By: Katie Koenig
Finding Information
Data dashboards are incredibly helpful to check out what institutions are doing when it comes to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and waste diversion. Still, not every institution offers these convenient web pages, like Emerson (yet).
If the institution doesn’t publish that data, there’s very little you can do to find it without petitioning for it or advocating for greater transparency. However, oftentimes, there is data that’s being published and it just hasn’t been collated into a single, convenient webpage or resource.
Search Terms
Sometimes, you just have to do a little bit of internet sleuthing. One way to start is by searching for more specific terms like “institution sustainability” or “sustainable stats.” Waste diversion, energy efficiency, and carbon emissions are all specific aspects of emissions and pollution statistics that may be published individually.
The sustainability team at Emerson publishes waste diversion statistics regularly. We have Weigh the Waste events in the Dining Hall every month to collect data on the amount of waste produced during an average dinner period, broken down by types of waste, and we publish each month’s results on Instagram as they come in. Less frequently, we also publish articles on this blog that take a look at longer-term waste trends in the Dining Hall.
Every year, Emerson also participates in WasteNot Emerson for the intercollege recycling competition, Campus Race to Zero Waste! Those results are also published, and you can even search “WasteNot Emerson,” “Campus Race to Zero Waste,” or even “RecycleMania” (the old name for the competition) if you’re looking for this data.
Emerson also publishes sustainability data through both mandatory and voluntary reporting mechanisms. Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction And Disclosure Ordinance requires that buildings over a certain size report their energy and water usage annually. 10 of Emerson’s buildings are subject to BERDO. In addition, Emerson participates in voluntary emissions reporting through Second Nature as part of our membership in the Climate Leadership Network.
I also want to highlight certain types of sustainable certifications that colleges can get for their campuses and campus life. LEED certifications determine the sustainability levels of buildings’ construction and management, in short. Platinum is the highest rating, and the rarest to boot. You can also search for “carbon neutral” colleges to see which ones have successfully reduced and offset all of their carbon emissions, making them a net zero emitter. Second Nature is an organization that certifies this type of claim, same with the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED certifications, so it can help to confirm these claims through third party certificates.
Conclusion
My goal here is to demonstrate that, even when it’s hard to find specific information and statistics about institutions’ concrete efforts to improve their sustainability performance, that information still exists. In addition, my suggestions for search terms and examples of specific certifications should make it easier to actually find that information.
I admit that it’s very convenient when institutional data is collated and presented in an understandable, clear fashion, but the barrier to find it otherwise isn’t as high as it may initially seem. Sometimes, a bit of Googling can go a long way!