Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.07
Liaison Carolyn Shafer
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Pratt Institute
PA-1: Sustainability Coordination

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Carolyn Shafer
Director
Center for Sustainable Design Strategies
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Sustainability committee(s) 

Does the institution have at least one sustainability committee?:
Yes

The charter or mission statement of the committee(s) or a brief description of each committee's purview and activities:
The Pratt Sustainability Committee (PSC)’s purpose is to cultivate a culture of environmental responsibility among faculty, staff, and students. The PSC makes recommendations to the President and to the Pratt community regarding policies to promote environmental sustainability on campus. The Committee focuses on identifying policies and practices that promote the most efficient and responsible use of Institute resources and coordinating and supporting campus sustainability initiatives and efforts. The PSC is also responsible for creating the annual Pratt Sustainability Report based on the AASHE STARS framework.

Members of each committee, including affiliations and role:
Pratt Sustainability Committee: Carolyn Shafer (staff, executive director of Center for Sustainable Design Strategies), Carl Zimring (faculty, Sustainability Studies minor coordinator), Tetsu Ohara (faculty, Interior Design), Anthony Gelber (staff, Director of Administrative Sustainability), Leonel Ponce (Faculty, Graduate School of Planning and the Environment), Angus Fake (student government representative), Monica Sylvanus (student), Rick Cenicola (staff, Food Services).

DSC: Carolyn Shafer (staff, executive director of Center for Sustainable Design Strategies), Carl Zimring (faculty, Sustainability Studies minor coordinator), Tetsu Ohara (faculty, Interior Design), Frank Millero (faculty, Industrial Design), Damon Chaky (faculty, Math and Sciences), Todd Ayoung (faculty, Foundation), Patricia Madeja (faculty, Fine Arts Jewelry), Meta Brunzema (faculty, Graduate Architecture), Reese Campbell (faculty, Undergraduate Architecture), Eric O'Toole (faculty, Communications Design), Tessa Maffucci (faculty, Fashion), Greg Lindguist (History of Art & Design).

Pratt Sustainability Coalition: Meta Brunzema (faculty), Yutaka Takiura (faculty), Alice Zinnes (faculty), Brent Porter (faculty, Jennifer Telesca (faculty), Eric O'Toole (faculty), Todd Ayoung (faculty), Summer Sandoval (student), Jeremy Pickard (faculty), Christopher Jensen (faculty), Yutaka Takiura, Rose DePasquale (faculty), Angus Fake (student),
Tessa Maffucci (faculty, Fashion), Johanna Bauman (staff, Pratt Libraries), Melissa Brown (staff, Pratt Libraries), Joelle Danant, Tetsu Ohara (faculty)
Carl Zimring (faculty)

Sustainability office(s) 

Does the institution have at least one sustainability office that includes more than 1 full-time equivalent employee?:
Yes

A brief description of each sustainability office:
Center for Sustainable Design Strategies. CSDS serves as a physical and virtual hub for Pratt’s commitment to educate environmentally responsible citizens. CSDS encourages the use of Pratt’s campus as a living laboratory linking the classroom to campus initiatives. The CSDS houses a materials research center that supports faculty, students and alumni in the integration of sustainability into their professional lives.

Full-time equivalent of people employed in the sustainability office(s):
1

Sustainability officer(s) 

Does the institution have at least one sustainability officer?:
Yes

Name and title of each sustainability officer:
Carolyn Shafer, Director of Center for Sustainable Design Strategies; Anthony Gelber, Director of Administrative Sustainability

Institution-wide coordination 

Does the institution have a mechanism for broad sustainability coordination for the entire institution?:
Yes

A brief description of the activities and substantive accomplishments of the institution-wide coordinating body or officer during the previous three years:
Department Sustainability Coordinators (DSC): Beginning in 2016, the Provost’ office, in conjunction with the Center for Sustainable Design Strategies, organized the DSC to include one faculty member to represent each participating department. That person works with each department's chair and curriculum committee to further sustainability within each program/curriculum and to document progress. Each program establishes its own way to do this. In addition to the individual departmental work, all of the DSC representatives meet together monthly to coordinate best practices, as well as report curriculum developments (including, for example, the AC portions of this report).

