Q+A with Climate Action & Sustainability in Higher Education Program Visitor Thalita dos Santos Dalbelo

Thalita dos Santos Dalbelo is the is the Sustainability Director at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil

What interested you in this program?
I am always looking for new learning opportunities around sustainability. I met Julie Newman (MIT Director of Sustainability) through the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) and when I saw the opportunity to come and learn at MIT, I knew I had to take it. I am always following the news of what MIT is doing and there is a lot of similar work to what we do at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) but also so many opportunities to learn. Unicamp also recently launched a new exchange program for staff members, so it was the perfect time to come to MIT and see things up close. 

What lessons from MIT will you take back with you?
It was interesting to learn about how often the (Office of Campus) Planning works with MITOS. My background is in urban planning, so I come to sustainability with the thought of “Where is the planning? What will happen in this space?” And seeing that these conversations happen with staff all the time. I learned that there is also a relationship with the Department of Urban Studies is very helpful to see. It can serve as a model for other universities and as grapple with planning and sustainability challenges which overlap. MIT also seems to have a good relationship between the city and the campus—this is no hard barrier between the two. There are many lessons to be learned from a university that is completely integrated into a city the way MIT is, unlike the Unicamp’s main campus, which is partly urban, partly rural, and enclosed by a perimeter fence, something that does not exist at MIT.

What insights do you have for MIT practitioners based off of your visit?
Our campuses are very different—at Unicamp we have a campus with many animals and streams and forests, much different from MIT. But even though we are so different, many of our challenges are the same including securing the resources need to do this important sustainability work. I don’t think an urban or a rural campus makes any of this work easier to do, so doing things like this program are great for everyone to learn.