1. Sustainability at MIT: Bridging the centuries
Julie Newman, Ph.D.
Director, MIT Office of Sustainability
Lecturer, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
2
2. may 9.2016
platform
1) How can we build a NextGen platform
for Campus Sustainability at MIT?
2) How can MIT be a game changing
force for campus sustainability in the
21st Century?
As many of you know, the MIT Climate Resiliency Committee was launched in Fall 2015 through a coordinated faculty and staff effort to come together around a shared desire to prepare MIT for the impacts of climate change.
The charge of this group was to complete a campus climate vulnerability assessment which assesses the impacts from climate change in five areas: increasing temperatures, extreme storms, flooding, storm surge, sea level rise, AND, the interaction of these factors, for of course we know that we will see for instance extreme hurricaines in a future where sea levels have risen.
If you remember from last year’s presentations, the City of Cambridge released a climate vulnerability assessment, and our efforts builds on this process. The goals of the group, in addition to completing an assessment which takes the work of the city and downscales it to the campus, also included:
Identifying opportunities for research and living laboratory projects to improve regional knowledge and action
Playing a leadership role in convening regional partners for shared planning
Continuing to integrate climate vulnerability assessment components and outcomes with the City of Cambridge and City of Boston
