1 greening the campus nilda mesa assistant vice president, office of environmental stewardship may...

1

Greening the Campus

Nilda Mesa Assistant Vice President, Office of Environmental

StewardshipMay 15, 2009

04/22/23 2

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

2

What CU Stewardship Means• Integrating environmental considerations into all aspects

of the university’s planning and operations• Academic Environmental Programs: 24 degrees in all• Energy Efficiency: a top priority• Columbia’s PlaNYC Challenge Commitment• Green Buildings• Manhattanville Commitments• Green Roofs and other Faculty and Student

Collaborations• Future Trends and Issues

04/22/23 2

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

04/22/23 3

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

3

Making the Grade: Sustainable Endowments Institute

• Columbia one of only 15 schools nationwide to score the highest grade: A-

• Only New York school on the list

– Average grade of all schools surveyed was a C+

04/22/23 4

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

4

LEED Buildings Underway

• Comer Geochemistry Building• McVickar Hall• Northwest Corner Building• Faculty House• Knox Hall• Baker Field

The 63,000-square-foot Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is designed for high energy efficiency.

04/22/23 5

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

5Existing and proposed view from West 130th Street and Twelfth Avenue

Manhattanville

One acre open square

Exterior shading Atelier Ten helped design to reduce cooling

costs at Yale University

•LEED-ND for master plan•LEED Silver for buildings•Sustainability Framework•Construction and Demolition Debris•MOU with Environmental Defense Fund

•construction air quality mitigation

04/22/23 6

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

6

Collaborations• Green Roof Project • Urban Design Lab• CTICE/Gateway

• Green Umbrella/Ecoreps

• Green audits

• Surplus Reuse– 90.82 short tons of furniture kept out of the landfill with the Surplus

Reuse Program– Waste Match – city collaboration

04/22/23 7

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

7

• 30% reduction from 2005 levels by 2017– Reductions are over gross square footage

• Conducted GHG Inventory 2005-06 Baseline Year• Develop an emission reduction action plan• Implement• Monitor• Review and adjust

PlaNYC Challenge Commitment

04/22/23 8

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

8

What we learned

• Building energy usage makes up over 90% of greenhouse gas emissions

• Different buildings exhibited different patterns

• Influencing planning

04/22/23 9

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

9

What happens next

04/22/23 10

Columbia University Environmental StewardshipWhere the GHG reductions will come from

04/22/23 11

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

11

IT part of the plan….

04/22/23 12

Columbia University Environmental Stewardship

12

For more information:

www.environment.columbia.edu