Office of Sustainability

Timeline of Accomplishments

Year Actions and initiatives
2007
2009
  • First Climate Action Plan created.
  • Bottled water use restricted at campus-at-large events.
2010
2013
  • Solar thermal installed at Charles River Apartments.
  • First electric car-charging stations installed.
2015
2016
  • Dining hall compost program launched.
  • Sustainability starts being included in new-employee orientation.
2017
2018
  • Short-term carbon reduction goal exceeded.
  • Skyline residence hall built with campus' first geothermal system.
  • First in region to install electric car-charging stations from Electrify America.
  • Reusable takeout boxes launched at the Faculty Club.
  • Campus-wide switch to 30% recycled content paper.
  • Green Office Certification program launched.
2019
2020
  • Plastic Waste Reduction Initiative removes plastic bags and reduces straws and bottled water on campus.
  • Climate Action Plan rewritten to include climate resilience planning.
2021
  • President announces several additional goals and initiatives based on revised climate action plan.
  • Brandeis joins the Cool Food Pledge.
  • Brandeis wins the 2021 Campus Sustainability Achievement Award for our advances in sustainable dining.
2022
  • Brandeis commissions its first decarbonization action plan.
  • Launch of the Year of Climate Action.
  • First-ever pilot of organic land management practices.
  • We publish all of the recent and current energy conservation projects on the GRITS public library, a platform for tracking and sharing energy, financial, and carbon project data.