AASHE Publishes 2021 Annual Impact Report
AASHE recently released an annual impact report detailing progress throughout 2021. Highlights include the introduction of a new award category, the Racial Equity and Sustainability Collaborations Award; publishing the second volume of No Sustainability Without Justice, an Anthology on Racial Equity and Social Justice; and information about the more than 20 advocacy initiatives that AASHE supported.
Colorado State U to Launch Air Travel Offset Program
Starting Feb. 1, the university will assess a $10 offset fee for domestic air travel trips and $20 for international air travel trips on university business. Sponsored research travel and trips paid for with personal funds will be exempt.
MIT Initiates the Energy Systems Research Center
Working with energy partners, the new research consortium, the Future Energy Systems Center, aims to address the climate crisis and the role energy systems can play in solving it. The center investigates the emerging technology, policy, demographics and economics reshaping the landscape of energy supply and demand, then conducts integrative analysis of the entire energy system.
Ontario Tech U Signs Charter on Anti-Black Racism
Ontario Tech recently joined Canada’s post-secondary community in committing to the principles and objectives of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education. The Scarborough Charter outlines principles, actions and accountabilities to build practices of ongoing dialogue and action that remove structural barriers to equity, to yield inclusion, substantive equality and social transformation.
American U Removes Smokestacks
During winter break, two 100-foot smokestacks at American University that were part of the AU campus skyline for more than 60 years were removed. This is the final step in the university’s conversion to a low-temperature hot water heating system that is projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 40 percent.
U Albany Adopts Official Land Acknowledgement
The University at Albany, part of the State University of NY system, has adopted an official land acknowledgment that recognizes the homelands of the Kanien’keháka and Muh-he-con-neok people upon which the campus resides.
U Indonesia Publishes GreenMetric World University Rankings
Universitas Indonesia has published the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings 2021, which are based on 6 dimensions of sustainability: setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation and education. Wageningen University & Research was ranked first among the 956 universities from 80 countries that submitted data.
