Article Index

  Green for the Albert Sherman Center UMass Medical School has earned a $1.6 million incentive payment from National Grid Massachusetts for a wide range of energy efficient features designed and built into the Albert Sherman Center, a 500,000 square

Thinking Green for the Holidays On campus at UMass Medical School, we strive for progress towards a more sustainable community. Over the years, it’s become clear that many of the students, faculty and staff here bring a passion for environmental

Overflowing with recyclables There’s a lot of extra room in basements and garages across Central Massachusetts this season, following the successful electronics recycling collection days at UMass Medical School in October. The two day event collected nearly 20,000 pounds of

What’s the Dean saying about sustainability? Growing Green has its grass roots components, but it also has the support of the leadership at UMass Medical School. Watch and listen to the video below to see what Dean Flotte and others

Electronics recycling events set for October It’s time again to look around the cabinets, closets, garage and basement to see if there are any unwanted electronic items collecting dust that could be put to better use. On Thursday, Oct. 18,

  Campus paper usage needs attention The paper trail at UMass Medical School’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) ended on October 1, with the launch of a new paperless process for documenting the hundreds of active research projects on campus. Dubbed

Sustainability as a Community Value With the new academic year in full swing, students, faculty and staff at UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center are encouraged to think about the environmental impact of every day decisions they make

  Growing Green Ambulatory Care Center gets LEED Silver The Ambulatory Care Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Worcester campus has earned LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) the first building in the school’s

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A powerful green incentive school reaps $5.6 million UMass Medical School has been awarded $5.6 million from National Grid—the largest incentive of its kind ever given by the company in Massachusetts—for an energy efficient 14,000 square foot expansion of its power

 Lots to see and do at the Earth Celebration April 24  Learning how to live nearly off the grid, commute to work using little or no gasoline, and reduce the overall carbon foot print of daily activities are among the

Farm to table local food coop comes to campus Thanks to the efforts of a group of committed volunteers at UMass Medical School, the Massachusetts Local Food Cooperative is now offering monthly distribution at the Worcester campus. Led by Rachel

  Growing Green together Will you do your part? Upgrading buildings and systems on campus is important, but it’s the small decisions that people make every day that can add up quickly to a more efficient and sustainable campus. Whether

  New clinical air systems save water and energy Providing compressed air and vacuum power (suction) for use in clinical procedures, surgery and to serve patient rooms is vital for ongoing hospital operations. And now, thanks to a major equipment

Doing their part “like riding on a cloud” Gregory Habel is an information security analyst in the school’s Information Security Office part of Information Services. Greg works at the South Street campus in Shrewsbury and lives in Hopedale. Since January,

Video Designing efficiencies for the Albert Sherman Center Now under construction, the Albert Sherman Center will dramatically expand the medical school’s educational and research facilities. And from the beginning of the design process for the building, energy efficiency and sustainable

Fired up at power plant Under the watchful eye of engineers and school leaders, the new jet turbine roared to life, accelerated to synchronizing speed and ran for a total of 10 minutes, marking the successful “first fire” test at

Don’t wait until 8 Mark this as an important new phrase for students, staff and faculty on campus in 2012 don’t wait until 8. In the new year, a program will roll out across UMass Medical School to automatically turn

 Charging up the Battery Recycling Program In just the first six weeks of operation, 542 pounds of old rechargeable batteries have been collected and sent on their way to a new purposeful life through a recycling program being rolled out

Thinking Green for the Holidays While the focus of UMass Medical School’s sustainability program is on campus operations, the potential impact of what people do in their daily lives is also woven through the ideals of the program. If students,

Bright Idea for Savings By the end of the year, all 514 lighting fixtures in the patient and visitors garage at the University Campus will be replaced, as part of an energy efficiency upgrade that will save UMass Medical School

Help make it a greener year With the new academic year now in full swing, the UMMS Sustainability Committee is looking for new people, and new ideas, to help the campus community increase its efforts on a wide range of

People earn rewards with Nu Ride Free groceries delivered to their home, and discounts at local restaurants and retail stores, are among the rewards earned by members of the UMass Medical School community this year who are participating in a

Paper cuts Marking progress on one of the key goals for reducing the waste stream at UMass Medical School, for the second year in a row the school has cut the amount of paper used for printing and photocopying. In

Recycling is up, waste stream reduced Through new programs and a greater awareness of the need to think about what gets thrown away, UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center are making progress towards the shared goal of significantly

6/20/2011  Recycling at UMass Medical School is about more than just paper and plastic. Disposing of rechargeable batteries improperly can release harmful chemicals into the air or water supply, posing health threats to humans and the environment.

6/20/2011  By one measure, the Medical School’s Earth Day celebration this year was a truck load of success. Better yet, make that two truck loads.

6/20/2011  With summer nearly upon us, and the yard work in high gear, it’s time to think about what to do with all that yard waste. Rather than raking, bagging and hauling the waste to a landfill, or to the curb for collection, a more sustainable option to consider is composting.

6/20/2011  A first of its kind “gray water” pipeline for the Medical School is now being installed to reduce the amount of fresh water the campus power plant uses while generating steam, electricity and chilled water.

4/11/2011  Wait Don’t toss that old microwave into the trash! Don’t chuck those dead batteries or those busted speakers. There’s a better place for them than the local landfill.

4/11/2011  UMass Medical School’s annual Earth Day celebration is set for Wednesday, April 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the Medical School building’s lobbies, both new and old.

