BROWN AND GREEN
A Quarterly Newsletter from the Brown Office of Sustainability
Return to School
"On behalf of Brown’s Office of Sustainability, I am excited to welcome everyone back after winter break. This year we will leverage the resiliency we built as a result of the various challenges we faced in 2020. More than ever, we are committed to expanding the reach of sustainability across campus and making strides toward our transformative net-zero goal. Over the past month we released our FY20 Sustainability Report and Brown’s first Sustainability Plan which will guide Brown’s commitment to a sustainable future.
Please enjoy our first newsletter of the year. We look forward to seeing you on campus soon!"
-Jess Berry, Director of Sustainability
NEWS @ BROWN
Sustainability Updates From Campus
FY20 Sustainability Highlights
This year’s sustainability report highlights how Brown continues to work towards its greenhouse gas emissions goal of net-zero by 2040. We are pleased to report that Brown’s wind project in Texas is now fully operational and is offsetting a portion of the University’s on-campus energy consumption. Additionally, Brown accelerated its initiative to convert lighting across campus to LED and has achieved 70% conversion to date. By the end of FY21, 90% of campus will be LED! The move to LED will reduce electricity consumption and maintenance costs across campus.
Besides off-setting campus emissions, in FY20 the University upgraded its greenhouse gas inventory methodology to be in line with national and international standards and to ensure that sound metrics will be available year after year. These new changes ensure transparency and reliability and are third-party verified through The Climate Registry. Additionally, a public-facing dashboard is under development.
Another important milestone of FY20 is Brown’s new partnership with Agri-Cycle, a regional food waste collection service. The compost hauler handles a portion of the University’s compost portfolio including locations such as Faunce House, West House, and Josiah’s. Located on a fifth-generation dairy farm, Agri-Cycle employs a closed-loop waste system that uses manure and bedding from the farm and creates fertilizer, power, and heat for local homes.
Last but not least, 29% of Dining Services' annual spend on produce was local, including 100% of fluid dairy. Read more about other sustainability milestones in the FY20 Sustainability Report!
Brown Unveils Sustainability Plan
Brown solidified its leadership role in sustainability this year by releasing its first campus sustainability plan. The plan outlines essential priorities and actions the University will focus on to achieve a sustainable future under the following categories: greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient pollution, human health, water, and biodiversity. The plan includes sections that address university operations, academic opportunities, and Brown’s engagement with the local community.
The plan is a continuation of Brown’s leadership in environmental stewardship, education, and research. In the last decades, Brown initiated the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, a major accomplishment that has added nearly 20 environment-focused faculty to campus. More recently, in 2019, Brown set out to achieve net-zero campus emissions no later than 2040.
Additionally, Brown just launched its new sustainability website—this new platform reflects the University's sustainability goals stated in the Sustainability Plan. This website also represents Brown's role in sustainability as a whole and not just within the Office of Sustainability.
BEYOND BROWN
Climate News You Might Have Missed!
Source: New York Times, Left image shows the Pantanal Wetland Fires in the Amazon region. Yellow areas show fire hot spots and purple areas show protected and indigenous land. The photo on the right shows the raging fires in northern Pantanal, in Mato Grosso State, in August 2020
The Largest Wetland on Earth Burns in Flames
In 2020, almost a quarter of the Pantanal wetland that stretches over parts of Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia burned in wildfires. This wetland is one of the most biodiverse places on our planet and it regulates the water cycle in South America by purifying water and preventing floods and droughts. It also stabilizes climate with its large amounts of carbon.
Adding fuel to the fire is the common practice among ranchers to use fire to clear fields and open new land. However, last year, drought worsened by climate change made these fires unstoppable, burning around 22% of the Pantanal.
Drones Fire Seeds to Plant Thousands of Trees
Our planet loses billions of trees every year, fatally damaging our ecosystems and climate. Watch how this company uses technology to restore forests, 150 times faster than traditional methods:
SUSTAINABILITY TIPS
FOR BACK TO SCHOOL
How We Can Do Our Part!
Decorate your desk with plants to add some life to your workspace; decrease the brightness of your computer; and work with natural light whenever possible to save energy.
An easy way to reduce your waste footprint during the pandemic is to forgo a disposable mask in favor of a reusable mask to reduce waste. It is important to follow CDC guidelines in washing reusable masks.
Reduce paper waste by using recycled or reusable notebooks such as the Rocket Book. Instead of taking notes on paper, use your laptop or tablet. Additionally, opt-in for rented books from the Brown Bookstore.
Local Vendor Spotlight
In FY20, 29% of Dining Services’s produce was purchased locally, including 100% of liquid dairy. Dining Services is committed to working closely with local businesses to enhance sustainable food sourcing in the coming years. Brown recently partnered with Queen’s Greens farm in Amherst, MA to supply a portion of the University's organic lettuce needs when the product is in season. Besides lettuce, the local farm grows other organic produce like kale, spinach, root vegetables, and tomatoes.
Queen’s Greens, run primarily by Danya Teitelbaum and Matt Biksup, has embodied sustainability since its founding over 11 years ago when Matt and Danya started a small organic market garden. Today, the company implements a variety of sustainable practices like cover cropping, which is an effective way to manage soil fertility and overall quality. They are hoping to expand the area they cover crop this year since it has proven to show success in their harvests. Brown Dining is proud to work with farms like Queen's Greens and looks forward to creating more partnerships with small, local farms.
Matt and Danya, the founding farmers at Queen’s Greens.
RESEARCH @ BROWN
The Climate Solutions Initiative
The Climate Solutions Initiative, a three-year undertaking managed by University leaders, the Office of the Provost, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), aims to curb climate inaction locally and globally through scholarship, learning, and research-informed infrastructure changes. It will soon establish a Climate Solutions Lab, housed at the Watson Institute, that will harness Brown’s faculty expertise on energy, trade, and finance to create public-facing policy analyses and offer courses on climate policy and finance that will train the next generation of climate action leaders. The Initiative will focus on the role of infrastructure, legal and political inertia in slowing the climate crisis at the institutional, city, regional, and global levels.
Climate Solutions Lab releases Climate Action Plan
The Climate Solutions Lab released a climate action plan for the next presidency which outlines 10 policy proposals the U.S. needs to set forward in order to combat the consequences of climate change. The 35-page report covers domestic and foreign policy recommendations to provide a meaningful roadmap for President Biden to immediately implement and enforce climate change solutions.
Environmental Justice with OLEEP
OLEEP teaches Environmental Education to local high schoolers
OLEEP Brown Mentors with local Providence students learning about local plant diversity
One of the many Environmental Justice groups at Brown that continues to be active despite the pandemic is OLEEP, the Outdoor Leadership Environmental Education Program. Brown students closely work with high school students over zoom to develop leadership skills and provide education on environmental science issues.
Amanda Hinh ‘21 has been working with OLEEP since her sophomore year and feels it is an important outlet for environmental justice education. Amanda and other site leaders in OLEEP have brought new topics into their curriculum that cover environmental justice. For example, high-school students discuss climate mitigation strategies that push for cleaner air and water in Providence. In a recent interview, Amanda shared that “last year, we made it a priority to provide a toolkit for students to be leaders in their own communities [...] many of the students are primarily Latinx and they belong to communities that are prone to the effects of environmental injustice.”
OS RECOMMENDATIONS
Genesis by Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado is a photo book of landscapes, animals, and indigenous people from around the world. These breath-taking, immaculate pictures provide further incentive to preserve our environment.
Happy Cow is an app that helps you find local vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants. By downloading the app or using their website, you can find meatless food options that help you reduce your carbon footprint!
