Brown University is working toward a more sustainable global environment through three focus areas: research and training, community collaborations, university commitments and a great variety of student groups and initiatives that turn ideas into reality. The Providence, Rhode Island Ivy League school began their ‘Brown is Green’ environmental education and advocacy initiative way back in 1990, with the aim of expanding student involvement in identifying and solving environmental problems on campus, providing a model for other colleges and universities.
The Brown is Green initiative addresses a number of goals including energy conservation, pollution reduction, eco-friendly design, energy efficiency, resource recovery, water conservation and transportation. Brown University now has an Energy and Environment Task Force that assesses the university’s environmental impact and works on ways to improve, as well as an Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee (EEAC) that develops goals and strategies to make Brown more green. The EEAC’s first set of recommendations, released in 2007, led to the creation of Brown’s Community Carbon Use Reduction program which works to reduce the university’s carbon footprint.
Brown University students have certainly proven to be passionate about making their school more eco-friendly and spreading these ideas to the community. Green organizations on campus include Emerging Green Leaders, comprised of students and young professionals intent on becoming part of the green building movement, and the Empower Student Group, which believes that Brown must take responsibility for its contribution to global warming and immediately work to end it.
Students are also leading the way toward better practices on campus. The Sustainable Food Initiative integrates local food and sustainable agriculture into student life through an on-campus, student run farm. The Brown Progress Initiative is a multidisciplinary think-tank for sustainable product design and development, seeking to cultivate innovative solutions that can solve current needs in a ‘green’ manner.
Brown has retrofitted many existing buildings on campus with more eco-friendly lighting, motors and mechanical equipment, and millions of dollars worth of additional improvements are in the pipeline for the next few years. The university has also set goals to seek, at minimum, the Silver standard in LEED for all new construction and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for all newly acquired facilities by at least 15%.
Other ways in which this Ivy League institution has gone green include a ‘Bike to Brown’ support group, a fleet of university-owned hybrid, natural gas and biodiesel-fueled vehicles, and free bus transportation for students, faculty and staff. The Brown dining hall purchases locally grown and fairly traded food through its Community Harvest program, works to compost or recycle as much waste as possible and provides biodegradable to-go containers.
Read more about Brown’s efforts at the Brown Daily Herald, which frequently features environment-themed articles. Congratulations to everyone at Brown University for all of your achievements in such a short time period - we’re looking forward to seeing what else you can do.
Link [Brown is Green]
