Conserving the Environment and Resources

The Department of Facilities continuously accelerates its efforts to make MIT an environmental steward. The Institute’s environmental goals guide the department’s efforts to manage the life cycles of new and old buildings, reduce waste and increase recycling, produce efficient power, and conserve resources. These efforts have resulted in two MIT buildings receiving LEED certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings.

The idea of sustainability weaves throughout the projects conducted by Facilities, from maintenance to new construction. The department is committed to improving our environmental footprint while working to serve the needs of the community. The projects our energy team have completed range from steam trap replacements to the incorporation of whole building automation for new, efficient lighting in the Koch Institute and the Sloan School of Management. The measures are adding up to a real reduction in overall energy consumption, which is tracked on an annual basis.

One recent success occurred when NW35, the graduate residence Ashdown House, received a LEED-Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. MIT received a LEED Silver Certification for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, and has three more capital projects registered for certification. While valuing certification as an accepted measure of sustainable design, a well-designed and energy-efficient building remains MIT's primary goal for new construction. Learn more about MIT's sustainable building program.

Environmental Goals

The Institute will achieve its environmental goals, and improve upon them continuously, through the participation of the faculty, students, and staff. To encourage their participation, a series of behavior change posters was created.

Integrated Design Process

Among the Institute’s environmental goals for capital projects is to include an integrated design process at the outset of the planning process to incorporate the desires of architects, engineers and MIT in order to ensure an efficient building. The Sloan School project was the first to use the Integrated Design Process. In the typical design process, work is linear, so that each discipline works one after the other. The integrated process includes all of the architects and engineers from the beginning, so that they can more effectively work as a team. Using this process, the designers for the Sloan School project were able to develop what most likely will be the greenest building at MIT.

Facilities Sustainability Leaders

Engineering Energy Team

The Facilities Engineering Energy Team pursues energy reduction projects across the campus. Energy Team members are Joe Gifun, Director of the Systems Engineering; Wade Berner, Director of Commissioning Services and M/E/P; Peter Cooper; Manager, Sustainability Engineering and Utility Planning; and Julia Ledewitz, Sustainability Engineer.

LEED Accredited Staff

Facilities staff members who have successfully achieved the ranking of LEED Accredited Professional are: Wade Berner, Kelley Brown, Bill Colehower, Peter Cooper, Thayer Donham, Martin Dugal, Michael Kearns, Megan Kefalis, Julia Ledewitz, Sonia Richards, Gary Tondorf-Dick, and Travis Wanat.