Day: September 16, 2011

Sep 23: Massachusetts Car-Free Week Reception at the Office of Sustainability

Next week is Massachusetts Car-Free Week, a great opportunity to promote healthier modes of transportation for both yourself and the environment! Starting Sunday, Sept. 18th through Sept 24th, you can track your car-free and car-light trips and be eligible to win prizes. Pledge your commitment to be Car-Free for next week and start tracking your trips on Sunday.

To celebrate everyone’s involvement in this event, the Office of Sustainability is holding a reception on Friday, September 23rd at 11 am. The Office is located in Miller Hall (around the back on the parking lot side facing Hillel Hall) on the Medford campus. If you made an effort to reduce the number of single-occupancy trips in your car (even if it’s just one less day than usual), come join us for some refreshments!

Please pass this information along to your colleagues so that we can get as many people as possible traveling car-free next week! There is a flyer that you can print out and post in your department to help raise awareness.

President Monaco to chair Sustainability Council

Tufts’ new president is off to a great start and he is making sustainability a priority.

In a letter to the Tufts community last Monday, President Tony Monaco announced plans to launch and personally chair two university-wide councils in the next few weeks: one for sustainability and one for diversity.

“The new Presidential council on sustainability will assess strategic directions to ensure that our campus operations reflect the commitment to the environment that informs our extraordinary academic work in this arena,” he wrote. “While taking a broad view, the council will look particularly closely at carbon management, waste and water.”

This exciting news fulfills early indications that our new leader is personally engaged in issues of sustainability. Back in June, he asked on Twitter, “Alright Jumbos, in my listening tour so far it seems that sustainability and the green agenda on #Tufts campus are essential. Thoughts?”

In an article on Earth Week last April, Monaco was also quoted as having “a longstanding interest and involvement in sustainability issues”. As Oxford’s pro-vice-chancellor for planning and resources, Monaco had been chosen to lead the university’s Sustainability Steering Group in 2008.

On recent news that Tufts earned a Silver rating in STARS, Monaco noted that “the rating provides strong recognition of our institutional achievements in sustainability” and added that “this is a priority for me personally… in light of the clear support across the university for intensifying our commitment, I am certain that we will accomplish even more in the years ahead.”

(Photo: President Monaco received an orchid on his first day at work from John DiBaggio, who was president of Tufts in 1999 when the university made a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 7% below 1990 levels. Source: Kelvin Ma/Tufts University)