Leveraging the Campus as a Test Bed for Sustainability: Catalyzing Innovation, Imagination, and Impact - Featuring Julie Newman, Director of Sustainability, MIT

Julie Newman, Ph.D. joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013 as the founding Director of Sustainability for the institute, where she was charged with launching the Office of Sustainability. She also holds a lecturer appointment with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and for the past six years co-taught a course entitled “Solving for Carbon Neutrality at MIT”.  In 2004, Julie founded the Office of Sustainability at Yale University where she held a lecturer appointment with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Prior to that she assisted with the launch of the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute in 1997.  In 2004 Julie founded the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium, the longest standing active network of university sustainability professionals in the United States, to advance education and action for sustainable development on university campuses in the northeast and maritime region. 

MIT’s commitment to climate and sustainability is grounded in leveraging the campus as a test bed.  This methodology as applied by the Office of Sustainability with campus partners, calls upon a methodology and collaborative process that seeks to inform and reimagine campus systems to advance a comprehensive commitment to sustainability and climate solution development.  In this talk, Dr. Newman presents how this approach manifests in the form of courses, class projects, lab research, data collection, and applied research as MIT seeks to serve as a model organization that generates and demonstrates new and proven ways to respond to the challenge of our changing planet.