3.6 Pollution Prevention

MIT has a robust agenda of positive environmental initiatives to make our campus more sustainable and to reduce pollution. Please see The Environment at MIT's Commitment Section for details.As part of its commitment to excellence in environment, health, and safety stewardship on our campus, MIT adopts and implements policies and practices that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials and the generation of waste streams (both hazardous and non-hazardous) whenever possible. The EHS Office is responsible for programs of regulatory compliance and sustainability (including Pollution Prevention) and approaches this work in a comprehensive and integrated manner. The Environmental Programs Office and EHS Office actively collaborates with DLCs and student groups to reduce the volume and toxicity of the Institute's waste streams. This approach and the following goals frame MIT's Pollution Prevention Plan:

• Conserve resources (water and energy), seeking planned reductions in MIT's consumption;
• Reduce campus air emissions, including those from transportation, of green house gases and regulated pollutants;
• Increase the recycling and conservation of materials;
• Reduce material and resource consumption including office and laboratory supplies;
• Increase the use of environmentally friendly products and materials;
• Reduce the volume and toxicity of our waste streams;
• Inform our students, faculty and staff in sustainable concepts so that they may apply them in their professions;
• Support community-wide and regional sustainability efforts;
• Establish procedures and targets for implementing sustainable design principles in new and renovated projects;

MIT implements a broad spectrum of pollution prevention projects in support of these goals (see Also of Interest). Members of the EHS Office Programs and Departments, Labs, and Centers comprise teams that develop and steer pollution prevention efforts, engage stakeholders from DLCs and other groups who are potentially affected by or may bring expertise to the project, and determine metrics to assess the project's success in meeting pollution prevention goals. MIT's commitment to pollution prevention both contributes to and draws from the enthusiasm and momentum of groups within the Institute as well as the greater Cambridge/Boston community. A partial listing of these groups and their respective projects can be found at http://web.mit.edu/environment/commitment/involved.html.