Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Contained in the Plan for Action on Climate, the following goals are articulated:

Develop an Environment and Sustainability degree option
Meeting the climate challenge will require collaboration among people trained in disparate fields but who share a fluency in climate science; with a new minor in Environment and Sustainability, all MIT undergraduates will have the option of developing this “bilingual” strength. Thanks to the generous support of Derry and Charlene Kabcenell, funds are available to develop or adapt a sequence of options for interdisciplinary, problem-centered courses focused on climate change and related environmental crises. Classes will be drawn from all five Schools, underscoring our recognition of the economic, political, cultural and design dimensions of thinking about the environment and sustainability. Together these courses will make possible a new Environment and Sustainability Minor.

Develop an online Climate Change and Sustainability credential
The impacts of climate change are likely to be felt first and worst in parts of the developing world, where advanced education can be hard to come by. To help people everywhere educate and empower themselves on the subject of global warming, MIT will develop an MITx Climate Change and Sustainability credential, building on Professor Kerry Emanuel’s outstanding course on climate change. Via edX, it will be open to unlimited learners around the world.

Explore broad adoption of principles of “benign and sustainable design”
Engineers, architects and other designers have long considered “environmental externalities” in their work. But to make the practice more rigorous, far-reaching and systematic, it must be built into how and what we teach. We have asked Dean of Engineering Ian Wai and Dean of Architecture and Planning Hashim Sarkis to explore with their faculty ways to inject principles of “benign and sustainable design” throughout MIT’s engineering and design curricula. In addition, the School of Humanities, Arts and Sciences offers courses in anthropology, and through the program in Science, Technology and Society, that contribute to how humans and cultures think about and experience design. These courses will provide models and different points of view on what is considered benign and sustainable. We will also reach out to peer universities to learn from their experience and explore ways to make these principles more universal.

Contained in the Pathway to Sustainability Leadership by MIT Report (draft):

MIT comprises a diverse set of individuals. Each member of the community—whether student, faculty, or staff—has the potential to contribute to a sustainable campus in unique ways. This report seeks to guide, incentivize, and empower individuals to make a sustainable campus the “new business as usual” and to welcome the contribution of each member of the MIT community in this endeavor. CSTF Report (draft):

Commitments
1. Embed sustainability into all aspects of the MIT experience, ranging from dorms, living groups, classrooms, labs, offices, and other facilities to our integration with the broader community.

Contained in the Plan for Action on Climate, the following goals related to campus engagement are articulated:

1. We will deploy an open data platform for campus energy use.
To improve our energy management and to provide faculty, sta and students with a useful resource for research and intelligent decision-making, we will institute a new regime to measure campus energy use and will share our ndings through an open data platform.

2.We will activate our campus as a living lab.
As we renew the campus, we will actively seek opportunities to test carbon e cient technologies and practices, and to o er hands-on education in climate science and sustainable design. This might include a rooftop-testing facility for the kind of solar technologies our faculty and students are busy inventing even now.

Contained in the Climate Action Plan:

E. Use our community as a test bed for change As we work to pioneer technologies and policies to help society combat climate change, we feel a keen responsibility to improve the sustainability of our campus and to use it as a test bed for faculty, student and staff ideas. Moreover, we will actively share pertinent results of our reduction strategies and related research projects, in case they could be helpful to similar campuses and organizations around the world. We begin with these steps: We will reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions 32% by 2030. In its campus operations, MIT will pursue a coordinated suite of carbon-reduction strategies focused on power generation, distribution and demand management. After careful study, we believe this path makes an initial 32% reduction feasible despite projected growth of the campus; we will pursue further reductions if possible. These strategies will include making significant improvements to the cogeneration plant that provides 85% of campus energy; pursuing additional renewable energy options for our remaining power requirements; and renewing our aging utility distribution system. MIT is also committed to the integration of low-carbon design strategies, and ultra-efficient energy technologies within our buildings. We will develop and share a campus climate action plan within the year. We will eliminate the use of fuel oil in campus power generation by 2019. As a component of our capital renewal plan, natural gas will be the primary fuel source in MIT’s Cogeneration Plant. Ultra-low-sulfur diesel will be used only in emergency situations. We will actively pursue new carbon-cutting strategies across campus. Capturing the recommendations of the 2015 Sustainability Working Groups, the upcoming Campus Sustainability Report aligns campus operations along a set of sustainability principles, putting MIT on a path to being a state-of-the-art sustainable campus. The report leverages the MIT 2030 Capital Renewal Plan, identifying this major campus transformation as presenting rare openings to invest in efficient building systems, envelopes, metering and new technologies. MIT is committed to an integrated design process that factors sustainability into the design, construction and renovation of all new and existing MIT buildings, including their systems, materials, sites and infrastructure. In the next fifteen years, for example, the majority of building roofs at MIT will be replaced. We will take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate and deploy a range of sustainable roof strategies, from today’s solar panels to “green roofs” and beyond. We will also use the renewal process to create “green laboratories.” We will enact “carbon shadow pricing.” A central problem in fighting climate change is that carbon emissions are effectively “free”; neither individuals nor institutions have much direct incentive to cut back. Appropriate pricing of carbon is widely accepted as an essential policy instrument to help mitigate climate disruption. As we push toward our 32% reduction in carbon emissions, we will experiment with the effects of including in our institutional decision-making an honest accounting of carbon costs. This will require that we design, implement and assess the e effectiveness of a carbon “shadow pricing” plan; to start with, it would be intended to influence all future capital renewal projects. We will also study selected aspects of end-user carbon pricing on our campus, to provide data that students and faculty can use to study what policies would best reduce carbon emissions by changing habits and behaviors. We will deploy an open data platform for campus energy use. To improve our energy management and to provide faculty, staff and students with a useful resource for research and intelligent decision-making, we will institute a new regime to measure campus energy use and will share our findings through an open data platform. We will activate our campus as a living lab. As we renew the campus, we will actively seek opportunities to test carbon efficient technologies and practices, and to o er hands-on education in climate science and sustainable design. This might include a rooftop-testing facility for the kind of solar technologies our faculty and students are busy inventing even now.

