About Us
Get to know the MIT Office of Sustainability
About Us
About Us - Introduction 2
Our mission
is to transform MIT into a powerful model—one that generates just, equitable, applicable, and scalable solutions for responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet.
To achieve our mission, we seek to advance a collaborative process that engages and elevates a diverse set of voices to foster operational excellence, education, research and innovation on our campus.
Creating a next generation sustainable campus
The MIT Office of Sustainability (MITOS) was established in 2013 under the Executive Vice President and Treasurer's Office to integrate sustainability across all levels of our campus by engaging the collective brainpower of our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and partners. We have set out to ensure that sustainability is a critical part of MIT’s standard operating procedures and is fully integrated into the working, research, teaching, social and cultural spheres of our campus.
The MITOS team. Read more about the team here. Photo taken in our office space in E38. Learn more about the test bed features of this space here.
How we work
The MITOS Strategy is organized into four areas of responsibility. While our work is based on campus, we are connected to the larger mission of MIT – to serve the nation and world. We have set out to have an an impact across scales, from the individual to the globe.
Areas of Responsibility:
Sustainable Campus Systems: Reimagining systems on campus to advance the well-being and resilience of people and the environment
Campus as an Urban Living Laboratory: Utilizing the campus and its urban surroundings as a test bed for innovation and knowledge generation through research and education
Collaborative Partnerships: Harnessing the collective intelligence of networks and communities to solve shared problems
Leadership and Capacity Building: Engaging and empowering faculty, students, and staff in shaping, applying, and continuously improving the sustainability of MIT and beyond
Read about our Scales of Impact framework.
Our core values
Applied Innovation: Pursue creative strategies with tangible and scalable impacts
Community Mobilization: Generate opportunities to mobilize and engage MIT’s educational enterprise around climate and sustainability efforts.
Civic Responsibility: Contribute to the mission of MIT by serving our campus, community, and the world
Inclusive design: Foster a culture where people from diverse backgrounds and departments feel they are valued and their voices are essential, heard, and respected.
Systems Thinking: View all stakeholders, resources and challenges as interrelated and mutually dependent.
Our methods
Apply system-thinking to campus design, management, growth and renewal
Redefine the campus as an experimental laboratory for applied innovation and learning
Connect people, ideas and systems in ways that spark transformative and lasting change
Position higher education as a critical partner in delivering scalable impact from the individual to the global level
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
The Office of Sustainability is part of the Campus Services and Stewardship Committee for Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, established in 2018, along with representatives from the Department of Facilities; the Environment, Health, and Safety Office; and the Office of Campus Planning. The committee meets regularly to discuss and develop initiatives to promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging and to provide resources that advance community knowledge and awareness in this area.
Examples of the goals and activities that are in planning or underway include:
Reviewing internal practices to ensure they are inclusive and relevant to a diverse culture (for example, in hiring and procurement);
Addressing local recruitment challenges to attract and retain a diverse workforce; and
Finding opportunities for staff engagement, so that every staff member feels they belong in and connect with the greater MIT community.
To accomplish this work, the CSS DEI Committee is in touch with the Institute Community and Equity Office and will work to align with MIT’s Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, and Composition. The committee also meets with peers within and outside of MIT to learn from tried-and-tested methods of building diversity.
For more details and a listing of committee members and efforts, please visit http://web.mit.edu/facilities/about/css-dei.html
Our space on campus
The third floor of Building E38 is home to MITOS, the Environmental Solutions Initiative, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab. In this space, sustainably sourced and low-VOC materials and finishes are being tested by occupants each day. Though E38 has countless green building features—the third floor alone has nearly one dozen unique features and finishes including floor tiles, solar shades, countertops, and millwork—some of the materials on the third floor are being used for the first time on campus in order to test their viability as sustainable alternatives for additional spaces around campus. Learn more about these features and their impact.
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Scales of Impact
The challenges of sustainability are both local and global. Creating transformative solutions requires deep collaboration among community leaders and members on campus, city and global scales.
It starts with you on campus.
We start with you to find solutions at the campus level to serve both the institution's needs as well as to incubate new and big ideas.
MITOS Staff
Meet our team
Drawing from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, we work together to connect people, ideas and systems across the MIT community in ways that spark transformative and lasting change.
Julie Newman
Director
Julie joined MIT as the Institute’s first Director of Sustainability to found the Office of Sustainability and build a platform both unique to MIT yet with the intention of advancing the field at large. With this in mind, Julie launched MIT’s sustainability platform grounded in a methodology to leverage the role of the campus to solve for sustainability and a changing climate across multiple scales - at the levels of the individual, the campus, the city, the state, the country and the globe.
Julie is a pioneer in the field of campus sustainability and has worked for twenty-five years at a combination of public and private, and rural and urban campuses alike. In her work she has demonstrated that the actions and infrastructure of our campuses are integral to advancing and fulfilling the educational mission of Higher Education. She brings a systems thinking perspective to all of her work and seeks to build bridges between operational and academic partners alike to inform both her understanding of the challenges at hand and to develop solutions. Her prior research which she now applies, focused on the intersection between decision-making processes and organizational behavior in institutionalizing sustainability into higher education.
