Sustainability Data Hub

We ask all who use the Data Hub to carefully review the descriptions of the data visualizations, so that we can avoid misinterpretation as much as possible. These visualizations are intended for informational purposes only. If you have questions about the visualizations, the underlying data sets, or other sustainability data that may not be included here, please reach out to sustainability@yale.edu.

 

 

Yale has been measuring and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions since 2005. This visualization shows emissions associated with the University’s three on-campus co-generation power plants and purchased electricity and the university’s fleet. For more information about greenhouse gas emissions at Yale, including our accomplishment of reaching our 2020 goal, our progress in achieving our 2035 goal, and our shift to reporting through The Climate Registry, please visit our Greenhouse Gas Emissions page.

 

 

This visualization shows copy paper purchasing patterns at Yale, organized by recycled content type. Interact with the visualization by checking the box next to different product types (e.g. “50% Recycled”) to see how our buying habits have changed over time.  

 

While the University makes many purchases, we have been tracking copy paper purchasing for a number of years as a way to track overall reduction as well as a shift away from virgin paper purchasing. For more information about best practices for paper use, visit the Reducing Paper Use page.

 

 

This visualization shows the number of Zoom meetings and webinars held each month by Yale staff and faculty over the course of both fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The University had already seen a rise in Zoom meetings and webinars as many employees shifted to remote working at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March of 2020, yet the volume of teleconferencing calls increased significantly from the 2020 to the 2021 fiscal year.

It is important that our sustainability initiatives have broad impact. We assess the goals of the Yale Sustainability Plan 2025 goals to measure “co-benefits”: positive outcomes that directly or indirectly result from their achievement. This helps us to see the intersections between specific goals and how they advance economic prosperity; health & well-being; resiliency; impact beyond campus borders (i.e. local, national, and global impacts); and diversity, equity, and belonging.

 

In 2020 we reviewed goals to assess their initial intention, establishing that as our baseline. Beginning in 2021, we will assess each goal on whether or not co-benefits resulted from that year’s work, and to what degree. Significantly, the impacts of the pandemic prevented our ability to make progress on some co-benefits in 2021.

At the time of the 2020 assessment, 31 active goals from the Yale Sustainability Plan were assessed. Similarly, the 2021 assessment only features active goals that have not yet been achieved.

This interactive tool shows whether the goal has a major, moderate, or neutral co-benefit impact. The first tab shows the actual co-benefits that each active goal has produced, and the second tab shows their intended co-benefits. Users may toggle between the two for comparison. Check the box next to different levels of impact within each co-benefit category to learn more.