UMass Chan Medical School
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

Growing Green is UMass Chan's sustainability program that is managed by the Office of Sustainability. Growing Green has a robust online presence that informs the campus and broader community about ongoing sustainability initiatives on campus. It encompasses three main focus areas: Grounds and Transportation, Buildings and Energy, and Materials and Resource Management. The Growing Green program provides educational materials and guidance for campus-wide initiatives, such as the campus-wide recycling program. Growing Green publishes a regular newsletter that goes to every person with a UMass Chan email address. These newsletters share news and updates about the Campus' focus areas, opportunities to engage with the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, Bee Campus certification, and Decarbonization Study, among other initiatives.

With ambitious goals and specific initiatives to make progress toward those goals, the UMass Chan Medical School Sustainability and Climate Action Plan for 2021-2026 is currently being implemented.

The five-year plan is the culmination of a lengthy public process that was led by the UMass Chan facilities team and included broad representation from campus constituencies. The planning process began in 2019 with a survey to establish a baseline of the community’s awareness and concerns about sustainability and climate change. Several public meetings followed, after which a committee was formed with more than 40 people from various departments on campus and students, which worked for nearly a year to develop the five-year plan.

The plan has four areas of focus: Transportation, Buildings and energy, Grounds and water management, and Materials and resource management.

Each focus area has a schedule of specific initiatives to foster progress toward the five-year goals. For example, on transportation, UMass Chan is now committed to reducing emissions of the vehicles it uses on campus by 50 percent. The community is also challenged to reduce emissions from commuting to campus. As a research-intensive campus with a clinical component, energy needs are significant, so the plan calls for continued implementation of an energy-use metering and validation program for specific buildings, as well as to increase energy conservation and recovery in all facilities. Regarding materials and resource management, the campus is committed to reducing the solid waste it generates by 20 percent.

The Sustainability and Climate Action Plan engages three implementation focus groups. These are comprised of students and employees of UMass Chan, organized into three categories: Buildings and energy, grounds and transportation, and materials management. These groups meet at least quarterly to set goals, report out on progress, and network with one another to partner on initiatives.

The purpose of this Decarbonization Plan is to develop an actionable plan that will enable the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) to reach carbon neutrality of scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2035-2040. The Plan is to develop a pathway that focuses on removing the campus’ dependence from fossil fuels while considering the most effective solution, from a life cycle perspective, to continuing to serve the demands of the UMass Chan campus and maintaining the necessary resiliency.

UMass Chan collaborates with Arup and GreenerU to conduct the decarbonization planning. The Decarbonization Plan will be complete in the Fall of 2023.