The University of Chicago Facilities Services department hosted a Sustainability Summit which was scheduled to take place on campus over two days, but instead and due to COVID-19, the summit was held remotely. Sustainability leaders from 28 higher education institutions participated. Some of the attendees are members of the Ivy Plus Sustainability Consortium which is comprised of 14 of our peer institutions with a single vision of driving higher education to excellence in global sustainability solutions.
The summit allows the distinct group to share best practices and to strategize together on emerging areas of focus and study. Dr. Sabina Shaikh, senior lecturer and director of the environmental studies program at UChicago led a discussion regarding environmental frontiers initiative.
Doug Farr, founder of Farr Associates and lead architect for the Keller Center, UChicago’s most sustainable building (LEED Platinum, Living Building Challenge Petal Certified, and 2020 AIA COTE Winner) took the attendees on a virtual building tour and presented a compelling project narrative which was recorded and can be viewed here.
Dr. Seth Darling, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and fellow at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago gave a fascinating presentation regarding the future of water. He showed the correlation between water and energy and that power plants are the largest single withdrawer of water in the United States. The entire presentation can be viewed here.
In addition to GreenerU facilitators, the following higher education institutions were represented at the summit.
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Brown University |
Georgetown University |
Princeton University |
USC |
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California Institute of Technology |
George Washington University |
University of Rochester |
Vanderbilt University |
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Columbia University |
Harvard University |
Stanford University |
UVA |
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Cornell University |
Johns Hopkins University |
Tulane University |
Wake Forest University |
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Dartmouth College |
MIT |
UChicago |
Washington University in St. Louis |
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Duke University |
NYU |
UMichigan |
Yale University |
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Emory University |
Northwestern University |
UPenn |
University of Miami |