Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 71.21
Liaison Lisa Noriega
Submission Date June 29, 2022

STARS v2.2

Yale University
IN-49: Innovation C

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Lisa Noriega
Sustainability Data Analyst
Yale Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

With the support of a seed grant from the Yale University Planetary Solutions Project, the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative launched in May 2022. The new initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of bird-friendly design on Yale’s campus and beyond. The Initiative is co-led by the Law, Ethics & Animals at Yale Law School, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the Yale Office of Sustainability. In 2022 and 2023, the Initiative will conduct two initial research projects in partnership with American Bird Conservancy.

The first research project focuses on creating a data-driven action plan for how the university can significantly reduce bird-window collisions on campus. The research team will take these steps:

1. Collect data on bird-window collisions on Yale’s campus and in the city of New Haven through carcass surveys conducted during the migration seasons, citizen science reports, and historic data from the Peabody Museum’s ornithology collection;
2. Identify buildings and specific facades that are killing high numbers of birds;
3. Identify mitigation solutions for those buildings; and
4. Propose updated and rigorous institutional design standards to prevent unnecessary bird deaths at new and remodeled buildings. These recommendations for institutional design standards will be published in an open-source format for use by other universities and institutions. Bird carcasses collected during the research will be added to the Yale Peabody Museum’s ornithology collection.


A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
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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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