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December 2022 Happy Holidays from everyone at the Office of Climate Action! We hope that your semester is wrapping up on a good note and that finals are going well. In the world of energy and climate, we are ending the year with promising news- scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have made a breakthrough in fusion energy technology. For the first time, a hydrogen fusion reaction in the lab released more energy than it required to trigger the reaction. Scaling up this technology would have major implications for clean energy and mitigating climate change. |
Unlike burning fossil fuels, fusion reactions do not release greenhouse gases. Unlike nuclear fission reactions, they don’t result in any radioactive waste. Unfortunately, researchers estimate it will still be at least another 20-30 years before fusion could be a viable option. In the meantime, we still need to take quick and sweeping action to mitigate climate change with the technology we have today |
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While we are a long way off from crashing hydrogen atoms together to power our campus, there is is a lot of great work in sustainability underway that we are excited to highlight in this month’s newsletter. Learn more about how Rutgers is engaging with state government working groups, explore connections between the arts and climate, and consider the climate impacts of food waste around the holidays. |
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News and Updates |
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Join the Office of Climate Action! |
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Rutgers Faculty Cluster Hire Program: Call for Engaged Climate Action Proposals |
The Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs invites proposals for faculty cluster hires that fit within one of four areas of strength and emerging promise across all the Chancellor-led units at Rutgers: Race, Racism, and Inequality; Health Equity; Advancing STEM Diversity; and Engaged Climate Action. Learn more and submit a proposal. |
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National Academies Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities |
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Office of Climate Action Co-Director Robert Kopp was named as co-chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities. The roundtable will improve understanding of how the physical and transition effects of climate change relate to and affect macroeconomic performance and the implications for fiscal, monetary, and financial stability policies. Learn more. |
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Report: Green Jobs for a Sustainable Future |
In a recent report, the NJ Council on the Green Economy presented pathways to expanding access to green jobs, increasing workforce development, and growing New Jersey’s innovation ecosystem. Office of Climate Action Co-Director Kevin Lyons represents Rutgers on the council and also contributed to the report. Read the report. |
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Governor’s Clean Buildings Working Group |
Energy and Building Climate Action Group Co-Chair Mike Kornitas was appointed to the Clean Buildings Working Group by Governor Murphy. The Working Group will help guide the State’s strategic roadmap to clean buildings, laying out recommendations for policy, legislative, workforce, and funding strategies to create greener buildings that support and benefit New Jersey families and workers. Learn more. |
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A Different Way to Think About Flooding |
Rutgers ecologist Brooke Maslo and her team created a plan for Woodbridge, N.J., to re-envision flood-prone properties bought out through the NJDEP Blue Acres Program. Watch the video below to learn how the town has restored over 30 acres and help protect neighboring homes. |
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Read More About Sustainability at Rutgers |
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Spotlight - AIR Collaborative |
AIR Collaborative initiates and facilitates creative placemaking to benefit the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus and surrounding local communities by fostering spatial justice — bridging environmental and social justice. Building on local histories and landscapes, Rutgers faculty with specializations in landscape architecture, design, and public history come together to create opportunities for people to engage with the spaces around them. AIR Collaborative promotes inter-departmental and cross-school collaboration while providing students with experience-based education and interdisciplinary networking opportunities. The group is working with Dr. Javier Robles (SAS), Meredith Taylor (SEBS), and Vincent Javet (SEBS) to realize a prototype of a Universally Accessible Garden on Cook Campus in Spring 2023. In fall 2022, the Collaborative led the March to Rutgers Gardens, a choreographed walking intervention acknowledging the desire for safe and inclusive access to nature for the diverse constituents, featured in the brief documentary below. Learn more. |
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Climate 101 |
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Food Consumption and Waste: Holiday Edition |
By Kelly Vaz Lima, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers—New Brunswick A major issue throughout the holidays is waste. “Over 70 billion pounds of food waste reaches our landfills every year, contributing to methane emissions, wasting energy and resources across the food supply chain” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. According to The Ecology Center, the United States sees a 25% increase in waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. That’s 1 million extra tons of waste! What does waste have to do with climate change and what can we do about it? Continue Reading… |
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Answer Today’s Climate 101 Poll Question! |
Do you compost food scraps? |
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November Poll Results |
How well do you understand the recycling system at Rutgers? |
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Rutgers recycles about 60% of our waste using single stream recycling across all campuses. Plastics, paper, cardboard, metal, glass, etc can be mixed together in the recycling bin, and taken to a recycling plant. At the plant, recyclables are sorted into different saleable commodities, and then baled/packaged and sold to manufacturers and used to make new products. Camden: Single Stream Recycling is collected in Camden by Direct Waste Services and is taken to Omni Recycling located in Pitman, NJ. New Brunswick/Piscataway: Single Stream Recycling is collected in New Brunswick/Piscataway by Waste Management and taken to Colgate Paper Stock in New Brunswick, NJ. Newark: Single Stream Recycling is collected in Newark by Direct Waste Services and is taken to G&F Recycling located in Newark, NJ. Learn more about recycling at Rutgers. |
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Opportunities |
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Events Around RU |
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Rutgers Offshore Wind Energy Symposium | Thursday, January 12, 2023, 8:30am - 4:00pm |
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In Case You Missed it… |
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OCA Webinar: Transportation Climate Action Group |
December 8, 2022, Transportation CAG co-chair Jon Carnegie shared about Rutgers' plans for electric buses, micromobility, and more. |
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