Prior to MIT, Julie was the founding Director of the Office of Sustainability for Yale University where she also held a lecturer appointment with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Julie came to Yale from the University of New Hampshire, Office of Sustainability Programs (OSP) where she assisted with the development of the program since its inception. As the field of campus sustainability took route, Julie was determined to bring the northeast pioneers together with the understanding that as colleagues we do our best work when we challenge each other’s thinking. With this in mind, Julie co-founded the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium, to advance education and action for sustainable development on university campuses in the northeast and maritime region.
Julie is also a Lecturer in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT. She lectures and consults for universities both nationally and internationally, participates on a variety of boards and advisory committees and has contributed to a series of edited books and peer reviewed journals. Julie holds a BS in Natural Resource Policy and Management from the University of Michigan; an MS in Environmental Policy and Biology from Tufts University; and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies from the University of New Hampshire.
Recent projects
In addition to leading the office, Julie is responsible for the oversight and implementation of the Campus Impact Goals called for by MIT’s Fast Forward Climate action plan. Julie chairs the Carbon Footprint Working Group as well as a Net Zero 2026 faculty working group. Looking ahead, Julie will be working with an internal team to determine how MIT will decarbonize the campus by 2050.
Journal Articles
Verhoef L.A. et al. (2020) Towards a Learning System for University Campuses as Living Labs for Sustainability. In: Leal Filho W. et al. (eds) Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham
Finnveden, Göran, Julie Newman, and Leendert A. Verhoef. 2019. "Sustainable Development and Higher Education: Acting with a Purpose" Sustainability 11, no. 14: 3831.
Newman, J. (2018). Calling for a Next-Generation Sustainability Framework at MIT. In: Amini, M., Boroojeni, K., Iyengar, S., Pardalos, P., Blaabjerg, F., Madni, A. (eds) Sustainable Interdependent Networks. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 145.
Washington-Ottombre, C., Washington, G., Newman, J. (2018) Campus sustainability in the US: Environmental management and social change since 1970. Journal of Cleaner Production. v. 196, 564-575.
Weber, S., Newman, J. (2017). Ecoregional analysis applied to campus sustainability performance. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Newman, J. (2012). An organizational change management framework for sustainability. Greener Management International. Galea , C. [Ed.]. pp. 65-75(11).
Newman, J ; Rauch, J. (2009). Institutionalizing a greenhouse gas commitment at Yale. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Vol. 10 Issue: 4, 390 - 400.
Newman, J. (2009). Education for Sustainability – Designing an educational system for sustainability. Encyclopedia of Sustainability. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing Group, LLC.
Newman, J.; Weber, S.; Bookhart, D. (2009) Institutionalizing campus-wide sustainability: A programmatic approach. Sustainability: Journal of Record. vo.2 no.3.
Newman, J.; Rauch, J. (2009). Defining sustainability metric targets in an institutional setting. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. v. 10. n.2., 107 – 116.
Newman, J.; Rauch, J. (2008). Zeroing in on sustainability. Sustainability: Journal of Record. vo. 1. no.6, 387-390.
Newman, J. (2008). Reconceptualizing a model for service learning in the context of a sustainable campus. Practical approaches to ethics for colleges and universities. New Directions for Higher Education. No. 142. , 17 – 24.
Book Chapters
Newman, J. and Weber, S. (2023). Accelerating Response to a Changing Climate: A Campus Strategy that Aligns Solutions Across Scales. In, Handbook of Sustainability in Higher Education: An Agenda for Transformational Change.Purcell, W.M. & Haddock-Fraser, J. (Eds.). Bloomsbury Press, London, U.K. (due for publication February, 2023).
Newman. J. (2021). USA case study. In, Universities facing Climate Change and Sustainability. McCowan, T., Leal Filho, W & Brandli, L (Eds). Global University Leader Council, Hamburg.
Verhoef, L.A., Bossert, M., Newman, J. et al. (2020). Towards a Learning System for University Campuses as Living Labs for Sustainability. In: , et al. Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series.
Newman, J. (2010). Sustainability education. Siever, B. (Ed.). The Spirit of Sustainability Encyclopedia [pp.148-150]. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing Group, LLC.
Newman, J. (2007). The impacts of cell phones and laptops in a sustainable world. Kleiman, S. (Ed). Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the 21 st Century. [pp.77-83] New York, New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Newman, J. (2006). The role of a campus sustainability professional in facilitating institutional reform. 147 Tips for Teaching Sustainability [pp.99-102]. Timpson, W. [Ed]. Madison, Wisconsin: Attwood Publishing.
Newman, J., Abrams, E. (2005). Organizational structure and rational choice: Unveiling the obstacles to integrating sustainability into decision-making in an institution of higher education. Leal Filho, W.(Ed) Handbook of Sustainability Research. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang Scientific Publishing.
