Expanding sustainable material uses across campus

How did you get interested in the work around sustainable materials?

As an environmental studies major, something I’ve had to work with a lot is the definition of the environment. When someone asks you what the environment is, your initial thoughts are probably limited to mountains, forests, climate change. In a course at Wellesley on the History of Environmental Movements, I read that “the environment is where we live, where we work, where we play, and where we learn”. This phrase has stuck with me because it broadened my understanding of the environment. We conduct most of our lives in the built environment, and are constantly interacting with building materials that can either positively or negatively impact human, climate, and ecosystem health. We need the building blocks of the spaces in which we live, work, play, and learn to be sustainable and healthy.

 

What projects are you most excited about working on this summer/which have you found most interesting?

I’m working on setting up a product database so that sustainable, healthy materials are built into MIT’s standards, and so renovation teams at MIT have an easy way of selecting these materials for their projects.