{"id":12127,"date":"2018-11-09T10:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T15:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/?p=12127"},"modified":"2020-03-18T14:22:43","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T18:22:43","slug":"green-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/2018\/11\/09\/green-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Department Goes Green to Achieve Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, November 7th, sustainability@BU officially certified the Boston University Department of Computer Science as a Green Department, earning the level of Gold. BU CS is the seventh department at Boston University to earn Green Department Certification, and the first in the College of Arts and Sciences. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Green Office Certification Program, launched in 2011 through BU\u2019s Sustainability Liaisons, aims to \u201craise awareness, educate, and provide measurable guidelines for greening the office environment.\u201d Green Department Certification takes the program a step further, requiring all members of a department (faculty, students, and staff) to come together to ensure department-wide cooperation. To achieve this comprehensive certification, 80% of the offices in a department must be Green Office Certified and the department must enact overarching measures at its core.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Professors chat with Sustainability Director Lisa Tornatore after the announcement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abraham Matta, Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science, was excited that the Department is a University leader, honored with the gold-level certification. He praised everyone in the Department for working together to attain this achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur Computer Science Department is very proud to become Green Certified and be the first department in CAS to achieve gold-level certification,\u201d said Matta. \u201cIt goes to show how our faculty, staff, and students care about sustainability, and I hope we can continue to do more to reduce waste in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In her speech congratulating the Department, BU\u2019s Sustainability Director, Lisa Tornatore, praised the department\u2019s strong sustainability leadership and the efforts of individuals in working towards a Green Department Certification. She described sustainability in an office setting as an \u201c80% individual effort\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSustainability is not just about what the university is doing, it\u2019s about what everybody here is doing as part of the community,\u201d said Tornatore. \u201cThe effort on the behalf of the department is really key to showing the institution we are moving forward and what departments like [Computer Science] are doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The bamboo plaque celebrating the Department’s achievement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Department was awarded a bamboo plaque to commemorate its achievement, which will be proudly displayed outside the main office door. The plaque includes information about the measures taken by the Department to become more sustainable. The introductory text reads, \u201cThe Department of Computer Science strives to educate and prepare our students to excel in the ever-evolving world of technology. We pride ourselves on fostering an innovative atmosphere at all levels, including becoming the first Green Department in CAS\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

CS Masters student Megan Fantes (CAS’18, GRS\u201920) felt proud to be part of a department that plans for the future, and drew parallels between the forward-thinking ideologies of both computer science and sustainability. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComputer science is a lot about looking toward the future and being able to adapt to it, and sustainability is also about that,\u201d said Fantes. \u201cIt\u2019s good as a department to prioritize not only computer science, but also the sustainable factor of the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Department offered reusable coffee mugs at the celebration which included a zero-waste luncheon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian Cole (CAS’11), Program Administrator and leader of the Department\u2019s sustainability initiative, said he is \u201cproud of the effort the department has made\u201d to support sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving graduated from BU in 2011 with a BA in Environmental Science, sustainability has always been near to my heart, and I wanted to bring that passion and BU\u2019s sustainability efforts together in my role in the Department of Computer Science,\u201d said Cole. \u201cIt\u2019s been a two-plus year project that I\u2019m happy to see come to fruition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cole reminded attendees that sustainability is an \u201congoing process,\u201d hinting at future department plans to implement better education around waste and possibly implement composting. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing I learned in my education at BU, it\u2019s that it\u2019s easy to feel defeated when talking about sustainability and environmental issues,\u201d said Cole. \u201cBut every little bit of effort counts towards a more sustainable future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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From left: Program Administrator, Christian Cole (CAS’11), Department Chair, Abraham Matta, and Sustainability Director, Lisa Tornatore pose with the certification plaque.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, November 7th, sustainability@BU officially certified the Boston University Department of Computer Science as a Green Department, earning the level of Gold. BU CS is the seventh department at Boston University to earn Green Department Certification, and the first in the College of Arts and Sciences. The Green Office Certification Program, launched in 2011 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15310,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12127"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12152,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127\/revisions\/12152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}