The School of Information promotes sustainability throughout the school and Institute (School Goal #10). Initiatives that have been undertaken over the last several years to achieve this include:
Created a dedicated e-waste recycling bin near room 601 and organized an Earth Day Poster exhibition.
For Green Week, hosted a screening of a documentary film about the environmental impact of the Internet and collected e-waste for recycling.
Established the School of Information Socio-ecological Futures fund to allow faculty to address issues at the intersection of information and socioecological urgency. In connection with this funding, Prof. Nancy Smith organized an event around this: Paper or Bio(Plastic)? A Material Exploration workshop in September 2023.
Added a monthly Faculty Council agenda item to update and discuss the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island led by faculty who are involved with this major initiative.
Core course required across all MS program, Information Technologies, is revised to include environmental impacts.
Ran workshops on Climate change, archives, and digital preservation and Disaster Planning for Digital Repositories through the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (Pratt iSchool operated grant-funded initiative). (AY 2022/2023 through AY 2024/2025)
Introduced the course Animals and Interaction Design taught by Prof. Nancy Smith. Also, revised Projects in Digital Archives to explicitly incorporate environmental sustainability.
Replaced the water fountain on the 6th floor of Pratt Manhattan Center with one that allows for water bottle filling to limit the use of single-use plastic water bottles.
Ban plastic water bottles from School of Information sponsored events, as well as use paper cups rather than plastic or styrofoam; this initiative continues to the present day.
For more information about sustainability initiatives at the School of Information, please contact the chair of the Sustainability Committee, Prof. Nancy Smith.