Each year, MIT leadership affirms its commitment to sustainability and climate change action via various letters, events, and other communications. Three examples are provided below.


MIT's climate action plan for the decade
May 12, 2021
https://president.mit.edu/speeches-writing/mits-climate-action-plan-decade

Excerpts from joint letter by President L. Rafael Reif, Vice President for Research Maria T. Zuber, Associate Provost Richard K. Lester, Dean of Engineering Anantha Chandrakasan, and Executive Vice President and Treasurer Glen Shor:
"In the fall of 2015, we announced MIT's first climate action plan. Today, building on that five-year vision, we share a new plan that mobilizes MIT’s strengths to address this accelerating crisis: Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade."
"...MIT is in an extraordinary position to make a difference – and to set a standard of climate leadership. With this plan, we commit to a coordinated set of leadership actions to spur innovation, accelerate action, and deliver practical impact."

For more information on MIT's Climate Action Plan, see: https://climate.mit.edu/climateaction/fastforward.


Virtual Event: Toward a Sustainable Future
March 16, 2021
https://betterworld.mit.edu/invitations-to-powerful-climate-action-at-mit-better-world-sustainability/

From Provost Martin A. Schmidt:
"Every academic discipline in every corner of our community can contribute to solving this global challenge."

From Vice President for Research Maria Zuber:
"Our past is full of scientific and technological breakthroughs that have changed our species’ course—and changed countless lives for the better." During the event, she highlighted three promising areas of research at MIT: improved battery storage technology, carbon capture, and nuclear fusion.


New element in MIT’s overall strategy to combat climate change
January 28, 2021
https://president.mit.edu/speeches-writing/new-element-mit%E2%80%99s-overall-strategy-combat-climate-change

Excerpt from letter by President L. Rafael Reif:
"I am pleased to let you know that today we launch the latest element in MIT’s overall effort to combat climate change – the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC). The MCSC will create an alliance of influential corporations, drawn from a broad range of industries, that are highly motivated to work with MIT, and with each other, to pilot and deploy the solutions necessary to reach their own ambitious decarbonization commitments. The goal: to vastly accelerate the implementation of large-scale, real-world solutions, across many sectors, to help address the global climate emergency in time to make a meaningful difference. The consortium also has the potential to make all of MIT’s climate efforts more effective; just as Climate Grand Challenges is accelerating research on climate science and solutions, the Consortium aims to accelerate the adoption of such solutions, at scale and across industries. The MCSC will play an integral role in MIT’s Climate Action Plan 2.0, to be released this spring."

For more information on the MCSC, see: https://impactclimate.mit.edu/.

Sustainability, as framed by the need to promote health and wellbeing for a growing world population while reducing our global footprint to within Earth’s capacity to sustain us, is a defining challenge for the world’s citizens in the 21st century, and for MIT.

Pathway to Sustainability Leadership by MIT
Incubation, Transformation, and Mobilization
http://web.mit.edu/cstfreport/docs/CSTF-Pathway-to-Sustainability-2018.pdf

Forming networks around the region and world

MITOS recognizes that the underlying challenges of sustainability are global – and require deep collaboration with regional, national, and global partners. The campus itself—while embedded in a distinct, urban community– is a truly global institution, educating, hosting, and employing thousands of international scholars, staff, and faculty.Connecting to communities of problem solvers across the Northeast and globe

MITOS actively participates in networks around the region and globe – working together on shared issues ranging from climate resiliency strategies to data and metrics.

The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN)

ISCN is a global forum supporting leading colleges, universities, and corporate campuses in the exchange of information, ideas, and best practices for achieving sustainable campus operations and integrating sustainability in research and teaching. Read more here about ISCN and its collaboration with MIT.

MIT engages with the ISCN :
-By attending the ISCN’s annual conference
-By participating in the ISCN’s Advisory Committee to develop programs and strengthen ISCN member participation and relationship development with members from MIT’s Office of Sustainability
-By participating in ongoing research and development activities through strong connections with other ISCN members.
-For example, MIT has partnered with Delft University of Technology for a Global Living Lab Framework connecting ISCN members from across the globe.

Signatory of We Are Still In. See: https://www.wearestillin.com/signatories.