Sustainability
MIT’s comprehensive commitment to sustainability aims to transform the Institute into a powerful model that generates just, equitable, applicable, and scalable solutions for responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet. In these efforts, MIT has mobilized its community—from researchers to students to faculty and staff—to tackle climate change at the campus level and beyond.
- Launched in 2021, Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade calls for the elimination of direct campus emissions by 2050, with a near-term milestone of a net-zero MIT by 2026.
- To reach its climate goals, the Institute is focused on making buildings dramatically more energy efficient, transitioning to electric vehicles, and enabling large-scale renewable energy projects, among other strategies.
- Since 2014, MIT has reduced its net emissions by approximately 20%.
- The Access MIT program provides generous subsidies for staff, faculty, and postdocs for low-carbon commuting—including subway, bus, bicycling, and commuter rail.
- MIT sponsors four Bluebike stations on campus, with a total of 207 docks. The MIT community completed more than 485,900 bike-share trips in 2022.
- New campus construction and major renovation projects aim to meet the national LEED Gold (version 4) certification standard. To date, MIT has completed more than 24 LEED projects, including three LEED Platinum projects.
Campus
- 168 acres (0.68 km2) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- 19 student residence halls on campus
- 26 acres (0.11 km2) of playing fields
- 40+ gardens and green spaces
- 60+ public works of art
MIT’s Fast Forward climate action plan is both outward facing—addressing climate challenges on the global scale—and focused on the campus level. Campus climate action is organized around 14 commitments related to climate mitigation, resiliency, and leadership, and is supported by cross-departmental teams.
More than two dozen offices, programs, and initiatives at MIT work to address sustainability and climate change issues, including the MIT Office of Sustainability, the Environmental Solutions Initiative, the MIT Energy Initiative, the MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab. MIT community groups also contribute significantly to sustainability work, with no fewer than 20 student- and staff-led groups advocating for and advancing climate change solutions. Recurring initiatives of the Graduate Student Council and Undergraduate Association’s committees on sustainability and the staff Working Green Committee include a monthly Choose to Reuse swapfest and hackathons that engage students, industry, and thought partners in finding real-life solutions to sustainability challenges.
An Environment and Sustainability Minor offers undergraduates an opportunity to delve into interdisciplinary coursework and investigations into real-world challenges facing people and the planet. Coursework includes opportunities to devise solutions for the campus itself.
As a founding member of the Cambridge Compact for a Sustainable Future, MIT works with Cambridge, Harvard University, and more than 15 local businesses and organizations to achieve a more healthy, livable, and sustainable future. The Institute also partners with the cities of Cambridge and Boston to develop sustainability solutions for MIT and the world, and is a member of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission.