Campus Sustainability News
News on campus sustainability initiatives, emerging programs, rankings, awards, student initiatives, green teams, and more from across the Cornell University campus.

As part of this year's Beyond Waste campaign at Cornell, organizers are hosting a meme competition to encourage fun and creative submissions related to the themes of the waste and purchasing-focused campaign.

Join the two-month campaign to reduce waste, improve reuse and recycling, and rethink our campus relationship to goods and materials. 2022 campaign begins February 14th and event organizing is open to all campus partners.

Recognize an employee who demonstrates sustainability leadership with actions big or small in the new Cornell University HR Recognition Portal. Monthly winners will be given prizes and be entered into the prestigious annual sustainability awards for the end of the year.

Cornell’s oldest renewable energy system – the campus hydroelectric plant located on Beebe Lake - has been approved for another forty years of clean energy production after a successful five year recertification process.

Cornell has earned a a second platinum sustainability rating – the highest possible– from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Cornell is the only Ivy league institution to have achieved a platinum rating, and one of just two in the world to have achieved the accolade twice.

In response to increased climate disasters — tropical storms, sea-level rise, drought, wildfires, and other events — major climate adaptation projects around the world are producing inequitable land use plans and projects in urban regions, according to Linda Shi, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning.

Energy Smackdown - the annual energy saving competition- begins December 1st. This year, students will face off against faculty & staff and the Campus Sustainability Office has launched a new Campus Energy Reduction Grant of up to $1,000.

The first important step is drilling this exploration well to confirm the technical viability and ensure the safe operation of the system.

Students living in the newly opened residence buildings – Toni Morrison Hall and Ganędagǫ: Hall – know of the buildings’ rooftop solar panels. But if the windows and walls could talk, they would be fluent in the language of sustainability.

Cornell is joining with the City of Ithaca and the Town of Ithaca to form a campus-regional partnership committed to promoting efficient, innovative and accessible energy, and reach carbon neutrality, community-wide, by the early 2030s.