The Pratt Sustainability Coalition is a group of faculty, administrators, students and staff of Pratt Institute from a variety of disciplines including art, design, architecture, planning, and science, who have been meeting monthly since October 2005. The coalition is dedicated to identifying, interpreting, inspiring, incorporating and instituting ecologically responsible practices into curricula, operations, and programs at Pratt Institute. The group meets monthly in various locations on campus. Location and time are emailed through listserv. Tetsu Ohara, a faculty member of the Interior Design department, has been the coordinator since 2009. The Center of Sustainable Design Studies has been sponsoring the Coalition as well as the Annual Greenweek.

Mission and Vision
Students from Pratt Institute will work in professions that shape the built environment, influence material culture, and affect everyday life for millions of people far into the future. In response to our growing awareness of issues related to air quality and pollution, health risks from chemicals, fossil fuel depletion and climate change, there is a burgeoning revolution in design innovations. These innovations include carbon-neutral buildings, landscapes that promote water conservation and stormwater management, design for recycling, products with recycled content, fabrication and construction processes that minimize waste and energy consumption and new technologies that are creating ecologically safe materials and products that will transform our collective future. Graduates of art, design and architecture programs should be exposed to the practices associated with this transformation.

Objectives
To nurture and maintain an informal social network for the sharing of ideas and the development of collaborative projects related to sustainability, both on and off campus
Through a website, listserv and accessible databases, to provide the Pratt community with information about sustainable initiatives and events on the Pratt campus and in the world at large.
To produce and coordinate the annual Greenweek (in the spring) and Blueweek (in the fall) on campus.

Optional Fields 

Job description (1st position)

Job title of the sustainability officer position:
Director of Center for Sustainable Design Strategies

Job description for the sustainability officer position:
Job description for the sustainability officer position:
Job Title: Director of Pratt’s Center for Sustainable Design Strategies (UPDATED 01/13/2019)

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

The Role of the Director of CSDS is to design and implement the strategic plan of CSDS and to manage operations of the CSDS Resource Center. This involves managing the development of design and research projects across various initiatives within CSDS and its outside partners. These projects include, but are not limited to, the development of the Sustainable Materials Library, the development of the Case Studies Data Base, creating communication strategies and events for new student Orientation, supporting Faculty Workshops and CSDS lead classroom events, integrating Life-Cycle Assessment tools and services into student work, developing new content for the CSDS web site, and incorporating sustainable design strategies into the curriculum across multiple departments and programs at Pratt Institute.

The Director manages the Departmental Sustainability Coordinators (DSC) initiative. Responsibilities include developing the mission and plan for the group, scheduling monthly meetings, collecting deliverables, reporting back to the Institute on progress and hiring faculty to serve as DSCs.

The Director managed and coordinates the GIVETAKE art supply program. This involves hiring students, communicating to the Pratt community about GIVETAKE, and working directly with Academic Chairs, the Director of Administrative Sustainability and the Chief Facilities Officer for art supply collection and end-of-semester clean out.

The Director acts as the public speaker and public relations representative of Sustainability Initiatives at Pratt Institute in ways that strengthen its profile.

The Director works with the in-house communications designer to develop and support visual communication for CSDS to convey CSDS activities to the Pratt community and design community in general.

CSDS employs student interns who work in the CSDS Resource Center and the Pratt GIVETAKE art supply reuse program. The Director is responsible for hiring, training, managing and evaluating the interns each semester. The Director is also responsible for managing the Student Employment Budget for all student interns employed at CSDS/GIVETAKE.

The Director manages the maintenance of the CSDS Website. This involves providing the Web Developer with new feature stories, updating the web-based portal into the CSDS Resource Library, and seeking out sustainable student work to showcase.

CSDS is a key coordinator of the Sustainability Coalition and works directly with the Green Week coordinator to develop programming for the weeklong Green Week event each Spring. This includes participating in a monthly meeting throughout the year as well as overseeing a number of activities hosted by CSDS during Green Week. The Director of CSDS produces the annual Sustainability Crash Course; managing the budget, staff, program, PR, AV requirements, volunteers, guest speakers and day of event coordination.

