YU's got green. Do you? Learn how our students and our institution are working together to cut carbon emissions and integrate sustainability in all areas of Yeshiva University.

What Is Sustainability?

• Design Ecology Project definition: Sustainability is a state or process that can be maintained indefinitely. The principles of sustainability integrate three closely intertwined elements—the environment, the economy and the social system—into a system that can be maintained in a healthy state indefinitely.
• Bruntland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development) of the United Nations: Development is sustainable "if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
• American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) definition: Sustainability involves "providing for the needs of the present without detracting from the ability to fulfull the needs of the future."

YU Sustainability Facts

• The Environmental Club has received multiple grants from organizations such as the UN Foundation and Hazon.

• Yeshiva University signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment in 2007 and published its first Climate Action Plan in 2010.

• By 2020, Yeshiva University will have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

• YU has a paid Eco Rep program for undergraduate students teaching environmental stewardship with hands on individual projects.

• YU and Albert Einstein College of Medicine was awarded over $1 million dollars in grant money, in the past two years, for energy efficiency projects.

• Yeshiva has two annual environmental contests, YU Unplugged, an energy conservation competition and Recyclemania, an international recycling competition.