Health & Well-being
Healthy Planet, Healthy People
From our campus buildings and landscape to transportation, food, and energy, our activities to improve the environment can also enhance the health and well-being of the Yale community, as well as those surrounding it.
Yale’s Efforts
- In 2015 Yale announced its tobacco-free public health campaign, which reflects the University’s commitment to reduce pollution and provide a healthier environment for all members of the campus community.
- Yale Hospitality emphasizes the importance of health and wellness through its food service offerings. Examples of the Yale Hospitality offerings include a plant-based protein program, salt reduction initiative, spa water program, emphasis on local food sourcing and catch of the day, and more.
- Yale’s custodial teams utilize a technology that uses electrolysis (a mixture of water, electricity and salt) to provide a powerful and disinfecting solution that avoids the use of chemicals entirely. In addition, they follow a set of Green Cleaning Standards that promote human health, and health of the environment.
- The Yale Climate Change and Health Initiative utilizes Yale’s multidisciplinary expertise and global reach to train future leaders, provide a comprehensive educational program, and catalyze innovative research, all to address one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century.
What You Can Do
- Get active! Utilize the Yale Shuttle or other public transportation, walk or bike around campus.
- Refer to our Healthy Meeting Guidelines when planning a meeting or event.
- Save energy. Reducing energy use improves air quality as well.
Our Objectives and Goals
A Healthy, Vibrant Campus
Encourage decision-making and behaviors that lead to a healthy, vibrant campus and surrounding community.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Center on Climate Change and Health, in partnership with the Vermont Law School and the Yale School of the Environment, led a research project that convened focus groups of Connecticut residents impacted by energy insecurity. Findings shed light on the intersection between health concerns and energy insecurity, and how energy costs and reliability, temperature extremes, and housing quality combine to produce impacts on physical, mental, and economic well-being. Policy recommendations were identified that would address energy insecurity and enhance public health in Connecticut by creating a more equitable clean energy future.
Sustainability, Health, and Well-Being
ON TRACK
By 2025, we will advance university-wide programs and policies to improve health and well-being outcomes.
Developed in 2019, the Collective Well-Being Survey has been actively promoted to the Yale community as a tool for self-assessment and for measuring a group’s well-being, along with a website to promote University resources to enhance belonging and well-being.
Resilient Food Systems
Promote resilient food systems through on-campus food service and community-wide efforts.
Food Literacy and Resilience
ACHIEVED
By 2020, align University efforts to increase awareness of health benefits of sustainability initiatives and improve health outcomes.
This goal was achieved in 2020. Yale Hospitality has continued to raise awareness around sustainable and healthy food.
Sustainable Catering
ACHIEVED
By 2020, establish campus-wide sustainable catering standards.
This goal was achieved in 2020, when a comprehensive matrix of sustainable catering criteria was developed, including considerations around diversity, menu development, health, labor, waste, and communication. However, there is an opportunity to revisit the criteria as the landscape of catering has now changed.