Brown and Green
The Office of Sustainability Newsletter
Happy Spring
“Spring is a time of renewal and growth — the perfect season to reflect on our past year’s progress and to find renewed focus on the goals ahead. One year ago, Brown’s first Sustainability Strategic Plan was released as the guiding document for sustainability efforts across the University. Since then, we have established a steering committee made up of faculty, staff and students charged with overseeing the implementation of the plan. This committee now meets regularly to convene ad hoc working groups with subject area expertise to help assure that Brown achieves its ambitious commitments. As of March 2022 there are active working groups for scope 3 emissions, human health, and community engagement.
This edition marks the second anniversary of the Brown & Green newsletter. We are looking forward to continuing to share the progress of the Sustainability Strategic Plan both here and on our website with the Brown community."
- Jessica Berry, Director, Office of Sustainability
NEWS @ BROWN
Sustainability updates from campus
Brown continues to progress towards its 2040 net-zero pledge. In FY2021, Brown emitted a total of 40,358 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.* This represents a 22.6% reduction from the FY2018 baseline amount.
*40,358 mtco2e refers to Scope 1 and 2 emissions and includes renewable energy credits sourced from Brown's first power purchase agreement.
BEYOND BROWN
Sustainability news you might have missed in New England, the nation, and the world
New England News:
Rat poisons are killing eagles and owls
Patient at the Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island
Rodenticides, or rodent poison, has been increasingly fatal to New England birds of prey, including raptors, hawks, and owls. These poisons are "really pernicious ones that are really widespread," Executive Director of the Birdsey Cape Wildlife Center Zak Mertz said in the Providence Journal. "They're the ones we see the effects of every single day in our hospital." Experts have been sounding the alarm to move away from these harmful rodenticides to protect New England’s birds. Click the link below to learn more about alternatives for pest control that won’t harm birds of prey.
U.S. News:
Infrastructure funding and climate change
The bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed last November will have an enormous impact on improving roads, bridges, and broadband infrastructure around the country, helping to connect Americans and improve ease of mobility.
However, according to the study referenced by this NY Times article, increasing the size and number of roads often leads to an increase in driving as well. Transportation in America is already a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. The large infrastructure bill does propose $90 billion to fund public transportation projects and an additional $66 billion for rail. This could be a great investment opportunities for public transit, a more environmentally friendly choice, as long as it is made a priority.
“There’s lots of money for transit, but if new transit lines are surrounded by hundreds of newly expanded highways, how do we think that will work out for the climate?” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America, a transit advocacy group. “The status quo is going to win unless everything aligns to change it.”
World News:
The IPCC releases alarming report
The Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released February 28. The report details the increasingly urgent need to take aggressive climate action worldwide to reduce emissions. 14% of land species are at risk of going extinct, according to the report, and 47% of species have lost some of their population as a result of climate change. The report warns that the pace of climate change and its associated impacts could soon overwhelm our ability to adapt to or mitigate these effects.
SUSTAINABILITY TIPS
Spring Cleaning Edition
Swap your cleaning products:
Volatile organic compounds in cleaning products can deteriorate air quality, contribute to urban smog, worsen water pollution, and don’t easily biodegrade, threatening some aquatic life. Swapping to non-toxic, bio-friendly cleaning supplies can help keep you and the environment safe.
Use reusable rags instead of paper towels:
Paper towels are disposable and can pile up quickly — opting for a reusable alternative, whether it be an old dish rag, towel or t-shirt, can help minimize your waste while doing your spring cleaning.
Bike or walk instead:
Reduce fossil fuel use by opting to ride your bike or walk to destinations as the spring weather begins.
Consider donation:
When clearing your closet, bookshelves, or drawers, swap the landfill for donations! Clothing and other household items can often find a new home. The Office of Sustainability runs the Clean Break program, a campus-wide donation program, during student move-out. Click here to volunteer for Clean Break.
Level up your laundry:
When doing laundry, try to avoid over-drying, limit your loads, and avoid detergents and dryer sheets that contain volatile organic compounds (VOC). Laundry detergent sheets can reduce plastic use, and avoiding scents can reduce potential water pollution from VOCs in detergents.
Ride RIPTA:
When walking or biking isn’t an option, try public transportation instead! RIPTA is free with a Brown ID.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
SCRAP
After more than a year-long hiatus due to COVID, Brown's student composting initiative, SCRAP, hit the ground running this past fall. Since then, club members have been holding weekly turns of the student compost system, hosting fun community events such as pumpkin carving, and educating the Brown community about the wonders of compost! This semester, SCRAP is excited to expand compost accessibility on campus by adding an additional compost drop-off site at West House. If you have any questions or want to get involved, email compost.with.scrap@gmail.com.
LOCAL VENDOR SPOTLIGHT
Mushroom RI
Meet RI Mushroom Co., a Rhode Island vendor with 14 different varieties of mushrooms. The company began in 2013 and today is the largest specialty mushroom farm in New England, supplying large customers such as Brown University with Farm to Fork mushrooms.
To grow their mushrooms, RI Mushroom Co. carefully controls temperature, humidity, and light so the plants will reproduce. The mushrooms grow rapidly, needing to be harvested twice a day. RI Mushroom is USDA Organic Certified — they avoid using chemical fungicides by incorporating hemlock into the growing process, which is a natural fungicide.
RESEARCH @ BROWN
The role of PR firms in climate change politics
Climate politics and discourse has long been influenced by a complex set of actors, from governments and activists to non-profit organizations. However, one type of entity has operated with relatively little study or recognition of its impact: the public relations firm. PR firms have sought to shape perceptions of the climate crisis since scientists began ringing alarm bells. Concepts which are prevalent now, such as “clean coal” or a “carbon footprint,” were originally created by PR firms as marketing tools.
Professor Bob Brulle and recent Brown graduate Carter Werthman ’21 researched the impact of PR in the study entitled “The role of public relations firms in climate change politics.” In this study, Brulle and Werthman explore the extent that PR firms are involved in environmental politics, which firms are tapped mostly frequently, and how they engage in advocacy and influence perceptions. They also break down PR strategies and discuss the way firms will continue to hold vital sway in the environmental space in the future.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESOURCES
The PVD Tree Plan is a “collaborative project to develop a vision and action plan for creating a just, resilient and equitably distributed urban forest in Providence,” according to their website. Trees can provide enormous benefits to communities, including helping to clean air and water, providing shade, supporting ecosystems, and reducing urban heat.
However, Providence does not have an evenly distributed tree canopy. Lower-income communities and predominantly non-white communities tend to have reduced tree cover, higher temperatures, and poorer air quality. The PVD Tree Plan is currently conducting a survey to hear from residents and create a plan to create tree equity in Providence.
OS SUGGESTS
When it's cold outside, sometimes you just want to curl up with a cup of tea and watch a show or read a book. What is the environmental impact of that cup of tea? Are some types of tea more sustainable than others? What’s the difference between packaged and loose-leaf tea environmentally? The Possibly Podcast from The People’s Radio explores this question and more in their 5 minute segments each week.
