Office of Sustainability

The President’s Task Force on Campus Sustainability is responsible for:

• Updating Brandeis’ 2016 Climate Action Plan (pdf) to set new, more aggressive carbon reduction targets and a plan and timeline for achieving them.
• Broadening the scope of the plan to include climate resilience, which focuses on climate adaptation and community capacity-building to deal with a changing climate and resulting extremes, and which would allow Brandeis to sign the Climate Commitment, a broader-scope commitment than the Carbon Commitment (to which we are a current signatory).
• Including in the plan principles around if or when to use financial mechanisms such as renewable energy credits and carbon offsets.
• Updating our Energy Conservation and Management Policy (pdf), and include in it a new standard for design and construction of new buildings and renovations that incorporates best practices in sustainability.
• Making recommendations for additional campus sustainability initiatives and best practices in areas including, but not limited to, waste reduction, including a plastic reduction policy; dining services; diversity; equity and inclusion; procurement; and incorporating climate change education in the classroom.
• Making recommendations with respect to the potential creation of formal mechanisms to address sustainability goals at Brandeis.

Four working groups will make recommendations to the task force:

1. A Working Group on Campus Operations will identify opportunities for reducing energy use on campus through such techniques as energy-efficient building upgrades and facilities maintenance, and adoption of forward-looking design standards for new construction.
2. A Working Group on Community Engagement will help ensure that a broad array of Brandeis community perspectives are represented in the work of the task force, and that the resulting Climate Action Plan presents equitable solutions. In addition, in light of the trustee’s announcement in November 2018 of a comprehensive policy on fossil fuel investment and its commitment to review that policy three years thereafter, this working group will promote dialogue about the role that fossil fuels and alternative energy investments should play in the university’s investment portfolio after the end of that three-year period.
3. A Working Group on Incorporating Climate Change in the Classroom will make recommendations for ways to expand climate change teaching and research, including with respect to developing curriculum and other educational experiences for all students.
4. A Working Group on Climate Resilience will lead a resilience assessment to help us anticipate, prepare for and respond to short-term events and long-term trends resulting from climate change. It will help identify risks and opportunities for planning to mitigate adverse impacts from these events and trends.

The task force should complete its work by the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

Co-chairs

• Mary Fischer, Manager, Sustainability Programs.
• Oliver Price ’20, Chair, Brandeis Senate Sustainability Committee.
• Sabine von Mering, Professor of German, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Faculty

• Joseph Assan, Assistant Professor of Political Economy of Sustainable Development, Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
• Rebecca Gieseking, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
• Ben Gomes-Casseres, Peter A. Petri Professor of Business and Society, Brandeis International Business School.
• Dan Perlman, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies; Chair, Environmental Studies.

Staff

• Jamele Adams, Dean of Students.
• Eric Dunn, Event Logistics Manager, Conference and Events Services; BUSAC Representative.
• Zachary Kasdin, Special Assistant to the President.
• Lois Stanley, Vice President for Campus Operations.

Students

• Hannah Brown, MA Candidate, International Business School.
• Lydia Casmier, MPP Candidate, Heller School for Social Policy and Management; Graduate Student Assistant, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
• Sabrina Chow ’21, Co-chair, Senate Sustainability Committee.
• Noah Sperber ‘21, Brandeis Sustainability Ambassador.
• Ann Ward, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Working Group on Campus Operations

• Bill Bushey, Energy Manager.
• Mary Fischer, Manager, Sustainability Programs.
• Michael McGarry, Associate Director of Design and Construction.
• Lois Stanley, Vice President for Campus Operations.
• Nancy Zhai ’22, Student Body Senator-at-Large, Senate Dining Committee Chair.

Working Group on Community Engagement

• Josh Adlerman, Area Coordinator, North Quad.
• Lydia Casmier, MPP Candidate, Heller School for Social Policy and Management; Graduate Student Assistant in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
• Mary Fischer, Manager, Sustainability Programs.
• Don Greenstein, Ombuds.
• Zachary Kasdin, Special Assistant to the President.
• Tom King, Associate Professor of English; Co-chair, Minor in Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation.
• Max Pearlstein, Associate Vice President for Marketing, Office of Communications, Marketing and External Affairs.
• Oliver Price ’20, Chair, Brandeis Senate Sustainability Committee.

Working Group on Incorporating Climate Change Education in the Classroom

• Esther Brandon, Digital Literacy Specialist.
• Mary Fischer, Manager, Sustainability Programs.
• Paul Miller, Associate Professor of Biology.
• Dan Perlman, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies.
• Sabine von Mering, Professor of German, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
• Jesse Zucker ’21, Brandeis Sustainability Ambassador.

Working Group on Climate Change Resilience

• Mary Fischer, Manager, Sustainability Programs.
• Richard Levitt, Associate Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations.
• Joshua Manfredo, Director of Emergency Management.
• Abby Smurzynski ’21, Brandeis Sustainability Ambassador.
• Lois Stanley, Vice President for Campus Operations.