Launch of Climate Action Plan Task Force
October 31, 2016
Dear Members of the Boston University Community:
I am writing to announce the launch of the Climate Action Plan Task Force. As I outlined in my message to you last month, this group is charged with developing a Climate Action Plan for Boston University, which, when approved by the Board of Trustees, will become part of the University’s Strategic Plan.
The Task Force will be chaired by Anthony Janetos, Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Earth & Environment and Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The 18 members of our faculty, staff, and student body are listed at the end of this letter.
I have charged the Task Force with developing a Climate Action Plan in the context of the following five guidelines:
- Propose ways to operationally mitigate the University’s impact on global warming by decreasing our direct emissions and lowering our energy use, as well as ways we should prepare our campuses for the impacts of climate change.
- Make recommendations for our role in research—both disciplinary and interdisciplinary—that are relevant to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, lowering energy demand, and developing resilient cities and campuses.
- Make recommendations for educational programs that prepare all our students, but especially our undergraduates, to face the challenges of climate change as educated citizens of the world.
- Embed these recommendations in the context of analysis of their medium- and long-term financial implications to the University.
- Engage the entire Boston University community of faculty, staff, and students in the preparation of the Climate Action Plan and reach out to other institutions and the City of Boston to explore shared solutions that will benefit the broader community.
I hope that the Task Force is able to complete its work within a year.
The report of the Task Force will lay the foundation for the University’s strategy for dealing with climate change in teaching and research and through the design and operation of our campuses. I hope you will participate in the public discussions of this important work.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President
Members of the Climate Action Plan Task Force:
- Sean Attri, Graduate Student, Questrom School of Business
- Mun Pan Aung, Graduate Student, School of Public Health
- Bridget Baker, Undergraduate Student, College of Arts & Sciences
- Dennis Carlberg, Director of Sustainability
- Madhu Dutta-Koehler, Associate Professor of the Practice and Program Coordinator, City Planning and Urban Affairs, Metropolitan College
- Elijah Ercolino, Director of Building Automation
- Peter Fox-Penner, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Professor of the Practice, Questrom School of Business
- Michael Gevelber, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Lucy Hutyra, Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences
- Tony Janetos, Chair, Pardee Professor of Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences, and Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future
- Robert Kaufmann, Professor of Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences
- Jonathan Levy, Professor, Environmental Health, School of Public Health
- Thomas Little, Associate Dean of Educational Initiatives, and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
- Jennifer Luebke, Associate Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology, and Faculty Council Representative, School of Medicine
- Nathan Phillips, Professor, Department of Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences
- Peter Smokowski, Vice President, Auxiliary Services
- Pamela Templer, Associate Professor of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences
- Benjamin Thompson, Graduate Student, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences