MIT will become a leader in environmentally responsible operations, development of new and renewed facilities, and education. The initial, lifecycle, and environmental costs and benefits of projects and programs will be considered in order to reduce the impact of the campus on the environment within realistic parameters. The Institute will achieve these goals, and seek continuously to improve upon them over time, through the broad participation of the faculty, students, and staff. To begin this process, the following goals are articulated. We will work toward quantifying these goals and measuring progress toward achieving them.

Included among MIT's important long-range environmental goals are to:

• Conserve energy, seeking continuous reductions in our per capita energy consumption
• Reduce campus air emissions, including those from transportation, of greenhouse gases and regulated pollutants
• Reduce material and resource consumption, including office and laboratory supplies and water
• Increase the recycling and conservation of materials
• Increase the use of recycled-content products
• Reduce the volume of toxicity of our hazardous waste streams
• Improve our indoor environment, including both the indoor air quality and the comfort and productivity of our work and living spaces, by considering sustainability in our design, operations, and maintenance policies
• Improve the urban environment, including landscape quality and the site and pedestrian environment
• Educate our students in sustainable concepts so that they may apply them in their professions
• Support community-wide and regional sustainability efforts

MIT is undertaking a significant capital projects program, presenting an immediate opportunity to make progress toward these goals in MIT buildings. Although many other projects and programs at MIT will work over time to achieve these goals, we will lose an important opportunity to make progress in MIT buildings if we do not act immediately in the capital projects program.

Consequently, as an interim measure to achieve a minimum standard and support progress toward these general environmental goals, MIT has determined that new projects (including major renovations and new construction) and programs will be designed to meet or exceed the "LEED Silver Plus" standard (the Leed Silver standard has been adopted - as soon as possible the "MIT Plus" will be added). The LEED Silver Plus standard is the LEED Silver standard enhanced to reflect additional requirements that are necessary to support progress toward MIT's environmental goals. Included are new projects and programs that are in early stages of design, are as yet to be designed, or are capable of being feasibly revised to meet MIT's environmental goals taking into account all factors and circumstances. MIT actively encourages the pursuit of environmentally innovative projects and use of innovative technology.

The LEED Silver Plus standard also will be revisited in the short term to determine whether further customization is necessary to meet MIT's long-term goals. MIT seeks to develop as quickly as possible a more performance-based standard that can be tailored to individual projects.

The total cost MIT incurs in any project involves funding from a variety of sources, including funding for initial capital development, for operating, repair and maintenance costs, and for replacements. MIT and the larger world of which we are a part also incur environmental costs from projects at every stage of development, use, and replacement. In order to incur as little overall cost as possible both in the interim and under MIT's ultimate standard, MIT must make integrated decisions involving all constituencies with concerns about any of these costs. During the interim, and under any ultimate standard, the following factors that affect total cost will be taken into account throughout all stages of projects and programs: initial investment; life cycle costs; and environmental costs that are neither initial investment nor life cycle costs. These include environmental costs such as greenhouse gas emissions, indoor air quality and use of nonrenewable materials.

It is high priority for MIT to expeditiously develop a more comprehensive model for evaluating the total cost/benefit of project/program components, taking into account initial investment (including capital cost), lifecycle cost, performance, and environmental benefits and impacts. MIT commits to undertaking consultation and review of projects among MIT experts, the MIT client team, and designers at the very earliest stages of design concept development, and periodically throughout the design process to incorporate objectives and mechanisms for achieving MIT's long-term environmental goals in projects and to evaluate total costs.