Stanford University
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

Stanford's first new school in 70 years is launching in September 2022 as a way of amplifying Stanford's impact on urgent climate and sustainability challenges. The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability combines Stanford's existing expertise in climate and sustainability scholarship and education with a track record of moving knowledge to action. It builds on that history with a belief that by working together we can achieve more, and that by working with partners in the public, private and social sectors our faculty and students can have greater impact.

The decision to create a new school focused on climate and sustainability arose out of ideas proposed by faculty, students, staff, and alumni and evolved through several years of planning. In Winter 2020, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne tasked a committee led by two faculty with exploring new ways of organizing and connecting the many people working on sustainability issues broadly distributed across the campus to achieve the design team’s sweeping ambition. The committee prepared a report detailing options for how the university could reorganize for greater impact. Based on the structural committee’s work, the president identified a school focused on climate and sustainability as the best way to elevate Stanford’s contributions toward a more sustainable future. The president also asked Kathryn "Kam" Moler, Vice Provost and Dean of Research, to lead the effort to develop the school assisted by Stephan Graham, Dean of the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Science. In Summer 2021, the committee led by the two delegated Deans submitted a draft report to the president and provost with options and recommendations for the structure of the new school. In addition, a nine member student group that had conducted meetings, town halls and a student Deliberative Polling event, released a report detailing their vision for the school.

The new Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability merges and expands on existing Stanford organizations, including the internationally recognized School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy. The department of civil and environmental engineering will also join the new school as a joint department with the School of Engineering. The new school will include the facilities of Hopkins Marine Station, which had been administered by the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Joining these existing units are faculty from across the university and an anticipated 60 new faculty hires over the next ten years. When the new school launches in September 2022 the faculty, students, staff and programs of Stanford Earth will transfer into the new school, and students working toward degrees in Stanford Earth will remain in those degree programs within the new school.

Students interested in declaring undergraduate majors in the new school should look at degrees currently being offered by Stanford Earth or the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Those degrees will be part of the new school starting fall quarter 2022.

Students will have access to new classes that we are developing now and that will be offered starting next fall. We’ve already confirmed more than 10 classes for undergrads and grad students, many of which are being taught or co-taught by faculty in the Graduate School of Business and in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

See more details here:
https://sustainabilityinitiative.stanford.edu/

Many new initiatives are underway to help Stanford meet its long-range goal to achieve Zero Waste by 2030. Just several of these are highlighted here:

STUDENT GROUPS
In 2020, the Stanford All About No Waste Community was launched. The group is made up of students, staff, and faculty who are interested in the broader topics of waste management across industries, sectors, functions, and geographies. The group provides an avenue for sharing research or passions, and connecting with others who are also focused on zero waste. See more details here: https://waste.stanford.edu/

INTERNSHIPS
In academic year 2020-21, the Office of Sustainability's Green Labs intern helped to team to virtualize its semi-annual lab grab (formerly known as lab share) event to a virtual, ongoing program that enables lab staff to exchange lab equipment, resulting in waste and resource savings. See more details here: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/campus-action/buildings-grounds/buildings-initiatives/cardinal-green-labs/lab-waste

FOOD WASTE
In academic year 2020-21, R&DE released a new sustainability concierge service. Students can text and get immediate responses on issues such as how to sort a particular item of waste. R&DE is a critical contributor in achieving the university’s zero waste and climate goals. Across its eateries and cafes, R&DE Stanford Dining expanded its food waste reduction initiatives in 2020-21, utilizing multilevel strategies centered on source reduction, food waste monitoring, consumer education campaigns, and food recovery and donation initiatives. In 2019, Stanford Dining formed a Food Waste Reduction Task Force to develop a roadmap for accelerating solutions for reducing food waste. It released a new target in April, building on Stanford Dining’s long-standing initiatives by committing to further reduce its food waste by 25% by the end of 2022. R&DE continues to partner with the Loaves and Fishes A La Carte food rescue program to donate excess food from dining halls, cafes, and concessions to local organizations.

In 2020-21, R&DE expanded its strategic partnerships, elevated its thought leadership in the campus dining sector and the broader foodservice industry, and released the vision and core pillars of its One Plate, One Planet program. See details on this program and other notable initiatives, such as the "Menus of Change University Research Collaborative" and "Project Drawdown" partnership in the Sustainable Dining credit.

One final initiative we wish to highlight is the energy research done related to shelter-in-place. In 2020, facilities teams moved quickly to respond to the shelter-in-place restrictions and were able to shut off heating and cooling in 135 unoccupied buildings for several weeks—and in some cases several months. This allowed for significant reductions in energy consumption, as well as the launch of the COOLER program, through which researchers have begun chilled water load experiments in partnership with the Facilities Energy Management team in unoccupied spaces. The program is a collaboration between Stanford Land, Buildings & Real Estate, Dr. Jacques de Chalendar and Professor Sally Benson from the Energy Resources Engineering Department, and senior faculty affiliated with the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy. It entails experimenting with different chilled water load management measures within multiple operating buildings. A unique aspect of this research is the ability to test at the individual room level. This unlocks the potential for much more precise and targeted control strategies, opening the door to gradual demand reductions in non-critical spaces while simultaneously preserving critical zones. See more details related to this work in the Campus as a Living Lab credit category and here: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/content/cooler-program