission.org/document/achieving-80x50-a-presentation-by-ed-mazria-to-the-boston-green-ribbon-commission-november-9-2015/

Representation by underrepresented groups or vulnerable populations:


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
First Movers Forum

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
The partnership supports at least one, but not all three, dimensions of sustainability

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Not Sure

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):

First Movers was developed in collaboration with the Boston Green Ribbon Commission to create a forum for discussion and cutting edge strategies for GHG mitigation in the building sector. It focuses on three areas of mitigation: 1) energy efficiency, 2) renewable energy), 3) fossil free heating and cooling.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
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Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
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Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
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Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
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A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):
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A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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