Edited Volumes
Finnveden, G., Verheof, L, Newman. J. [Ed]. (December 2019). Sustainable Development and Higher Education Institutions: Acting with Purpose. Special Issue of Sustainability. MDPI.
Leal Filho,W, Brandli, L, Castro, Newman, J. (Ed). (January 2017). Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education. Springer. Switzerland.
Newman, J. (Ed.). (June 2011). Green Education: An A-to-Z Guide. (vol.7). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Newman, J. (Ed). (June, 2011). Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide (vol. 8). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Newman, J. Fernandez, L. (2007). Strategies for Institutionalizing Sustainability in Higher Education – Report on the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium 3rd Annual Conference. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Report n.10. New Haven, CT: FES.
Books
Newman, J. (2009). Reaching Beyond Compliance: The Challenges of Achieving Campus Sustainability. Germany: VDM Publishing.
Conference Proceedings & Professional Reports
Newman, J. (2005, April). Strategies for integrating sustainability into higher education: A case analysis of Yale University. United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development – The role of higher education institutions. Graz, Austria.
Newman, J. (2002, August). What keeps universities from fully embracing sustainability principles?: A presentation of a conceptual framework for research. Conference proceedings of the National Association of Environmental Education.
Newman, J. (2001, October). Consumer choice, sustainability, and a constructivist pedagogy. Conference proceedings of the National Association of Environmental Education.
Informational Articles and Instructional Materials
Newman, J. (2003, November). Is eating a moral act?: An exploration from agrarianism to consumerism. The Center for the Humanities Newsletter. No. 2
Newman, J. ; Diezel, J. (2001, January) Continuing connections through the curriculum and community. Connections Newsletter. Vol.16. No.1
Rebecca Fowler
Senior Administrative Assistant
Rebecca is responsible for providing administrative support to the Director and all project managers in the Office of Sustainability. She is the office manager, human resources administrator, accountant, and event planner. She works closely with the Director on managing priorities and team wellbeing.
Rebecca is a co-chair for the MIT Working Green Committee, a group that promotes sustainability among staff members on campus, and manages and runs Choose to Reuse. Rebecca has a M.Sc. In Environmental Social Science from the University of Kent and a B.A. In Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Recent Projects: Choose to Reuse
Collaborate with me on: Sustainable events and purchasing
Brian Goldberg
Assistant Director
Brian joined the Office of Sustainability to help develop and demonstrate solutions for how the campus can become resilient and adapted to a changing climate. Brian is also responsible for helping MIT design waste out of our systems by testing and scaling solutions that impact supply chains, campus consumption and waste system behaviors and processes.
Brian explores and advances solutions by leveraging the campus as a test bed. Collaborations among MIT research groups, faculty, students and operational experts are used to collectively pilot test, develop, demonstrate and operationalize data-driven solutions.
Prior to MIT, Brian worked for 15 years addressing urban planning, climate change and sustainable development challenges across Africa, Asia, and the US at national, regional, city, and community scales with employers including AECOM Design and Planning, United Nations (Asia-Pacific) and James Corner Field Operations (New York City). Locally, Brian serves on his town’s Greenway Committee and the Open Space and Rec Plan Committee. Brian has a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Environment and a B.A. from Union College (NY).
Recent projects: Brian is responsible for co-leading implementation of Fast Forward MIT initiatives including the Resiliency and Adaptation Roadmap, Waste Impact Goals, and Scope 3 Accounting. Recent resiliency activities include MIT Flood Risk Dashboard and MIT Flood Risk Analysis.
Collaborate with me on: Climate resiliency and adaptation planning, designing out waste, Scope 3 reduction planning
Susy Jones
Senior Sustainability Project Manager
Susy joined the team to help implement the strategic framework for the Office during its launch in 2013, convening staff, students, and faculty from across the Institute around topics ranging from low-carbon commuting to organizational change. She is currently working to advance sustainable and accessible food systems and environmental justice on campus.
Susy revels in collaborating on dynamic programming, such as the Living Climate Futures Symposium, and building unique and impactful community partnerships, such as the Launchpad at the MIT students center, which incubates small and diverse local food businesses. As a representative of MIT, she also chairs the City of Cambridge’s Recycling Advisory Committee.
Prior to MIT, she worked to advance energy efficiency in schools and public buildings in the Northeast and helped manage a landmark nutrition education program in 70 public schools in Philadelphia. Outside of MIT, you can find her exploring new food spots in Boston or taking in the beauty of the Arnold Arboretum. Susy has an M.A. in Urban & Environmental Planning & Policy from Tufts University and a B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College.
Recent projects: Progress toward a sustainable campus food system
Collaborate with me on: Food systems, environmental and climate justice, community partnerships, creating a culture of belonging in the sustainability field, experiential learning around farming and gardening
Steven Lanou
Sustainability Project Manager
Steve helped establish the Office of Sustainability in 2013. Prior to this, Steve was leading campus sustainability efforts as Deputy Director within the MIT Environmental Programs Office.
