Sustainability at Yale: Celebrating 20 Years

This year marks two decades since Yale made a formal commitment to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions, becoming one of the first universities to do so. While Yale’s environmental leadership stretches back more than a century, 2005 launched an accelerated push to make the whole university run more sustainably. To celebrate, we’re looking back on the progress made during a crucial era of experimentation and innovation—and the lasting impacts of the university’s advances in climate research, operations, and culture.

2005 

• Yale makes its first formal commitment to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions, pledging to cut emissions 43% by 2020. 
• The Yale Office of Sustainability is created to facilitate information exchange and capacity building, and foster innovation, streamlined operations, and preparation of tomorrow’s sustainability leaders.
• The Spring Salvage program is launched to collect and donate unwanted items during student move-out.
• The Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building becomes the first LEED-certified laboratory in the world, consuming 25% less energy than a standard lab building of its size (pictured above).

2006 

• Yale starts using alternative fuel in all its shuttle buses (pictured above).
• The Yale Center for Business and the Environmentis founded as a hub for promoting cross-sector climate solutions.
• The Office of Sustainability hosts the second annual Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium meeting, co-creating a regional network of campus sustainability professionals.

2007 

• The Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale is founded to provide practical solutions to sustainability challenges by bridging three of Yale’s professional schools.
• Ivy League schools convene at Yale, leading to a commitment from participating institutions to set greenhouse gas reduction targets within 12 months of the meeting (pictured above).
• The Sculpture Building at Yale School of Art is completed, becoming the first building in Connecticut to achieve LEED platinum certification, the highest possible designation from the U.S. Green Building Council.

2008 

• Yale President Richard Levin testifies before the U.S. Senate in favor of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Yale Athletics and the Office of Sustainability create Bulldog Sustainability, a student-led initiative that aims to build momentum for sustainable actions within Yale’s sports teams (pictured above).

2009 

• Yale installs 10 micro wind turbines on Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center as a pilot project to test the viability of wind power on campus.
• Kroon Hall, the new home for Yale School of the Environment, is completed and earns LEED certification at the platinum level (pictured above).
• The Office of Sustainability launches the International Alliance of Research Universities Sustainability Initiative to exchange ideas and practices.

2010 

• Yale College dining halls begin composting food waste (pictured above).
• Yale President Richard Levin announces the university’s first multi-year strategic plan for campus sustainability, a three-year roadmap that expands upon the greenhouse gas reduction commitment made in 2005.
• Yale adopts new design standards, committing that all major building and renovation projects on campus will achieve LEED gold certification at a minimum.

2011 

• Yale receives its first A on the College Sustainability Report Card, one of only seven universities in the U.S. and Canada to receive the recognition from the Sustainable Endowments Institute (pictured above). 
• Yale achieves an 11.5% reduction in campus emissions from 2005, putting the university more than on track to achieve its 2020 goal.

2012 

• Yale begins reducing vehicle emissions by adding compressed natural gas vehicles to its fleet and using electric delivery vehicles.
• Yale moves to single-stream recycling with the goal of simplifying the sorting process and increasing waste diversion rates (pictured above).
• The university becomes the first in Connecticut to earn Bicycle Friendly University recognition from the League of American Bicyclists.

2013 

• Yale creates its first Stormwater Management Plan, recognizing flood events as a critical urban sustainability issue.
• The university plants the first of several new urban meadows across campus to promote natural grass regeneration, foster biodiversity, reduce stormwater runoff, and lessen the need for mowing (pictured above).

2014 

• Yale President Peter Salovey announces a series of initiatives to advance Yale’s leadership in environmental sustainability, including major investments in energy conservation, emissions reductions, and renewables; third-party verification of Yale’s greenhouse gas inventory; funded fellowships for “green innovation” by students; and sustainability action plans tailored to each of Yale’s professional schools.
• The Yale-affiliated nonprofit Urban Resources Initiative partners with the city of New Haven to build 15 bioswales—planted sidewalk cutouts designed to filter stormwater, the first of what will eventually be hundreds of bioswales in the Elm City (pictured above).

