Sustainability Connect
Sustainability Connect is an annual meeting for all MIT committees, groups, and thinkers involved in creating game-changing campus sustainability programs at MIT.
Sustainability Connect is an annual meeting for all MIT committees, groups, and thinkers involved in creating game-changing campus sustainability programs at MIT.
Sustainability Connect: Fall 2020 is Thursday, October 15th at 1PM.
Join the MIT community for a special Fall Edition of Sustainability Connect to explore vital connections between justice, science and campus sustainability. This event is co-sponsored by the Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) and the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO).
This year's Sustainability Connect was on Friday, May 3rd, 2019
Sustainability Connect is designed to bring together the ecosystem of actors working to create a sustainable campus and world at MIT. The recent launch of the Pathways to Sustainability Leadership set the stage for this year's Connect.
Read the full agenda
This video explores the key elements that make up the Pathway to Sustainability Leadership by MIT, composed of voices and stories from members of the operations, research, and educational communities at MIT.
Tony Sharon, Deputy Executive Vice President; Andrea Campbell, Department Head, Political Science; and Julie Newman, Director of Sustainability provide opening remarks and set the stage for the day, looking back at our accomplishments and forward toward our future plans.
Director of Sustainability, Julie Newman moderates a panel on topics ranging from mobility to resiliency, featuring: Joe Higgins, Director, Infrastructure Operations; Michael Owu, Chair of the Committee on Transportation & Parking; Cecilia Talamantes, Senior Analyst, VPF & Rachel Perlman, Engineering Systems Division; Brian Goldberg, MITOS & Ken Strzepek, Research Scientist, Ctr. for Global Change Science.
Kate Trimble, Senior Associate Dean & Director of the Office of Experiential Learning leads an interactive discussion with Peter Godart, Graduate Student, Mechanical Engineering; Rebecca Grekin, Year 4, Chemical Engineering; David McGee, Assoc. Professor, Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences; and Susanne Rasmussen, Director of Environmental and Transportation Planning for City of Cambridge.
Julie Newman, Ph.D., Director, Office of Sustainability
Tony Sharon, Deputy Executive Vice President, Office of the Executive Vice President & Treasurer
Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab
Brian Goldberg and Derek Wietsma, MITOS, in conversation with:
Amanda Graham, Executive Director of Environmental Solutions Initiative
Kate Trimble, Associate Dean, PKG Public Service Center
Christina Lo, Director of Strategic Sourcing and Contracts
Abigail Francis, Assistant Dean of LBGTQ+
Professor Tim Gutowski (MechE) and Julie Newman (MITOS) in conversation with:
Mechanical Engineering students, Julien Victor Barber, Caleb Amos Amy, Colin Clancy Kelsall, and Economics student Ignacio Ortega Castineiras
Jeremy Gregory, Concrete Sustainability Hub; Randa Ghattas, Department of Facilities; Professor Kripa Varanasi, Mechanical Engineering
Learn more about the Sustainability Incubator Awards here
Heather Paxson, MIT Professor of Anthropology
Participants self-selected into one of three design challenge wo rkshops on the following topics: Food & Sustainability; Campus Water Systems; and Pathway to Sustainability Leadership Implementation.
Seeking new opportunities was a major focus of Sustainability Connect 2017. It was reflected in the conference’s theme: “Cultivating the Test Bed: Harvesting a Better Future for All,” and through the day’s agenda of panels, presentations, and brainstorming sessions. Opportunities for innovative thinking explored incorporating social justice in future solutions, new intersections of innovation and campus sustainability, and new venues for faculty, students, and staff to use the campus as a living lab.