With a focus on climate and energy work, Steve works to develop, promote, and coordinate programs to advance the Institute’s commitment to sustainable practices, while integrating campus-focused research and learning opportunities with MIT’s faculty, students, and the broader community. Steve serves on several advisory and working committees serving the Institute, the Cities of Cambridge and Boston, and his hometown of Winchester.
Before joining MIT, Steve worked in a variety of environmental research and planning capacities in management consulting, technical consulting, and non-profit policy research, including the World Resources Institute, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, and Arthur Andersen.
Steve is an environmental planner by training with over 20 years experience in environmental policy development and program implementation. He holds a Bachelors degree in international economic development from Brown University, and a Masters degree in environmental policy and planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Recent projects: Implementing MIT’s net-zero emissions by 2026 climate action plans, developing MIT’s greenhouse gas inventory, enhancing our DataPool visualizations
Collaborate with me on: Net-zero and zero emissions planning, greenhouse gas mitigation, renewable energy and carbon credit procurement strategy, data and decision-making, community collaborations
Ellie McLane
Sustainability Project Manager
Ellie joined the office to advance school and department level climate action called for by MIT’s Fast Forward: Plan for Climate Action for the Decade. In her role, she engages in a collaborative solution design process with students, staff and faculty across MIT Departments, Labs, and Centers.
With a strong emphasis on data, Ellie leads the design and implementation of related data management, strategic planning, and analyses needed to develop the departmental level Sustainability and Climate Action plans.
Prior to MIT, Ellie worked as a geologist and project manager for the global sustainability consultancy ERM, where she focused on characterizing and remediating complex contaminated sites. Ellie currently serves as chair of her local Wetlands Protection Committee. She holds a M.A. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University and a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Physics and Earth Systems Science from the University of Michigan.
Recent projects: Fast Forward MIT Campus Commitments
Collaborate with me on: Climate and sustainability action planning, climate mitigation, climate resiliency
Nicole Morell
Sustainability Communication Specialist
Nicole joined the office with a goal of engaging the campus community in sustainability efforts across MIT. In her role, she works closely with MITOS project managers and staff across the Institute to communicate programs, initiatives, and news in support of MIT’s work in responding to the challenges of a changing planet.
With a focus on digital media, Nicole uses a wide range of communication channels to engage and inform the MIT community of the important work of MITOS.
Nicole first joined MIT in 2014 working in communications and marketing in the MIT Alumni Association. There she focused on engaging alumni through social media and sharing stories of their work and volunteerism throughout the globe, reporting on topics from sustainable sanitation systems to commercial crew spacecraft. Outside of MIT, she serves on her local city council. She has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Rhode Island.
Recent projects: MIT accelerates efforts on path to carbon reduction goals, Charting the landscape at MIT, Office of Sustainability 2021 Report
Collaborate with me on: Climate communications through video, articles, outreach, and events
Dawn Quirk
Sustainability Project Manager
Dawn joined the office to enhance MIT’s culture of reuse, strengthen and amplify MIT’s efforts to design waste out of MIT’s procurement systems and institutional operations, and facilitate the highest and best use of recyclable materials. Launching from a strong foundation of MIT waste studies and successful design-out-waste practices, she accomplishes her work by partnering across MIT to identify opportunities for improvement, co-creating solutions, and on long-term planning to meet MIT’s waste impact climate commitments.
Dawn previously worked on waste reduction initiatives and planning with the City of Cambridge, Tufts University, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Air and Waste. Her work at MassDEP on waste ban compliance and policy incentives through monetary and technical assistance grants sparked an interest in policy work, which led her to earn an MPA at Northeastern University. She keeps current on recycling markets and legislation by serving on the board of the Northeast Resources Recovery Association.
Recent projects: Dawn served on the Boston Green Ribbon Commission’s Technical Advisory Group for Waste for the creation of the Carbon Free Boston report. At Northeastern University, Dawn wrote a three-piece analysis on the implications of legislating recycling in a non-waste ban state: Research Brief, Policy Brief, Recommendation.
Collaborate with me on: reuse systems, food waste recycling and reduction, and scaling waste reduction solutions through policy and systems improvement.
Leela Velautham
Postdoctoral Associate
Leela is a post-doctoral researcher working jointly with MITOS and MIT’s Climate and Sustainability Consortium. Her research focuses on characterizing decarbonization pathways and net-zero targets and identifying common bottlenecks to achieving net-zero across both higher education and industry.
Leela’s work includes reviewing literature, conducting interviews with stakeholders, analyzing relevant sources of data and keeping up to date with various GHG accounting standards including Science Based Targets.
