Biodiversity and landscape

Water is an indispensable resource, not only for MIT, but also for the global community. MIT’s engineers are working to minimize the water used in energy generation at MIT’s Central Utilities Plant (CUP), discover methods of reuse to meet needs for both potable and nonpotable water, and investigate methods for ensuring an adequate supply of quality water at a time of growing human need and climate change. 

By 2030, MIT seeks to achieve a 10 percent reduction in water use compared to the 2019 baseline using these key strategies:

• Align energy and water conservation efforts with campus decarbonization plans and climate resiliency planning
• Work with Campus Planning and Grounds Services to develop Landscape Guidelines to identify best practices and minimize water use for irrigation
• Determine the feasibility of beneficial water reuse for process operations at Central Utilities Plant as well as for the highest water consumers outside of the plant

Other resources and partners:

• MIT Water, Food, and Agriculture Innovation Prize
• The Office of Campus Planning serves as stewards of the evolving physical campus and provides services that guide and inform campus strategy and transformation.
• MIT Grounds Services maintains the Institute’s outdoor areas and provides a clean, comfortable, and functional environment for the community.
• In the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, students learn to apply advanced analysis and design to understand and solve pressing urban and environmental problems.
• Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) emphasizes the deployment of effective technologies, programs, and policies that will have a measurable and international impact on humankind.

Currently, approximately 64 percent of MIT’s campus is composed of impervious surfaces, such as roofing and paving. Rain falling on the campus’ hardscapes results in stormwater runoff that flows into the municipal drainage system and eventually discharges into the Charles River. Over the past decade, MIT has worked to incorporate more green spaces into the campus landscape and plan new construction to minimize impact on the surrounding natural environment. 

A storm water retention and management system at the Stata Center employs a bioswale to capture and filter stormwater runoff from nearby roof drains and surface runoff. This water is harvested via a tank beneath the bioswale that provides additional filtration before the water becomes available to the flushing water system for an adjacent 430,000 GSF building.  Rainwater is also harvested from the roof of the Central Utility Plan (CUP) and directed into use as part of the cooling tower make-up water. These approaches are important actions that MIT takes to manage stormwater on-site and reduce stormwater loading into the regional stormwater system. 

MIT's Stormwater Stormwater Management and Landscape Ecology Plan has served as a key resource that has inventoried our storm water management best practices and identified strategies for integrating stormwater management best practices into campus landscape and building design projects. The plan has also informs the update of MIT's sustainable design standards which integrate sustainable sites stormwater and landscape credits, integrating LEED credits for urban campuses.

Additional strategies:

• create an ecologically resilient community that benefits the environment and the people who live and work in it; several of MIT’s open spaces—the Kendall/MIT Open Space, Site 4 Roof Terraces, and North Corridor—have been honored with Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) Design Awards
• reduce water demand and energy consumption
• filter and decrease the amount of stormwater runoff
• from the Hive Garden to community gardens, MIT is working to protect pollinators and utilize efficient, native plants wherever possible
• inclusion of green roofs, where feasible, on campus
• integration of City of Cambridge Cool Score practices and guidelines
• maintaining an updated inventory of campus green infrastructure practices with the help of AASHE STARS
• consistent update of MIT Tree Inventory to reflect changes in campus tree cover and tree health 

Other resources and partners:

• Main and Pocket Gardens are green spaces throughout campus for the community to relax, revive, or eat lunch outdoors.
• Treepedia is an interactive mapping tool from MIT’s Senseable City Lab to evaluate and compare canopy cover in cities around the world.
• The Office of Campus Planning serves as stewards of the evolving physical campus and provides services that guide and inform campus strategy and transformation.
• MIT Grounds Services maintains the Institute’s outdoor areas and provides a clean, comfortable, and functional environment for the community.
• In the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, students learn to apply advanced analysis and design to understand and solve pressing urban and environmental problems.

At MIT, scientists, transportation experts, urban planners, and engineers are working on ways to monitor and cut down on air pollution both locally and globally. Data on MIT’s campus emissions from our yearly greenhouse gas inventory  is being used for mitigation strategies. We’re building connections between staff and researchers to put theory into practice and use our campus as a test bed for strategies to improve indoor and outdoor air quality.

Key strategies:

• promoting sustainable transportation—public transit, biking, carpooling, and walking
• sourcing food and materials regionally to cut down on fossil fuels burned in the transportation of goods
• strengthening our infrastructure to withstand the challenges presented by climate change; learn more on MIT’s Sustainable Buildings Map (Tableau login required).
• designing all new indoor environments to meet LEED v4 standards

Other resources and partners:

• Every year, MIT does a Campus Greenhouse Gas Inventory to measure campus emissions that contribute to climate change.
• Access MIT is rethinking the culture of commuting and encouraging sustainable transportation practices.
• New construction and major renovation projects on campus aim to meet the national LEED Gold (version 4) certification standard, which includes measures to achieve better indoor air quality.  At present, six buildings have achieved LEED gold or silver certification for new construction; learn more about the sustainability of MIT’s buildings
• The Environment, Health and Safety Office leads MIT's efforts for assessing and safeguarding indoor and outdoor air quality.