Voluntary green initiatives included in the MIT Environmental Management System are:
- A green goods procurement program under which, in one year (2000), MIT increased the use of recycled paper on campus from less than 5 percent to 64 percent and to more than 90 percent in MIT's central CopyTech location and increased the total use of "green products" by 21 percent.
- An expanded recycling program, including all types of paper, cardboard, magazines and newspaper, glass, aluminum, plastics #1-7, yard waste, food waste composting, computer equipment, metal and wood. In one year (2000), MIT increased overall recycling rates from 10.5 percent to 20.3 percent.
- A green building design guidelines initiative, under which MIT is developing long-term goals to make its buildings and campus more environmentally sustainable, as well as guidelines for designers and engineers to achieve these goals.
- Support of the EPA's Clean Charles 2005 Initiative, including purchasing a boat and devoting a graduate student to the Initiative, and by sponsoring the Clean Charles Coalition with other institutions and corporations.
- The use of 100 percent recycled paper starting in May to replace the watermarked bond that MIT departments use for letterhead, envelopes and other official business papers.
- A water conservation project that will reduce water use at MIT by 32 million gallons a year.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 25, 2001.