Prior to MIT, Leela graduated from UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Education in Maths, Science and technology, where she worked with Prof. Michael Ranney on a variety of projects that involved changing acceptance, beliefs, and emotions regarding climate change. During her Ph.D. she was also a UCOP Carbon Neutrality Graduate Student Fellow and worked at UC Berkeley’s Office of Sustainability on a variety of initiatives including managing the 2018-2021 campus greenhouse gas emissions inventory and helping to design and launch a business air travel mitigation pilot program for the campus. She has a combined Bachelors and Masters degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford (UK).
MITOS Students
Student Sustainability Researchers
Our students develop meaningful work to advance a sustainable campus at MIT and to build their professional experience in institutional transformation. We hire both undergraduate and graduate students to help shape the future of sustainability at MIT and beyond.
Meet our current student researchers!
Katerina Boukin
Climate Action Researcher
Katya is a PhD student at the “Concrete Sustainability Hub” at the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her passion lies in structural resiliency of the city scape to flood related natural disasters. Joining MIT office of sustainability in September of 2020 as a climate resiliency modeler and simulator, she is working on developing an improved method to assess, predict and mitigate storm and flood induced hazards. Her research project matches her work at MITOS, combining the projects she is using MIT campus as a test bed in her research work, trying to assess and mitigate natural disaster hazards as well as impacts of climate change on the severity of damages.
Yihong Chen (Amy)
Climate Communications Sustainability Researcher – Design
As a new MIT member of Class of 2026, Amy strives to explore her passion in environmental sustainability and architecture within a broader and interdisciplinary context. She devotes her time to promote a sustainable architectural design process and to implement the concept of "going green" into everyday life. She hope her work can bring the MIT and Cambridge community together as a group of compassionate people who want to contribute to the world's climate action plan.
Ippolyti Dellatolas
Climate Action Sustainability Researcher
Ippolyti is a graduate student in the MIT Mechanical Engineering department whose research aims at understanding and preventing the uneven flow that occurs when rain infiltrates hydrophobic soils vertically. Such uneven flow impedes water retention, optimal filtering of chemicals and can trigger catastrophic landslides. Outside of the lab, she is involved in environmental initiatives across the MIT campus, through the MIT Water Club, GSC Sustain and the MIT Office of Sustainability. Having joined MITOS in summer 2021, Ippolyti performs energy modeling and cost-benefit analyses to provide recommendations for emissions reduction in lab spaces at MIT.
Thea Feldgoise
Sustainable Building Materials Researcher
Thea Feldgoise is junior at Wellesley College, studying environmental science and computer science. She is also a researcher in the Dept of Urban Studies and Planning. She is interested in using data and technology to work on climate change mitigation. She joined the Systems, Performance, and Turnover team in the Department of Facilities this summer as a MITOS sustainability researcher. Her focus is on developing standards at MIT for healthy and sustainable building materials.
Ana Fiallo
Scope 3 GHG Analyst
Ana recently graduated from MIT’s Class of 2022 in computer science and urban science & planning with a minor in energy studies. She will continue her time at MIT to pursue her Master of Engineering in climate, environment and sustainability offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering where she plans to continue learning about her interests in applied probabilistic prediction and machine learning to problems within renewable energy systems. Ana’s interests primarily lie in software development, machine learning, clean energy, and sustainability, and is eager to advance solutions that result from the intersection of these areas.
At MITOS, Ana has fortified and consolidated the data pipeline for tracking MIT’s Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions stemming from business travel, waste, food purchases, and purchased goods. Through the resulting scope 3 dashboards, Ana hopes to help inform MITOS about appropriate and feasible goals for reducing campus wide greenhouse gas emissions.
Janka Hamori
Climate Action Researcher
Janka is a driven and passionate sophomore, studying Computer Science and Economics, with a minor in Sustainability. She is deeply committed to making a positive impact on the world, especially in the realm of climate change. Janka is particularly interested in the intersection of environmental policy, economics, and computer science, and is actively engaged in climate change-related clubs. Janka joined MITOS to work on evaluating the new food waste pilot in East Campus, an undergraduate dorm, as well as to provide new tools for analyzing the food waste at MIT. In her free time, Janka serves as the co-leader of the MIT Undergraduate Association Sustainability Initiative's Thrift Committee, where she works to organize thrift shops for the entire MIT community. She is also part of the Waste Watchers, a member of a coed fraternity and has played volleyball for over a decade.
Mahwish Khalil
Climate Action Researcher
Mahwish is a SMArchS AKPIA candidate at MIT School of Architecture and Planning. An architect by profession, her research interests lie in investigating and advocating for aspects of social and climate justice, as well as tracing resilience within the built environment spanning the influences of history within the contemporary society. She aspires to investigate possibilities existing within space that arise beyond preliminary perception and respond to urgent socio-political and climate crises.
She joined MITOS in 2023 to pursue her interest in policy implementation, design and execution. Her role at MITOS allows her to investigate current practices contributing to climate resilience on an institutional scale. Mahwish hopes to contribute meaningful change in her immediate surroundings by designing comprehensive recommendations for advancing sustainable purchasing practices in makers’ space at SA+P.
