| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 71.75 |
| Liaison | Jauna Vitale |
| Submission Date | Feb. 14, 2025 |
New York University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Alisson
Vera Program Administrator Office of Sustainability |
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
1st campaign
A brief description of the campaign:
NYU hosted 2040 Now in April 2023 to envision our world in 2040 when NYU will be climate neutral. The week aimed to create climate awareness and show how to take climate action. As part of 2040 Now, two NYU dining locations offered only plant based meals for one day to highlight that plant based options can be just as delicious and just as filling as animal based dishes. The community was informed of this campaign via university-wide emails, specific newsletters, social media, and easels in front of the entrance to the dining halls.
https://www.nyu.edu/about/university-initiatives/2040-now/nyu-initiatives.html
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
One day of plant forward dining at two dining halls on campus led to a reduction of around 55 metric tons of GHG emissions. That’s an amount equivalent to planting over 900 trees or swapping out over 2,000 incandescent bulbs with LEDs. This plant based menu reduced NYU's GHG emissions by around 90% compared to the typical foods that are served.
if reporting an additional campaign, provide:
2nd campaign
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
NYU hosted 2040 Now in April 2023 to envision our world in 2040 when NYU will be climate neutral. The week aimed to create climate awareness and show how to take climate action. As part of 2040 Now, NYU hosted a digital spring cleaning. As members of the NYU community, we all store things on the cloud, including through NYU Drive and NYU Box, email, Google Photos, Google Groups, NYU Stream, WordPress and Wikis, and Google Sites. The spring cleaning focused on deleting what is not needed, sending greener emails by limiting the size of attachments, only saving important attachments to the NYU drive, avoiding “reply all,” and unsubscribing from unread emails. Similar to the Plant Based Takeover, the NYU community was informed of this campaign via university-wide emails, specific newsletters, and social media.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
The NYU IT Digital Spring Cleaning purged over 7.8TBs from NYU’s cloud storage, equivalent to a reduction of around 10 metric tons of GHG emissions (assuming it takes 3.1 kWh per gigabyte of energy to store cloud-based data per an assessment at a conference of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy). This reduction is similar to 445 trash bags of waste being recycled instead of landfilled or 170 trees being planted.
Optional Fields
NYU hosts additional sustainability-related campaigns in addition to the ones above. These additional campaigns include our Green Workplace Certification, a self-reporting program for administrators to receive recognition for improving the sustainability of their workplaces. Since 2023, 40 departments with over 1,200 employees have certified their workplaces. NYU also hosts Green Apple Move Out, an annual campaign to collect and donate unwanted items from students moving out of Residence Halls. In 2023, NYU diverted over 875 items from the landfill.
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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GWC: https://www.nyu.edu/life/sustainability/programs/green-workplace-certification.html
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GAMO: https://www.nyu.edu/life/sustainability/operations/waste/green-apple-move-out.html
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.