The Director of CSDS acts as Project Manager for CSDS research projects. This includes projects internal to Pratt Institute, such as the Sustainable Fashion Roadmap Project, as well as consultancy projects with outside partners, such as the Life Cycle Assessment project with TUMI. From Project Set-Up through the end of the project, the Project Manager serves as key liaison between Pratt and the sponsoring partner and key coordinator of the research team. In addition to attending weekly meetings she will oversee the management and progress of the project.

The Director coordinates Pratt’s Sustainability reporting to Princeton Review / AASHE STARS for the entire institute. This requires collaborating with all institutional areas including academics, operations, engagement, and planning. The summary of this report is used to create Pratt’s Sustainability Report, which will be used for goal setting and prioritizing sustainability initiatives.

The Director chairs Pratt’s Sustainability Committee which is made up of the Administrative Director of Sustainability, the Coordinator of the Sustainability Minor, the Sustainability Coalition Coordinator, the SGA Sustainability Representative, the Envirolutions Chair, the LEAP Chair and Food Service Rep.

Job description (2nd position) 

Job title of the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
Director of Administrative Sustainability

Job description for the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
Job description for the sustainability officer position (2nd position):
Job Description- Director Administrative Sustainability
Reporting to the VP Admin and Finance, working with Executive Director of Facilities:
1. Liaison with the Bloomberg 30/10 Challenge
a. Attends meetings and events, “PR”; Semiannual updates and reports
b. Annual GHG inventory, and tracking and reporting progress toward the 30/10 goals
2. Liaison with AASHE on Admin items GHG 7 tangible actions
a. Semiannual reporting and tracking of commitments and 7 tangible actions items
b. Purchasing of RECS (green electricity) and carbon credits
3. Conducts GHG inventory annually for Bloomberg and AASHE
a. Obtain utility, solid waste, commuter and business travel data
b. Format and calculate GHG (software); Compare to previous years
4. Develops Climate Action Plan and recommendations for initiatives and implementation
steps
a. Developed and submitted a Climate Action Plan for Bloomberg and AASHE
b. Recommend action steps as outlined in the Climate Action Plan
c. Assist in implementation of the GHG/Energy project
5. GHG/ Energy Reduction Project
a. Works with Facilities and Princeton Energy to develop an RFQ, RFP and select an ESCO
b. Assist in obtaining an IGA and in developing a project proposal
c. Assist in project implementation
6. Grant and Rebate Applications and Administration
a. Applies for and tracks grants and rebates from KREGGE, NYSERDA, EPA, Feds, Utilities
b. Works with academia on the FIPSE grant
c. Green Careers and Business Center- $90K
7. Coordinates the sustainable portion of The Pratt America Reads- Goes Green Initiative
a. Co-manages events- Costumed Readout/Green Expo, Sustainable Spelling Bees
b. Works with Pratt Tutors on Sustainable Education Practices
c. Works with America Reads- Summer Youth Program (sustainability section)
8. PR
a. Website, Attends sustainability functions, Gateway articles
b. Monthly Green Lunches with CAST- Campus Administrative Sustainablity Team
9. Coordinates with academia on campus events such as Green Week
10. Works with Academia
a. Campus as a Living lab project- (last year)
b. Founded and directed 10 student Eco Reps (last year)
11. Promotes Sustainability- “Vision”
a. Gadfly questioning- do these actions help us meet our sustainability commitments
i. Design, operations, purchasing, etc.
b. Guest companies and experts to promote sustainability
i. Wattstopper, Lutron
ii. Paul Mankiewicz- The Gaia Institute- storm water management and use
iii. Geothermal- FIPSE grant and Ball State University
c. Renewable Energy Demonstration Projects

d. Develop a vision for The Conversion of a 19 th Century to 21 st Century Campus
12. Works with Executive Director of Facilities on:
a. Sustainability advocate for 536 Myrtle Avenue
b. Meeting Bloomberg and AASHE goals
c. Improving sustainability of design and operations
d. Benchmarking design and operations
13. Other

Job description (3rd position) 

Job title of the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
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Job description for the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
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Job description for the sustainability officer position (3rd position):
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Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainability coordination is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.