Emory Report | Feb. 12, 2020 Each year Emory Recycles and the Office of Sustainability Initiatives hold a recycling competition to determine which university building has the greatest increase in waste diverted from landfills (by weight) for the month of November compared to volumes of the previous November. The building winner for the 2019 competition … Continue Reading →
Emory’s 2025 Sustainability Vision identified four main action arenas, including utilizing Emory’s landscape, buildings, and operations to model best practices. This past year, campus departments made important strides toward realizing Emory’s Sustainability Vision goals
The Emory Student Center pulsed with music, lights and laughter, as the campus community came together Wednesday, Sept. 11, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the innovative new space. Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and Emory Board of Trustees representatives — as well as members of the wider community — mingled about The Commons for an … Continue Reading →
Energy Building Use 2015-2017
By: Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives On August 7, Emory’s 1599 Clifton Road Building became the first campus rooftop to house a solar installation through a partnership with Cherry Street Energy, an Atlanta-based power company. The partnership was established in May, and since then, progress has been made on three of … Continue Reading →
EcoChemory: a Sustainability Project in the Department of Chemistry EcoChemory was created by Dr. Kevin Sullivan (Hill Lab, Dept. of Chemistry), Elena Jordanov (Saikawa Lab, Dept. of Environmental Health), and Rachel Bender (Heemstra Lab, Dept. of Chemistry). The overall goal of EcoChemory is to incorporate the culture of sustainability into chemistry labs. We aim to … Continue Reading →
By: Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently selected Emory University as 1 of 12 recipients of its 2020 Sustainable Materials Management Funding Opportunity. This opportunity provides a solution to the issue of American food waste sent to landfills by encouraging the expansion of anaerobic digestion (AD) … Continue Reading →
A small ceremony on Friday, Aug. 7, celebrated the operation of newly installed solar panels on the rooftop of Emory University’s 1599 Building on Clifton Road. This is the first of 16 installations that will include more than 15,000 solar panels across Emory’s Atlanta campus that will be installed over the next 12 months. In … Continue Reading →
Emory University’s efforts surrounding recycling and sustainability continue to earn notice. The latest recognition is from the Georgia Recycling Coalition (GRC), which gave Emory its Spirit of Green Award for 2019 Outstanding Institutional Recycling Program. This award is given to Georgia colleges, universities, military installations or other institutional campus or industrial entities at the GRC’s … Continue Reading →
ATLANTA, GA – Emory Healthcare celebrated today the groundbreaking of the new Emory Musculoskeletal Institute, located in Brookhaven, Georgia, to continue its commitment to develop innovative treatments and provide solutions for health care challenges facing the local communities. As the newest addition to Emory’s Executive Park health innovation district, the approximately 180,000-square-foot, LEED-certified building will … Continue Reading →
Emory University has been recognized by the City of Atlanta for its commitment to energy and water conservation through the 2016-2017 Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge.
From Climate@Emory | July 31, 2018 To help accelerate the smart growth of solar in Georgia, representatives from Emory Law School’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic, Georgia Institute of Technology’s Strategic Energy Institute, and the University of Georgia have published the Georgia Model Solar Zoning Ordinance and accompanying explanatory guide. The ordinance strikes an important balance … Continue Reading →
By Jamie Lutz, OSI Intern According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), a typical laboratory is 3-to-4 times more energy intensive than an average commercial building and can account for up to 70% of a campus’s energy footprint. This presents huge potential for energy reduction strategies in lab spaces on campus. In order to … Continue Reading →
A new technology employed by Emory University to move toward a more efficient and sustainable electrical system has arrived on campus: Cogeneration or Combined Heat and Power (CHP), which will produce one megawatt of clean power for the campus.
By: Kristin Kuwada, Communications & Marketing Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives As of September 28th, Emory University Hospital (EUH) no longer offers single-use plastic bags in its retail spaces, including Clifton Café, Asbury Café and the gift shop. According to Sabrina Bauggue, the Director of Food and Nutrition Services at EUH, this initiative will save … Continue Reading →
In the May 31, 2019 issue of Science, young scientists lent their perspectives on personal sustainable behavior change in the article NextGen Voices: Science-inspired sustainable behavior. The Emory Office of Sustainability Initiatives recently posed the same question to our weekly newsletter readers: How has your awareness of science inspired you to adopt more sustainable and … Continue Reading →
Since 2007, the Office of Sustainability Initiatives has recognized sustainability champions of Emory University and Emory Healthcare by celebrating their inspiring and committed work with the Robert S. Hascall Sustainability Innovator Awards and Outstanding Sustainability Representative Award. These awards are given to students, faculty and staff who employ research, academics, engagement and leadership to foster sustainability in the … Continue Reading →
As a part of the Sustainability Vision and Strategic Plan, Emory has committed to reducing energy use per square foot by 50 percent by 2025 and total energy use by 25 percent.