Katelyn McVay
Campus Heat Risk Researcher
Katelyn is a Master of City Planning Student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She joined MITOS to visualize campus heat data that has been collected with the Senseable City Lab's City Scanner device. Katelyn's background and undergraduate degree are in public health and the environmental sciences, and she allows her prior training to inform how to spatialize and contextualize environmental data and climate issues. Her primary interest is in environmental justice and spatial analysis. She is eager to see how her research can inform public health and environmental policymaking.
Dhwani Mehta
Climate Action Researcher
Dhwani is an architect, currently pursuing a Master of Science in Architecture Studies and Urbanism. She joined MITOS as a climate action researcher in January 2023. Her research is aimed at building the culture of material reuse in SA+P, which could also be applied across MIT. She is focusing on strengthening processes for material collection and re-distribution and raising awareness and participation about collective reuse. She will also explore leveraging and building out engagement with Rheaply, an Asset Exchange Manager that is a free-to-use marketplace that identifies available resources for reuse across different departments on campus.
Her interest lies in contributing to making cities environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. Her research at MIT is focused on risk management and protection of coastal communities and commons due to climate change and development projects along coastal zones.
Shanan Kumar Powell
Climate Action Researcher
Shanan is a second year MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management, class of 2023. She’s passionate about building more sustainable, equitable, and innovative food systems. Her research with MITOS is focused on advancing a sustainable food system at Sloan.
Maaya Prasad
Climate Communications Sustainability Researcher – Writing
Maaya Prasad is a first-year graduate student studying ocean engineering. She was a MIT '22, with a double major in electrical engineering and creative writing. She's interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, with nature as a primary subject. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, sailing, and biking.
Pimpakarn Rattanathumawat (Prim)
Climate Communications Sustainability Researcher – Design
Prim is an architect and urban designer, currently pursuing a Master's degree in Architecture Studies with a concentration in Urbanism. She joined the MIT Office of Sustainability in Fall 2021 as a Climate Resiliency Fellow to better support flood mapping, resiliency planning and preparedness for the MIT campus. Her interest lies in the global issues of sustainability, the integration of sustainable development and climate change adaptation in cities.
Melissa Stok
Design out Waste Researcher
Melissa is a sophomore at MIT studying materials science and engineering and electrical engineering and computer science. Her interests lie at the intersection of the two areas, and she hopes to work in a sustainability-oriented field. During spring 2021, she began working with MITOS on a project to implement food waste collection in Site 4, a new graduate residence. Now, she is working on waste pilots around campus to increase food waste collection, reduce recycling contamination, and increase the amount of material available for reprocessing. Outside of these activities, she enjoys running, playing soccer, skiing, and cooking.
Scales of Impact
The challenges of sustainability are both local and global. Creating transformative solutions requires deep collaboration among community leaders and members on campus, city and global scales.
It starts with you on campus.
We start with you to find solutions at the campus level to serve both the institution's needs as well as to incubate new and big ideas.
Subscribe to the MITOS Digest
Faculty Fellows
MITOS Faculty Fellows
Our team works collaboratively with several faculty and researchers at MIT. Their work directly supports the many campus sustainability projects we focus on.
Jeremy Gregory
Faculty Fellow
Jeremy Gregory is a research scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Executive Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studies the economic and environmental implications of engineering and system design decisions, particularly in the area of materials production and recovery systems.
Gregory's research topics include product and firm environmental footprinting, manufacturing and life cycle cost analysis, and characterization of sustainable material systems. Jeremy has applied these methods, often with industry partners, to a range of different products and industries including pavements, buildings, automobiles, electronics, consumer goods, and waste treatment and recovery. He received his PhD and MS from MIT and BS from Montana State University-Bozeman, all in mechanical engineering.
As a MITOS Faculty Fellow, Gregory is leading an effort to quantify MIT’s Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, which encompasses activities including MIT’s purchased goods and services, capital equipment, building construction, business travel, employee commuting, and waste. He is also involved in efforts to quantify the potential for emissions reductions from actions such as improving building energy efficiency through machine learning algorithms, reducing contamination in the recycling stream through behavioral science-informed interventions, and lowering air travel emissions through carbon offsets.
Miho Mazereeuw
Faculty Fellow
Miho Mazereeuw is an architect and landscape, associate professor of architecture and urbanism, and director of the Urban Risk Lab. Much of her work and research focuses on disaster resilience.
Via SA+P: In the Urban Risk Lab multi-disciplinary groups of researchers work to innovate on technologies, materials, processes, and systems to reduce risk. Operating on several scales, the Lab develops methods to embed risk reduction and preparedness into the design of the regions, cities and urban spaces to increase the resilience of local communities.
Miho Mazereeuw taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and the University of Toronto prior to joining the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an Arthur W. Wheelwright Fellow, she is completing her forthcoming book entitled Preemptive Design: Disaster and Urban Development along the Pacific Ring of Fire featuring case studies on infrastructure design, multifunctional public space and innovative planning strategies in earthquake prone regions. Her design work on disaster prevention has been exhibited globally. As the director of the Urban Risk Lab at MIT, Mazereeuw is collaborating on a number of projects with institutions and organizations in the field of disaster reconstruction/prevention and is currently working in Haiti, India, Japan and Chile.
