Hunter is six years into the institution’s second 10-year Sustainability Action Plan, which outlines several goals in fields ranging from energy to nutrition.
The 2018 plan covers seven areas that will be targeted through the implementation of short-term, mid-term and long-term actions: Energy, Water, Sustainable Education & Outreach, Transportation, Waste & Recycling, Sustainable Nutrition, and Procurement. These categories were determined by CUNY when it committed to the 30 in 10 Challenge.
The 30 in 10 Challenge was related to the Bloomberg administration’s PlanNYC climate campaign. As part of this challenge, nine New York City universities, including CUNY, pledged to reduce their carbon footprint by 30% within a ten-year timeframe. CUNY issued a resolution directing all community and senior colleges in the university system to create both a Sustainability Council and a 10-year Sustainability Action Plan.
Hunter released its first sustainability plan in 2008 “in response to the CUNY resolution and the then-mayoral administration,” said Kelli Stephens, the Sustainability and Energy specialist at Hunter College who is currently overseeing the 10-year Sustainability Plan.
The 2018 release of Hunter’s second Sustainability Action Plan also provided an assessment of how the 2008 plan went. According to the assessment, Hunter completed 45% of its 2008 goals, with most of the gains being made in the energy and water categories. The report credited these gains to installing “high-efficiency plumbing fixtures,” and “mechanical/HVAC equipment.”
“Sustainability is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Wendy Stephenson, Hunter College’s Director of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). “It is a broad, interdisciplinary field that crosses a multitude of different industries and impact issue areas.”
Some sustainability projects have more immediate and tangible results than others. According to Hunter College’s Office of Communications, 15 water bottle filling stations were added to Hunter’s K-12 campus in early 2023. In 2011, Hunter installed a 3-kilowatt solar panel system on the roof of its North building, which provided educational opportunities for students in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.
Another example of an Education and Outreach project would be the Hunter Green website, which contains not only information about current and past projects, but also a dashboard where anyone interested can view graphs of Hunter’s waste diversion rate, greenhouse gas emissions and energy use intensity.
“Especially when it comes to capital projects, even though it is not immediately seen or felt within the first year, there has still been monumental movement on them, mainly because when it comes to energy, [and] especially for procurement, a lot of the impact and change must happen in the early planning stages,” Stephens said.
Stephens pointed to the example of sustainable nutrition, observing that while certain efforts can result in short-term gains, the biggest impact can happen in the earlier stages of planning, where contracts are negotiated to set maximum or minimum amounts of organic fruits and vegetables or provide more transparent nutritional information.
Waste diversion remains an area for further progress, according to Hunter College’s Office of Communications. “Our campus waste diversion hovers around 10-12%, – so, we’ve set an ambitious (and achievable) target to reach a 30% waste diversion rate,” Courtney Donahue-Taleporos, a Hunter spokesperson said in an email.
Image Credit: Hunter Green
Unlike many NYC residents, Hunter recycles some of their waste, with the New York City Department of Sanitation as its hauler. To achieve the 30% waste diversion objective, the Sustainability Plan calls for an education campaign about Hunter’s recycling program, and an increased volume and visibility of recycling bins on campus.
One factor that influences waste disposal behavior is clear and consistent signage. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology experimentally demonstrated that the design of waste disposal signage influenced “waste sorting performance in meaningful ways.”
“Signage is one factor that Hunter, and my office, need to step up and do better,” Stephens said.
Implementing these projects is a collaborative process that requires different offices and departments to work together. This is the case with developing contracts (which involves coordination between the EHS Department and the Business Office), and with on-the-ground implementation of initiatives.
“The project could not have been done without the collaborative support of several offices and individuals, including The Green Initiative Fund, Hunter Facilities, the West Cafeteria, Hunter Business Office, and the student members of our Sustainability Council,” Stephenson said.
Hunter decreased emissions by 41% from its 2005 baseline. While certain immediate wins highlight progress, longer-term solutions require patience and attention.
The Envoy 
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