Video Recap & Setting the Stage | Julie Newman, Director, Office of Sustainability
Welcome | Tony Sharon, Deputy Executive Vice President, Office of the EVPT
Julian Agyeman, Professor, Tufts University, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning | Slides | Video
Glen Comiso, Senior Director for Institute Affairs at MIT, Moderator
Jim May, Senior Project Manager, MIT Campus Planning
Jinane Abounadi, Executive Director, MIT Sandbox
Sarah Eusden Gallop, Co-Director, MIT Office of Government & Community Relations
Joe Higgins, Director, Infrastructure Business Ops, Department of Facilities, Moderator
Rachel Perlman, PhD student in Engineering Systems Division & MIT Office of Sustainability Fellow (Campus Material Flow Analysis)
Kripa Varanasi, Associate Professor, MIT Dept. of Mechanical Engineering (Water Savings in Cooling Towers and the Central Utilities Plant)
Marius Peters, Research Scientist, Photovoltaics Research Lab (Solar Test Bed)
Pam Greenley, Associate Director, MIT Office of Environment Health & Safety (Green Labs Certification)
This year, as we celebrate 100 years of MIT in Cambridge, we also look forward to creating a sustainable campus in the coming century. Blending creative presentations with working sessions, the event, held on May 9, 2016, helps you and your teams shape the future of the campus.
Shaping the Future | Julie Newman, Director, Office of Sustainability | Slides | Video
Reflecting on our Progress | Tony Sharon, Deputy Executive Vice President | Video
Brent D. Ryan, Assoc. Prof. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning & Head of City Design & Dev't Group
Maryanne Kirkbride, Clinical Director for Campus Life, MIT Medical
Larry Susskind, Prof. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning
Moderated by Noelle Eckley Selin, Assoc. Professor, IDSS & EAPS
Joe Higgins, Director, Infrastructure Business Ops, Office of Exec. VP & Treasurer
Steven Lanou, Deputy Director, Office of Sustainability
Ron Prinn, Director & Prof, Center for Global Change Science
Moderated by John Fernandez, Dir. of MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
AccessMyCommute | John Attanucci, Lecturer & Manager MIT Transit Research Program & Corey Tucker, Master of Sci. in Transport. and Technology & Policy
MIT Roof Study | Taya Dixon, Senior Planner, Capital Renewal and Isaac LaJoie, 4th year, Mechanical Engineering
2100 Resiliency Planning | Mike Wilson, Urban Studies and Planning and Jacqueline Kuo, 4th year, Mechanical Engineering
Eight working groups and committees from across MIT - each tasked with developing recommendations related to campus sustainability on topics ranging from climate change to stormwater - convened as one powerful collective at MIT SustainabilityConnect on March 2, 2015. Attendees made new and vital connections with each other, generated game-changing ideas for the future, and kicked off the process of sustainable campus-wide transformation. The one-day forum combined presentations from topical experts with hands-on working sessions.
Julie Newman, Director, MIT Office of Sustainability | Slides | Video
Israel Ruiz, MIT Executive Vice President & Treasurer | Slides | Video
Frank O’Sullivan, Director of Research & Analysis, MITEI (Moderator)
Vladimir Bulovic, Associate Dean for Innovation, Professor of Electrical Engineering, MIT School of Engineering
Jeremy Poindexter, Graduate student, MIT Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Photovoltaics Research Laboratory
John Charles, Vice President for MIT Information Systems and Technology (IS&T)
Henry (Jake) Jacoby, William F. Pounds Professor of Management Emeritus, Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and Member, MIT Climate Change Conversation Committee
Bina Venkataraman, Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute and former senior advisor for climate change innovation in the Executive Office of the US President
Anne Slinn, Executive Director of Research, MIT Center for Global Change Science and Member, MIT Climate Change Conversation Committee (Moderator)
The Cambridge Context: Understanding Risks and Community Preparedness - Nathalie Beauvais, Project Manager/Lead climate change projects from Kleinfelder Associates. Kleinfelder is developing a comprehensive climate change vulnerability assessment for the City of Cambridge
Resilient Campus Design - James Wescoat, Aga Khan Professor, MIT Department of Architecture
Campus Goal Setting for Climate Change – Bert Bland, Associate Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, Cornell University
Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management and Co-Founder, Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and Academy for Systemic Change