Mazereeuw was formerly an Associate at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and has also worked in the offices of Shigeru Ban and Dan Kiley. Mazereeuw completed a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in Sculpture and Environmental Science at Wesleyan University and her Master in Architecture and in Landscape Architecture with Distinction at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she was awarded the Janet Darling Webel Prize and the Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship.
associate professor of architecture and urbanism, director of the Urban Risk Lab, and . Working on a large, territorial scale with an interest in public spaces and the urban experience, Mazereeuw is known for her work in disaster resilience.
In the Urban Risk Lab multi-disciplinary groups of researchers work to innovate on technologies, materials, processes, and systems to reduce risk. Operating on several scales, the Lab develops methods to embed risk reduction and preparedness into the design of the regions, cities and urban spaces to increase the resilience of local communities.
Miho Mazereeuw taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and the University of Toronto prior to joining the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an Arthur W. Wheelwright Fellow, she is completing her forthcoming book entitled Preemptive Design: Disaster and Urban Development along the Pacific Ring of Fire featuring case studies on infrastructure design, multifunctional public space and innovative planning strategies in earthquake prone regions. Her design work on disaster prevention has been exhibited globally. As the director of the Urban Risk Lab at MIT, Mazereeuw is collaborating on a number of projects with institutions and organizations in the field of disaster reconstruction/prevention and is currently working in Haiti, India, Japan and Chile.
Mazereeuw was formerly an Associate at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and has also worked in the offices of Shigeru Ban and Dan Kiley. Mazereeuw completed a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in Sculpture and Environmental Science at Wesleyan University and her Master in Architecture and in Landscape Architecture with Distinction at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she was awarded the Janet Darling Webel Prize and the Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship.
Kenneth Strzepek
Faculty Fellow
Kenneth Strzepek has spent 30 years as a researcher and practitioner at the nexus of engineering, environmental and economics systems, primarily related to water resource planning and management, river basin planning, and modeling of agricultural, environmental, and water resources systems. His work includes applications of operations research, engineering economics, micro-economics and environmental economics to a broad range applications: from project scale to national and global investment policy studies.
Strzepek has worked for a range of national governments as well as the United Nations, the World Bank, the USAID. He is Professor Emeritus of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and recently a Visiting Professor of Economics and Affiliated Professor in College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute as well as an International Fellow at the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy for Africa and Examiner in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has been an contributing author to the Second IPCC assessement, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the World Water Vision, and the UN World Water Development Report. He is currently the USAID Scientific Liaison Office on Water and Climate Change to the CGIAR. Prof. Strzepek has a PhD in Water Resources Systems Analysis from MIT, an MA in Economics from the University of Colorado and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Hamburg, Germany.
Jobs
Join our dynamic team
Join our team of creative individuals working towards a more sustainable MIT. As our role on campus continues to grow and evolve, we'll post both full-time and student researcher positions to meet our goals.
Full-time Staff Positions
The MIT Office of Sustainability (MITOS) is currently hiring one full-time staff position, see below for description and application details.
Student Positions
Academic Year 2022-2023
See below for descriptions.
Staff Positions
Find out more about what it's like to work at MIT: exceptional benefits including a pension, a 401(k) match, and more! All applications must go through the MIT career portal.
Sustainability Data Engineer
Department: Office of Sustainability
Reports to: Director of Sustainability, Julie Newman
Hours: Fulltime, 40 hours
Schedule: Hybrid (minimum 2 days per week in-person, on campus)
Salary Grade: 10 (starts in minimum range)
The Office of Sustainability at MIT is seeking a Sustainability Data Engineer to lead projects that produce actionable data insights and develop tools to help MIT advance campus wide climate and sustainability commitments. Our mission is to make MIT a leading example for generating scalable solutions that respond to the pressing challenges of a rapidly changing planet. We strive to achieve this by fostering collaboration that elevates diverse voices and promotes operational excellence, education, research, and innovation on our campus.
In this role, you will work collaboratively with the members of the Office of Sustainability team, as well as stakeholders from a mix of administrative and academic units across the Institute, and report to the Director of the Office of Sustainability. We share a common desire to solve problems, address environmental issues and injustices. If you are looking for an opportunity to work with a caring, innovative, and impactful team, we encourage you to apply for this position. Once established, the culture of the office encourages additional training and growth to continue to advance the position and overall responsibilities.
