Sustainability Symposium • OCS Community Events • Green Building Standards |
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As the days get longer, the Office of Climate and Sustainability (OCS) is looking forward to spending more time outside and enjoying the signs of spring across campus and beyond! In this edition of the Blue Jay’s Green Guide, learn more about the Sustainability Leadership Council’s annual symposium on April 2nd, some of the Office of Climate and Sustainability’s latest community engagement efforts, JHU’s new High-Performance and Healthy Building (HPHB) requirements, and more!
Earth Month is just around the corner and the OCS team is hard at work planning and organizing. In addition to the Sustainability Symposium, other upcoming events include book talks, nature yoga, Earth Fest, and more! If your organization or department is planning a climate- or sustainability-related event for April or any other time of the year, please send it our way (sustainability@jhu.edu) so we can add it to our calendar of events.
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JHU Sustainability Symposium on April 2, 2024: Register Now! |
You are invited! Join us for the 6th Annual Sustainability Symposium on research, practice, and education on April 2, 2025, hosted by the JHU Sustainability Leadership Council and the Office of Climate and Sustainability. The free event will be held at the Inn at The Colonnade, a short walk from the Homewood campus. The day-long symposium will feature presentations, panel discussions, research posters, and informational tabling on sustainability topics ranging from climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental justice, environmental education, the built environment, responsible consumption practices, and more. After a day of impactful content, we will conclude with a networking happy hour hosted by the Life Design Lab.
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OCS Staff & Interns Teach Sustainability to Homewood Early Learning Center |
In February, interns from the Office of Climate and Sustainability were invited to the Homewood Early Learning Center to present the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) to pre-K students and teach ways they can protect the planet! After a brief reading, the class created a project using reused and upcycled materials collected from home and a local craft reuse store. Sharing sustainability with some of Hopkins’ youngest community members is a joy, and a reminder that no matter how small we are, we all have a role to play!
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JHU Volunteers Join Community Tree Planting Event |
On March 8, JHU volunteers teamed up with the Charles Village Civic Association, the Harwood Community Association, and the Greater Remington Improvement Association to help plant trees. This round of planting concluded the Central Baltimore Tree Project, a grant project funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust with matching funding from JHU. Volunteers helped plant the last of 275 trees along Guilford Ave and 30th street near the Homewood Campus. Thanks to the Off-Campus Student Housing office for organizing this on the Hopkins side. We loved contributing to the growth of Baltimore’s tree canopy!
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JHU High-Performance and Healthy Building (HPHB) Requirements Roll-Out
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JHU has begun phasing in a new set of requirements aimed at helping design and construction teams meet the university’s ambitious sustainability, health, and well-being goals in campus building projects. The HPHB requirements are aimed at integrating sustainability practices consistently within campus capital projects – including new construction, major renovations, and building modifications. Recent HPHB training sessions welcomed almost 100 facilities staff and consultants to learn more about the new policy and how they can apply it in their work.
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Rakai Health Sciences Program Completes Net-Zero Transition |
The Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) in Uganda partners with the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health to conduct interdisciplinary research studies and address the control of HIV/AIDS. In the fall of 2024, RHSP reached a new historic milestone: achieving net-zero energy through an installation of solar panels on facility buildings and a liquid immersion cooling system for high-capacity computer servers.
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| Dr. Thomas Quinn has been involved with RHSP since its founding and shared more about the importance of this achievement in our latest Sustainability Spotlight.
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The Campus as a Living Lab program supports innovative research and teaching projects that use the campus as a testbed for scalable sustainability solutions.
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A Climate Dashboard on JHU Business Travel Is Scheduled to Take Off in April |
A roundtrip flight between Baltimore and San Francisco emits approximately 480 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. But what does the sooty mixture of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulphate do to our climate when emitted from 30,000 feet up in the air?
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Increasing understanding of air travel-related emissions is a key goal of a new project supported by the university’s Campus as a Living Lab program. Rose Weeks, MPH, DrPH student, and Senior Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, studies organizational behavior such as the how-to of making changes to health services. Under the project, she is spearheading the creation of a climate dashboard that visualizes emissions from university business travel to raise awareness and inform strategies to mitigate associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Read more about the Climate Dashboard for Business Travel project on our website.
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| Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore, by Nicole Fabricant |
This newly published book explores the impacts of the Baltimore incinerator on the Curtis Bay community in South Baltimore, examining how toxic pollution has shaped the lives of residents and sparked a powerful youth-led activist movement.
Join the Office of Climate and Sustainability and the Center for Social Concern at our Hop Talks Book Discussion on March 12 at 6:00 PM in Levering Hall for a free copy of the book and an opportunity for meaningful dialogue.
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| Earth Fest
With Office of Climate & Sustainability
Apr 18| 3:00 PM | Keyser Quad
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In trying to stay informed and active about climate change, it can be easy to get lost in all the stories of loss, devastation, and dwindling hope. How do I better face the emotional toll of this issue? |
Your distress is entirely valid. Especially as climate change hits closer and closer to home for many, it is more important than ever to have the tools to manage that burden. Here are a few tips we have been revisiting lately, originally put together by former OCS intern Kylie Poe and Jennifer Weeks, LCPC, Mental Health Therapist in the Homewood Counseling Center for the JHU Well-Being Blog.
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1 | Spend more time in nature. Green spaces improve mood and reduce stress! |
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2 | Spend less time online, and stay conscious of your sources. |
First, stick with verified sources to avoid misinformation and sensationalist content. Even doing so, the overwhelming amount of online information may only worsen your feelings of distress. Avoid obsessive doom-scrolling by setting a time limit for engaging with climate-related media.
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Get involved in sustainability efforts in your community, like tree planting, local clean-up events, and more!
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| 3 | Consider what you can do, and tap into action networks for support. |
4 | Talk with a professional. |
A good counselor will treat your concerns about the environment as valid; if you feel dismissed by a provider for this (or any other) reason, it is time to change providers. While there is not yet any official training or professional designation for climate anxiety, there are self-identified climate-aware therapists. You can find a list of Hopkins talk therapy resources here.
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5 | Keep it all in perspective. |
Meeting eco-distress is not a matter of choosing optimism; for many people, that is just not an option. However, positive changes have occurred on individual, local, and global scales (check out this TikTok or this reel!) and there is no reason to believe that they won’t continue, especially with your help. You have power to influence, advocate, and involve others around you, even if it’s just in creating space to talk about eco-distress.
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