In 2017, Emory honored seven individuals on campus who have played an integral role in helping take Emory’s sustainability initiatives to the next level. The Robert S. Hascall Sustainability Innovator Awards were selected through their affiliation with Emory as an employee, faculty member, student, sustainability representative and alum. Student Innovators Cassidy Schwartz and Olivia Morgan … Continue Reading →
This Spring semester, Emory students and staff engaged with the campus and community through events and activities that facilitate conversations and raise awareness about important sustainability-related topics.
By: Eden Yonas, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives We thrive off of common experiences; experiences that validate our identity and our being. That is why culture, particularly the diversity of culture and representation, is so important. Without that to share with people, without that unifying experience that makes a stranger a friend, we … Continue Reading →
The Office of Sustainability Initiatives and Procurement Services at Emory are excited to announce the next step toward the Emory Sustainability Vision goal: “All university events will be zero municipal landfill waste by 2020.”
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
By Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks is a nationally recognized leader of the grassroots environmental justice movement, launching initiatives that have involved and inspired thousands of individuals living in areas where environmental injustices abound. Her story begins similarly to the stories of individuals whom she today empowers … Continue Reading →
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 →
Philipsborn, Rebecca Pass MD, MPA; Sheffield, Perry MD, MPH; White, Andrew MD; Osta, Amanda MD; Anderson, Marsha S. MD; Bernstein, Aaron MD, MPH Abstract: “Despite calls for including content on climate change and its effect on health in curricula across the spectrum of medical education, no widely used resource exists to guide residency training programs … Continue Reading →
By: Rachel Musetti, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives On Wednesday, February 17, Emory Climate Talks will host Jacqueline (Jacqui) Patterson at 6 pm EST. Patterson has a long history of working with notable institutions such as ActionAid, where she was a Senior Women’s Rights Policy Analyst; Johns Hopkins University, where she … Continue Reading →
The Division of Animal Resources (DAR), headquartered in the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, made strides in sustainability when they turned to recycling and composting laboratory materials and was recently recognized for its efforts.
Emory students participating in the “Don’t Dump It — Donate It” recycling program as they moved out of residence halls last month turned their used books, clothing, furniture and housewares into support for a local charitable non-profit, re:loom.
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 →
By Taylor Spicer | Emory Report | Dec. 4, 2019 In fall 2018, Emory students, faculty and staff were involved in the midterm elections at higher rates than ever before: they registered to vote at campus events, submitted absentee ballots, boarded Emory Votes Cliff Shuttles and were walked by volunteers to nearby polls. These efforts … Continue Reading →
Today, for the first time, Emory University is officially recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We have been called upon today and every day to acknowledge, honor and respect the land on which Emory now sits and the people who originally inhabited and cared for this land, the Muscogee (Creek), or Mvskoke (Creek). The Muscogee were forcibly … 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.
An Emory University collaboration with members of Atlanta’s Westside community, to test urban soil for contaminants, has led to a site investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The ongoing community collaboration is funded by Emory’s HERCULES Exposome Research Center, dedicated to understanding how environmental exposures affect health and community well-being. The EPA told the … Continue Reading →
By: Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives During this Climate Awareness Month, OSI highlighted inspiring women and young activists across the globe who have made invaluable contributions to sustainability and climate action movements, as well as Emory faculty and alumni who are engaged in important climate-related work. We are finishing our Climate … Continue Reading →
Emory University ranked fifth nationwide in a “Campus Score” to measure the “urbanism, greenness and on-campus living” of 103 research-intensive universities in the US. Emory ranked first for the most greenspace of the campuses surveyed.
The Environmental Justice Movement: Definitions and Distinctions Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives is recognizing July as Environmental Justice (EJ) Month. We would like to start the conversation by focusing on language – definitions of terms that seem the same but all address nuanced aspects of environmental justice. The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as … Continue Reading →
Introduction to EJ History in the U.S. By: Thora Middleton, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Intern, July 2020 The EJ movement rose up along with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, when people started to see the public health dangers of environmental injustice. This movement was started primarily by people of color who wanted to … Continue Reading →
Environmental Justice in Georgia: History, Current Injustices, and Progress By: Thora Middleton, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Intern, July 2020 Atlanta, Georgia is the second largest majority black metropolitan area in the country. The average household income in Atlanta is $98,757, but there is a staggering poverty rate of 21.63% (World Population Review, 2020). Atlanta is … Continue Reading →
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 →
Intersectional Environmentalism: a Framework for Environmental Thought By: Danielle Clarkson-Townsend, MPH, PhD Candidate, Environmental Health Sciences, Emory University Black feminists have long expressed the necessity to consider race and gender together, rather than separately, but it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that the theory of intersectionality was introduced to American discourse through Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work, … Continue Reading →
Historically, waste has been a burden placed on vulnerable and marginalized communities, so our office wanted to follow Emory’s waste by using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice tool to see which communities are being affected. We hope that contextualizing where our waste goes will remind us that there is no “away” when we throw … Continue Reading →
By: Kristin Kuwada, Communications & Marketing Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives During Women’s History and Climate Awareness Month, we are humbly learning about the work of less often recognized, seasoned climate activists who have all transformed the hearts, minds and places of their communities. From writing influential books and critical reports to founding organizations that … Continue Reading →
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, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Q: What are the origins of the soil remediation project? ES: My lab is working on greenhouse gas emissions, and we’re interested in how different agricultural techniques for growing corn affect greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. We realized there was a lot of urban gardening going on … Continue Reading →
When Emory crafted its current Sustainability Vision, one of the University’s most transformative — and ambitious — goals was a commitment to divert 95 percent of campus waste from municipal landfills by 2025, effectively a zero-waste policy.
By: Rachel Musetti, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives The Cuyahoga River begins in northeastern Geauga County, Ohio and continues into Akron, running both south and west, before turning back north to Cleveland on Lake Erie. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Cuyahoga River was notoriously one of the most polluted rivers … Continue Reading →
By: Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives The Resilience and Sustainability Collaboratory (RSC) is a newly established, Emory-based “think and do tank” that unites the expertise of thought leaders from corporate, governmental, non-governmental, community, and academic groups from Emory and beyond in order to address complex challenges at the nexus of the environment … Continue Reading →
Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives is reflecting on and mourning Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others whose names we do and don’t know but whose lives have all been taken by recent and historic, senseless police and vigilante violence and systemic racism. We mourn with you. Our words cannot fill … Continue Reading →
By Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives Throughout the majority of American history, environmental and racial issues have been perceived as existing in separate spheres. This understanding shifted irreversibly with the work of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a national church-based civil rights agency, and its Commission for Racial Justice. The … Continue Reading →
By Nathan Lindsey | June 20, 2018 On Friday, Jun. 8, I had the privilege of attending the Regional Center for Expertise (RCE) Quarterly Meeting, in downtown Atlanta, at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) office. At the meeting, professionals from higher education (Emory, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Georgia State, Spelman, Agnes Scott, University of … Continue Reading →
Nestled in the acreage behind Emory University Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital (EUOSH), this small yet mighty garden provides an amazing bounty of organic, sustainably raised produce used in the preparation of patient meals.
The Office of Sustainability Initiatives (OSI) invited Emory students, faculty and staff to submit a two-minute video that creatively and effectively educated about the importance of landfill waste diversion, including the social and environmental impacts of landfills.
By Clare McCarthy, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives During this Climate Awareness and Women’s History Month, OSI is highlighting some of the many determined women who have made invaluable contributions during key moments in sustainability, environmental justice and climate action history. From delivering speeches to writing books, to founding organizations, each of the … Continue Reading →
By: Kelly Li, General Sustainability Intern, Office of Sustainability Initiatives In the final week of Climate Awareness Month, OSI recognizes youth climate activists that are serving our society and the environment in critical ways. In this article, six amazing global climate activists are highlighted for their transformational work in their respective realms. Coming from … Continue Reading →
Why I’m a ZWA – The Impacts of Waste Reduction By: Jack Miklaucic, Sophomore in Emory College, Environmental Science and PPL double-major Modern life, particularly in industrialized and wealthy countries, is vastly different than it was just a century ago. The development and popularization of single-use plastics and industrial farming techniques has led to staggering … Continue Reading →
Eco-Ableism in the Zero Waste Movement By: Alexandra Aladham, First Year at Oxford College, Environmental Sciences Major Since the early 2000’s, the world has seen a push toward zero waste lifestyles and policies in an effort to curb irresponsible production, waste, and consumption. The Zero Waste Movement has aligned itself with these efforts, aiming to … Continue Reading →
From Trash to Art – Artists are Breathing Life into Garbage to Stimulate Change By: Erica Kahn, First year in the 4+1 BS/MPH program in Environmental Health, Junior in Emory College majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in English One of the best parts about making or viewing art is the positive feedback loop it … Continue Reading →
Wear Your Values – An Insight into Fast Fashion By: Emily Kim, Second Year in Emory College, Chemistry and NBB major I’m sure you’ve heard it before: “use code ____ for 15% off”. Even if you haven’t, we’ve all seen great bargains for the cheapest, trending clothing option on the internet, and to no one’s … Continue Reading →