Position Overview:
As our Sustainability Data Engineer, you will be responsible for updating, building and maintaining the data architecture to track and report on all campus sustainability activities, including but not limited to climate mitigation and resiliency, food, waste, water and transportation. You will be responsible for formalizing the data acquisition, analytical structure and procedures to curate and organize data from multiple sources for inclusion in the MIT Sustainability Data Pool, our centralized data repository that is available to all members of the MIT community. This position will seek to enable data pipeline automation in its cloud infrastructure where feasible; optimize, monitor, and scale applications and associated infrastructure. Once these initial data sources are up to date, there is additional data that warrants incorporation and room for creativity to grow the platform. We envision an individual that can identify and build new tools and apps to inform future business intelligence.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities:
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Refine and develop protocols to efficiently and robustly source, ingest and manage data, building on existing MIT processes and systems and in alignment with campus-wide data management practices.
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Partner with Office of Sustainability team and student researchers to identify critical data gaps and needs.Coordinate a data curation and management process in alignment with and leveraging IS&T campus data management practices, strategies, and software.
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Collaborate with and provide support to Office of Sustainability project management team in obtaining data from other MIT offices and external vendors.
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Design and implement robust data ingestion and integration process, leveraging a range of software and technologies for data cleaning, validation, integration and governance, to populate, maintain and update the MIT Sustainability Data Pool with diverse and complex data sets,
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Collaborate with data providers to maintain data quality, control, and integrity during data ingestion and processing, to align with their expectations and troubleshoot any anomalies such as duplicated lines.
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Determine when statistical learning techniques (machine learning) can be applied and where they would add value. Execute these techniques and clearly communicate limitations to stakeholders.
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Automate reporting for city compliance, stakeholder transparency, operational performance, and decision-making. Reports include, but are not limited to supporting MIT’s greenhouse gas inventory, transportation trends, and waste management.
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Support the preparation of data via the Data Pool to communicate findings
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Other duties as required
Required Qualifications:
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Bachelor’s degree from 4-year College or University in Computer Science/Engineering/ /Business/Math/Policy or related technical field is required. Master’s degree preferred
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A minimum of 7 years of related work experience
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Demonstrated knowledge of traditional relational databases (SQL), big data technologies (Hadoop, Spark), computer programming experience (Python, R), and experience with APIs.
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At least 5 years of experience with an open-source data science programming language (i.e. R, python)
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Strong data visualization skills with at least 3 years of experience with data visualization software such as Tableau.
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Demonstrated experience collaborating with others to obtain, ingest, organize and clean data sets to enable analysis
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Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and effectively as part of a team.
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Commitment to promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, demonstrated through previous work and interest in initiatives integrating racial, economic, and climate justice.
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Demonstrated self-awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures and backgrounds and serving the needs of diverse populations.
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Experience with cloud technologies, preferably AWS
Additional Preferred Qualifications:
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Big data experience (Spark, hive, Hadoop)
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Application of machine learning approaches
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Experience working with energy or other sustainability metrics
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Demonstrated ability to collaborate and work effectively with others and function well as part of a team
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Experience working in higher education
All applications must go through MIT's career portal
Download the full detailed position description here
Student Positions
MITOS is no longer seeking applicants for Summer Student Sustainability Researcher positions. Check back in the fall for Academic Year positions.
Student Researcher Information
MITOS Student Sustainability Researchers
Thank you to everyone who applied for our summer positions. We are no longer accepting applicants. Please check back in the fall for academic year positions.
General Job description:
Join a dynamic, collaborative office that is developing MIT’s next generation vision of campus sustainability. Read below for descriptions of each position and an overview of the details and qualifications.
Details (for all positions):
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Hours: Part-Time: 8-10 hours/week -- Sept to May; Full Time: 35-40 hours/week --June 6 to August 12
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Pay Range: $17-$20/hour
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Open to: Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students: Current MIT students only.
Qualifications (for all positions):
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Strong interest in sustainability issues as they relate to urban and/or campus sustainability as well as a desire to impact the future of MIT and sustainability in higher education and beyond
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Support for MIT’s commitment to the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the climate and sustainability field
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Ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures/backgrounds and serve the needs of diverse populations
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Excellent written, visual and oral communication skills, including presentation of complex data
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Strong quantitative data collection, management, and analysis, including proficiency in Excel
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Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
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Self-motivation and an eagerness to learn
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Demonstrated coursework in energy, materials, land, water, food systems, and/or building-related topics within the Departments of Architecture, Urban Studies and Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or similar
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Experience working on and integrating racial, economic, and climate justice initiatives
To apply:
Send a resume and cover letter to mitosjobs@mit.edu with the name of the position in the subject line.
See below for any current openings and descriptions of each position and associated qualifications.
Contact Us
Contact us
We look forward to hearing from you. Send us your comments, questions, and ideas for creating a more sustainable MIT.
General Office Contact:
Email: sustainableMIT@mit.edu
Phone: (617) 715-4060
Office Location:
Building E38, 3rd Floor, Suite 346
292 Main Street
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02142
Mailing Address:
Office of Sustainability
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E38-346
Cambridge, MA 02139
Newsletter:
The MITOS Digest is a monthly newsletter focused on solving global challenges of sustainability at the local level. Each issue features sustainability news and research from campus and beyond along with events, case studies, data visualizations, and more. Subscribe