Moving Out? Don’t Throw Away Those Old Clothes
It’s become an annual rite of spring on college campuses: as exams begin and students start packing up for the summer or for graduation, they’re faced with the daunting task of figuring out what to do...
View ArticleBU’s Annual Earth Day Festivals Kick Off Today on Medical Campus
Earth Day is fast approaching—the official observance each year is April 22—and sustainability@BU is once again planning to host two Earth Day festivals, one on the Medical Campus set for today,...
View ArticleBU Undergrad Researchers Find Microplastic Pollution in Seagrasses
Parrotfish—brightly colored, roving vegetarians of tropical oceans—are a precious element of the marine ecosystem in the Caribbean waters off the coast of Belize. It’s not because schools of...
View ArticleSix Quotes from BU Entrepreneurs to Ignite Your Innovative Spirit
How do you create meaningful impact through innovation? Seeking answers to that question, more than 300 students from Boston University and other area universities and colleges trudged through...
View ArticleBU Carpenter: From Gas Guzzler to Green Machine
Meet Mike Wagner, BU’s greenest super-commuter. A year ago, the 52-year-old University carpenter made some pretty radical lifestyle changes—he outfitted his home with solar panels and bought a hybrid...
View ArticleEmbracing Sustainable Fashion
When you think about industries that are harmful to the environment, chances are metals, plastic, or coal come to mind. But not the clothes in your closet. So consider this the next time you try on a...
View ArticleProdded by Students, BU Phases Out an Environmental Scourge: Plastic Straws
BU doesn’t have plastic straws at its residence dining halls. Yet it still went through 27,000 a year at retail sites (such as City Convenience stores and the George Sherman Union food court), Rhett’s...
View ArticleBU Hult Prize Winners Aim to Bring Learning to Refugee Camps
It’s a long way from Comm Ave to Bekaa Valley, but an idea pitched by three BU students to a select audience at the BUildLab Monday night could have a profound impact in refugee camps in Lebanon and...
View ArticleTips for Protecting Your Bike from Thieves
A BU police officer caught a bike thief on a recent Saturday afternoon as he walked down Blandford Street carrying not one, but two stolen bicycles. It was easy pickins for the thief, says Robert E....
View ArticleUniversity Announces Massive Wind Power Purchase
Boston University will buy nonpolluting wind power for 15 years beginning in 2020, a major step in the University’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) to curb greenhouse gas emissions. BU will buy the power...
View ArticleFixing Climate Change Is Good Business, Whatever President Trump Says
From former secretary of state John Kerry to BU energy expert Cutler Cleveland, two clarion takeaways dominated last Thursday’s International Mayors Climate Summit held at the University: first,...
View ArticleLeaders of US Cities Worried about Lack of Affordable Housing
If you want to get mayors of US cities talking, says BU political scientist David Glick, ask them about affordable housing. Republicans and Democrats alike, mayors of big coastal cities and medium-size...
View ArticleCAS Scientists Develop ACES to Monitor Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
In June 2017, President Donald Trump announced the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an international accord to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. The following October,...
View ArticleCan Boston Be a Green City by 2050?
By the middle of the century, Boston hopes to fill its streets with electric cars, cover its rooftops with solar panels, and rid its skies of all carbon emissions. In 2007, Boston joined cities around...
View ArticleA Farm in the Sky
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Actually, it’s a farm. Three stories above busy Albany Street, the Boston Medical Center (BMC) rooftop farm’s inaugural season is winding down. Farm manager Lindsay Allen...
View ArticleThe High Cost of Summer Energy Price Spikes
On one of the hottest days on record in recent Massachusetts history—August 2, 2006—the mercury hit 37 degrees Celsius (about 99 degrees Fahrenheit), with 65 percent humidity. It was a scorcher, and...
View ArticlePOV: Uniting against Executive Order on the Clean Power Plan
Last week, standing beside a dozen coal miners, Donald Trump signed an executive order to undo President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The Obama plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dirty...
View ArticleGood News and Bad News about Forest Fragmentation
Over the past centuries, as we humans have cleared fields for farms, built roads and highways, and expanded cities ever outward, we’ve been cutting down trees. Since 1850, we’ve reduced global forest...
View ArticleSelling Apparel to Benefit Ocean Conservation
The students in Alexa Pisano’s class on ocean preservation last year discussed several ways to show their concern for the environment. They could take shorter showers. Or turn the lights off when...
View ArticleGoing Green Earns Plaudits for BU
BU’s commitment to becoming a more sustainable community has earned accolades from two different organizations. The University was recently ranked the 25th most sustainable college in the United States...
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