An Interview with Ashley Kossakowski, Director of Energy and Sustainability; and Mike Harrington, Director of Sustainability Engagement
In time for Earth Day, The New School launched Climate Action, a website containing information about climate and environmental justice issues, the university’s sustainability initiatives, and ways for people to make change through everyday actions. The New School News recently spoke with Ashley Kossakowski, the university’s director of Energy and Sustainability, and Mike Harrington, director of Sustainability Engagement at the Tishman Environment and Design Center, about the website. Also discussed were new environmental protection efforts on campus and ways design can be used to promote sustainability.
What is the Climate Action website, and why was it created?
The Climate Action website serves as a central hub for learning about climate and environmental justice efforts at The New School. It highlights ongoing sustainability initiatives on campus and offers actions individuals can take to get involved in sustainability efforts at The New School and reduce their environmental impact. We saw there was a need for centralized communications so that our community could connect with sustainability initiatives and learn about the happenings at the university in one place. The site was created to show our university’s climate commitments to both the campus community and the public. We will be updating the site and adding more tools, resources, and methods of engagement in the next coming months. The site will continue to evolve with our efforts, in alignment with President Towers’ commitment to climate and environmental sustainability.
Last year saw some new sustainability efforts on campus, including reducing single-use plastics, increasing the number of water bottle–filling stations on campus, and ecofriendly updates to the UC Dining Commons and cafés. What are some of the latest efforts that have been or will be put into effect?
In the past year, we’ve made significant progress in several areas. We renovated the Stuyvesant Park Dormitory, which was one of our most inefficient buildings, so that it is no longer reliant on fossil fuels. We completed and submitted our updated Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, orSTARS, report, which assesses sustainability across academics, operations, planning, and engagement. We launched this new Climate Action website to serve as a go-to resource for sustainability updates, events, and ways to get involved and have developed a new Sustainability Dashboard that will give the community insight into our energy and emissions data; it will be coming to the website this summer. We’re continuing our energy audits across campus to identify new opportunities for efficiency, and we’re continuing with LED lighting upgrades and compliance efforts with local environmental laws. We’ve begun developing a new Climate Action Plan with decarbonization strategies. Together these actions represent a broader shift toward integrated, accountable climate planning.
One of the core values of the university is the use of design to promote sustainability. What are some of the ways the university is accomplishing this?
There are a number of programs and courses that touch on the nexus of design and climate, including our policy and management programs, which integrate design to confront environmental and social challenges. Design at The New School is not just about aesthetics—it’s a facilitative process that anyone can use to reshape systems for the better. We have funding opportunities, such as the Aronson Fellowship, which is open to all students and allows them to put together projects that merge design and social and environmental justice. Many people find design intimidating, but it is more of a facilitation process that can be learned and used by anyone to reshape the world in some way. Rooted in our social justice values, design is seen here as a powerful tool for achieving equity and transformation, not just innovation for profit.
A great example of this value in action is our collaboration with a design faculty member and a student designer to create new waste management signage in the University Center cafeteria. This project bridges communication, behavior change, and visual design to promote sustainable practices.
The university participates in several sustainable living accountability programs, including the STARS assessment report. How does participating in these types of initiatives help us set and reach specific goals?
The STARS report, developed by the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE, is a great tool for assessing specific actions that affect the institution’s environmental and climate impacts. Also, the STARS program and AASHE are international programs, and there are great opportunities to network with higher education institutions around the world on what they are doing to address the climate crisis and to support one another.
STARS is quite comprehensive, requiring us to speak to people in virtually every department across the school. This is important, because it highlights the interconnectedness between all of us across the university in lowering our carbon impact and addressing climate-related social inequities.
How can students, faculty, and staff participate in university sustainability efforts?
We have a page on the site that highlights actions and opportunities for people, newschool.edu/climate-action/take-action. You can find classes, volunteer and work opportunities, and concrete actions that contribute to lowering your impact. However, the best thing people can do is to create spaces of community and solidarity to support each other in the New School community and in communities that we are all connected to outside of the university. The climate crisis is a systemic issue, and we need to address it in a systemic and transdisciplinary fashion. We also have a very international student body, who can spread those lessons and practices globally. Those are some of the unique strengths of a place like The New School; we all have a role to play, but only if we support each other.