2015 

• Based on a concept proposed by students, Yale pilots a Carbon Charge, a first-of-its-kind program to put a price tag on the use of carbon in campus buildings. 
• A 1.34-megawatt solar array is built on West Campus, delivering an eight-fold increase in the university’s on-site renewable generation (pictured above).

2016 

• President Salovey announces the Yale Sustainability Plan 2025, a nine-year strategic roadmap that is the university’s most ambitious and comprehensive sustainability plan to date (pictured above).
• Yale sees a substantial reduction in campus greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to a 24% total reduction below 2005 levels.

2017 

• Yale joins with 11 other major research universities in affirming their commitment to addressing climate change, consistent with the Paris Agreement. 
• Yale is named a gold-level Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists (pictured above).

2018 

• William Nordhaus wins the Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences for research on the economic implications of climate change.
• The first Yale Sustainability Survey is launched to assess knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around sustainability within the university community, providing critical insights that help shape institutional strategies and programming (pictured above).

2019 

• The Yale Collective Well-being Assessment is introduced as a way to incorporate health more fully into Yale’s sustainability benchmarking.
• University staff create the Healthy Furniture Initiative to identify and eliminate chemicals of concern from university-purchased furniture (pictured).
• Yale launches a Pay-as-You-Throw pilot programto reduce waste and promote better recycling and composting habits, demonstrating the campus as a testbed for sustainability innovation.

2020 

• Yale achieves its first greenhouse gas reduction target, set 15 years earlier, by reducing net emissions 43% below 2005 levels.
• Yale’s Office of the Provost creates the Yale Planetary Solutions Project (since renamed Yale Planetary Solutions) to foster interdisciplinary connections that will address the most significant climate and biodiversity challenges facing humanity.
• More than 30 Sustainability Action Plans are created for Yale academic, cultural, and administrative units as a tool for individual departments to contribute to broader institutional goals.

2021 

• With its initial greenhouse gas reduction target achieved, Yale sets a new goal to reach zero emissions by 2050 with an interim goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2035.
• Yale secures a $100 million gift from FedEx to help fund a new center focused on developing natural solutions to reducing atmospheric carbon.
• The Yale Board of Trustees adopts fossil fuel-investment principles that exclude all coal producers, and certain oil and gas producers, from eligibility for investment by the endowment (pictured above).

2022 

• Yale adopts a ‘zero carbon ready’ building standard, creating a pathway for every building on campus to be highly energy efficient and capable of meeting its needs for heating, cooling, and electricity without the use of fossil fuels (pictured above).
• The Climate Impact Innovation Fund, a $15 million fund supporting research into climate solutions, sponsors 21 proposals in its inaugural round of Yale Planetary Solutions grants.

2023 

• Yale faculty member and green chemistry expert Julie Zimmerman is named as Yale’s inaugural vice provost for Planetary Solutions to provide strategic leadership in developing integrative solutions to the planet’s most pressing challenges.
• Yale achieves its goal to increase EV charging infrastructure by 250%—giving Yale 76 EV charging options compared to five charging stations in 2019 (pictured above).

2024 

• Yale Planetary Solutions convenes world leaders and experts for a weeklong showcase at Climate Week in New York City.
• A historic renovation of the Yale Peabody Museumexpands gallery space by 50% while simultaneously making the building much greener—cutting energy use intensity, conserving water, and installing bird-safe glass.
• Yale begins drilling geothermal wells for the university’s first district thermal utility plant, a key piece of Yale’s strategy for reducing campus emissions to zero by 2050 (pictured above).

2025 

• Yale Divinity School opens the Living Village, a regenerative residence hall that will give back to the environment more than it takes and meets the world’s highest standard for sustainable building design (pictured above).
• The Yale Sustainability Plan 2025, a nine-year strategy launched in 2016, reaches its final milestone, laying a foundation for the broad integration of sustainability into the scholarship and operations of the university.