Dispelling the Myth of the Emory Bubble: Connecting Calls to Action from the Environmental Justice Movement to Campus and Community Change Many who come to Emory, especially undergraduate students, may have heard the term “the Emory Bubble,” which is most often used to describe a feeling of geographic and social disconnect between Emory community members … Continue Reading →
By Austin Lai, Yuhgene Liu and Miranda Mitchell Any farmer, gardener or sustainability-minded citizen who composts organic matter might notice that their compost pile generates a substantial amount of heat over the course of a few weeks to months. However, the concept of capitalizing on the thermal energy generated from these compost piles to produce electricity … Continue Reading →
Emory senior Rebecca Park looked across a sprawling field of shallow plastic trays carpeting a flat, open-air swath of rooftop on the Math and Science Center and saw real estate ripe for rebirth.
In the summer of 2016, the Office of Sustainability Initiatives (OSI) announced the recipients of its inaugural Green Offices at Emory and Green Labs at Emory Incentives Fund programs, created to encourage students, faculty, and staff to contribute innovative ideas for achieving the goals outlined in Emory’s 2025 Sustainability Vision.
By Leanna Ehrlich, OSI Intern Emory University’s commitment to sustainability over the last decade includes updating one of the largest uses of energy on campus: lighting fixtures. OSI recently spoke to Kevin Keefe, an Electrical Engineer at the University, and he detailed the steps that Campus Services has taken to reduce lighting’s energy use, from … Continue Reading →
Emory is currently using MERV 13 High capacity Bag filters on several of the larger lab buildings, including Atwood Chemistry Building. There are 3 advantages to these new filters. Saves fan energy through a lower pressure drop; it’s small at 59234 KW/yr. Saves labor, as they last 1.5 yrs. Reducing about 4 trips by the … Continue Reading →
Partnership Highlight: Michael Chanin, CEO of Cherry Street Energy, Shares about Shine On Workforce Development Program By: Christie Jones, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Intern, June 2020 Emory University recently partnered with Cherry Street Energy to bring renewable solar energy to its Druid Hills campus. Under the Solar Energy Procurement Agreement (SEPA), Cherry Street has started … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | July 29, 2018 Discovery is part of the fabric of chemistry at Emory, and Dr. Simon Blakey’s lab pushes for discovery every day. Some of his team’s most innovative practices are rooted in sustainability. In Blakey’s words, his lab practices “sustainability on a molecular level.” Blakey’s lab seeks to create methods that reduce the … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | August 27th, 2018 The Emory Dance & Movement Studies Program places great value on our relationship with our surroundings. In the words of Director Lori Teague, “the fundamentals of dance are body, energy, space, and time.” It is fitting, then, that Emory Dance’s office is a Gold-certified Green Office. The office takes a number of … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | August 26, 2018 Emory’s Department of Biology is one of the most active in the country for a reason – there will always be questions waiting to be answered in the life sciences! The Hickman Lab is a biology lab that focuses on fungi: how they reproduce and how they respond … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | July 22, 2018 On the fourth floor of the Modern Languages Building at Emory, the Institute of Quantitative Theory & Methods has been innovating for six years in the field of data science. The office’s goal is to collaborate with everyone to bring data science skills into every field, from the natural sciences … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | August 19, 2018 The Morran Lab is an Emory Biology lab that studies coevolution (which accounts for much of the evolution that occurs in nature) and mating systems (which account for the distribution of genetic variation). To do this, it looks at worms like the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. As a certified Green Lab, … Continue Reading →
By Ramsey Baden | August 12, 2018 The Steinhauer Lab is a microbiology and immunology lab at Emory, and it is on the front lines against influenza. Their study of the structure and functions of the virus HA (hemagglutinin glycoprotein) is directly related to the development of vaccines. Sustainability was already practiced at the Steinhauer Lab when they … Continue Reading →
Todd Doyle | July 18, 2018 Author’s note: This is a follow up to http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/09/er_duc_interim_dining_facility/campus.html. Opening in summer of 2017, the DUC-ling staff has served a year’s worth of meals to members of the Emory community. The interim dining hall project enters its second and final academic term with Emory, as construction of the CLC … Continue Reading →
By Rachel Musetti, Emory Report, 12/3/19 Every year, Emory’s campus is enlivened with new ideas proposed and executed by students, faculty and staff seeking creative ways to participate in sustainability initiatives. The Office of Sustainability Initiatives’ annual incentives funds programs seek new knowledge, support new behavior patterns and foster cultural change toward social justice and … Continue Reading →
