Happy New Year, green Blue Jays! We hope you had a restful winter break. The Office of Climate and Sustainability, along with many JHU departments and institutes, are working towards a sustainably-focused 2025 and beyond. We look forward to your continued involvement this year and invite you to help spread the Blue Jay’s Green Guide information with your network.  

As the spring semester gets underway, we have a couple updates and opportunities to share with you regarding the spring Sustainability Symposium and recognition from the Climate Registry. We’re also excited to share a spotlight on one of the Campus as a Living Lab projects.  

Wishing you all a wonderful start to the semester, and we look forward to seeing you soon at one of the many upcoming sustainability events! 

You are passionate about sustainability issues, and we are excited to hear about it! Join us for the 6th Annual Sustainability Leadership Council Symposium on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, and share your research, projects, and sustainability-related content.   

JHU students, faculty, and staff are invited to submit proposals for individual presentations, full sessions, research posters, or informational tables focused on sustainability education, research, or practice at JHU. All sustainability-focused topics and ideas are welcome and encouraged!

Submissions are due by Friday, January 24, 2025. Contact sustainability@jhu.edu with questions.  

In December 2024, JHU was recognized by The Climate Registry Climate Registered™ Accelerator program at the Visionary level. This designation recognizes outstanding achievements in setting and reaching milestones in greenhouse gas emission reporting and reductions. The Climate Registry is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through third-party verification. More information about JHU’s commitment to the mitigation of greenhouse gases can be found on the Office of Climate and Sustainability website or in JHU’s Climate Action and Sustainability Plan under “Climate Action.”    

Campus as a Living Lab awardee Saraniya Tharmarajah taught a new course, “Communicating Climate Change: Creative Approaches for Action” during the Fall 2024 semester. The course aimed to equip students with knowledge and tools to identify and address pressing climate and sustainability challenges through communication initiatives on campus.  

In the course, students researched and created three short films addressing the intertwining of personal struggles and the global climate crisis, the power of student activism with environmental policies, and the impact of volunteerism in our community, environment, and personal wellbeing.

The films were showcased at an on-campus screening in December. The films were informed by student interviews with peers, research on social and behavioral theories of change, and impactful communication strategies. The Campus as a Living Lab program supports innovative research and teaching projects that use the campus as a testbed for scalable sustainability solutions.