4/11/2011  Call them green myth busters, patrolling the cubicles and offices of the Medical School in search of desktop computers and peripherals that lay awake all night wasting energy. “A lot of people think that it hurts the computer to turn it off and on every day, but that’s just an old myth,”

4/11/2011  The Medical School has started a wind study on campus, installing anemometers designed to measure wind speed and direction on the top levels of the South Road and First Road parking garages.

12/22/2010 Recycling Improves on Campus So far, people are throwing away less and recycling a bit more this year at the University Campus. For the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2010 the campus posted an annual recycling rate of nearly

12/22/2010 Growing Green at the Statehouse The Medical School was honored recently at the Massachusetts Statehouse with the presentation of a 2010 Leading by Example Award from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in recognition of the school’s

12/22/2010 For a Greener Holiday Season The sustainability goals at the Medical School extend beyond the limits of the campus. If students, faculty and staff adopt sustainable practices in elements of their home life, then we move closer to the overarching goal

12/22/2010 More Preferred Parking Spots for Carpoolers One person, one car, equals one big problem. Historically, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the Medical School’s Worcester campus has been the car tailpipes of people who drive to

2/7/2011  “Surplus With A Purpose,” is an internal website that allows Medical School departments to post surplus office supplies, furniture or laboratory equipment so others on campus can put them to good use–and keep them out of the landfill.

2/7/2011 A new program launched in January gives Medical School students, faculty and staff a way to earn discounts at restaurants and other rewards for driving fewer solitary miles.

2/7/2011  In recent years, the amount of paper used for copiers and printers at UMass Medical School has topped 30 million sheets a year. Stacked on top of each other, all that paper would tower above New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. But that tower is shrinking, and it’s growing greener.

2/7/2011  To accommodate the growing demands for power on campus, in particular for the Albert Sherman Center now under construction, the school is expanding its power plant—and in this case, getting bigger means growing greener.

9/10/2010 Grassroots Green Team Growing at DES What started two years ago as a tiny sprout of green activity has developed into a full grown sustainability effort at the Medical School’s Disability Evaluation Services (DES) department in Auburn. Showing how small

9/7/2010 Pedal Power Helps Reduce Campus Emissions Three new additions to the fleet of University Campus vehicles have boosted the UMass Medical School’s drive toward lower greenhouse gas emissions. Purchased in June, two Pietzo electric bicycles and one 2010 Ford Fusion

9/7/2010 Shedding Light on Energy Efficiency Two recent projects have taken lighting at University of Massachusetts Medical School to new levels of efficiency. Part of ongoing efforts to reduce energy consumption across campus, these initiatives involving the First Road parking garage

9/7/2010 A “Green” Progress Report Usually progress reports come deeper into the semester, but here’s one for the start of a new academic year. From an expanded focus on recycling and whole building energy audits, to electric bikes on campus, green

6/23/2010 From French Fries to Biodiesel The hospital kitchen at the University Campus is doing more with less oil that is. On a typical day the kitchen serves up some 7,500 meals for patients, staff and visitors, with french fries and

6/22/2010 Free Nights and Weekends with Bus Pass Program It sounds like a cell phone plan, but these free nights and weekends are about parking on campus. It’s another benefit for participants in a new bus pass program, designed to reduce the

6/22/2010 Green Building Blooms on Campus It may look steely grey on the outside, but the newly completed Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) is now the greenest building on campus. The first UMMS structure designed with sustainability in mind, the ACC will begin

6/22/2010 Staying Cool and Green This Summer No one likes to fight the heat all summer, but did you know the typical household spends nearly 20 percent of its utility bill on cooling? So taking steps to reduce the need to

5/12/2010 Recycling Expands In Clinical Areas Recycling now extends across the University Campus with April’s roll out of a co mingled recycling program by UMass Memorial Medical Center to align with a similar program already in place at the Medical School.

5/12/2010 SWAP Surplus With A PurposeGot an extra microscope or file cabinet sitting around not being used? Why not SWAP it? SWAP, otherwise known as “Surplus With A Purpose,” is a new program launched on April 19 with an internal website

5/12/2010 Pigging Out On Campus Scraps Local pigs are now getting fat eating food scraps from the University Campus kitchens thanks to a new composting program that began in April in cooperation with Tyde Brook Farm in Holden. Part of the

5/12/2010 Earth Day 2010, Growing Greener More than 1,000 people from all corners of the University Campus streamed through the Earth Day celebration on April 22, where more than 50 local organizations and campus departments offered a full spectrum of products,

4/21/2010 From Tastes to Technology Earth Day 2010 This year’s UMMS Earth Day celebration will be the biggest yet, with more than 50 vendors and groups showcasing sustainable products and programs in the Medical School’s lobbies and the Faculty Conference Room

4/14/2010 Data in the Dark March marked the opening of the Medical School’s new data center at the South Street campus in Shrewsbury that promises to reduce energy use by 40 percent over the current data center. The state of the

4/14/2010 Fewer Printers, Greener Campus Six Medical School departments are participating in a pilot program to reduce energy consumption and green house gas emissions attributed to the use of desktop printers. Launched in March, the program has already found a 1

4/14/2010 Audits Target Energy Savings in the LRB A two part initiative beginning this spring will examine laboratory activities in the Lazare Research Building with the goal of reducing energy costs by as much as 10 to 20 percent annually. The

4/14/2010 From Tastes to Technology Earth Day 2010 This year’s UMMS Earth Day celebration will be the biggest yet, with more than 50 vendors and groups showcasing sustainable products and programs in the Medical School’s lobbies and the Faculty Conference Room