When we talk about the MIT campus, we’re not only describing a collection of buildings along the Charles River. We’re describing a living laboratory – nearly 200 buildings that power, heat, cool, and sustain thousands of people every day. How this campus uses energy is inseparable from the way MIT teaches, discovers, and leads.

Today, MIT faces a defining opportunity: to turn the campus into a working model of what a low-carbon future looks like. Decarbonization is the process of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from how we operate, in this case from the systems that heat and cool our spaces and power our labs. Doing this on a complex, research-intensive, 24/7 campus is not simple, but it’s exactly the kind of problem MIT exists to solve.

Why this matters now
Climate change is no longer a distant horizon – it’s a daily reality that shapes our natural and built environment alongside policy, funding, and student expectations. While Massachusetts works towards 85% emissions cut by 2050, Cambridge aims for absolute carbon neutrality. Across the Institute, roughly 95% of MIT’s direct emissions come from burning natural gas to heat, cool and power our buildings. That means that the path to a decarbonized MIT runs straight through the campus itself.

Even in a time of global and local uncertainty, when large infrastructure projects are put on hold, this is the moment for creative planning and bold solutions. The decisions we make about energy and infrastructure today will define what kind of university MIT becomes in the next generation – resilient, innovative, and aligned with its values.

What’s at stake
MIT’s past efforts led to modest local emission cuts and mainly brought new renewable energy to the grid. But to go further – to reach real zero emissions rather than paper offsets – we’ll need to reimagine how the campus works. Current reports on campus decarbonization converge on one shared insight: there’s no single fix. It will take a mix of deep energy retrofits, new ways to move and store heat, electrification, and clean power from the grid.

Key issues every faculty member should know

• Buildings are a key lever. Most campus emissions come from heating, cooling and providing fresh air to research and lab spaces. Improving efficiency and reducing energy losses is essential.
• Coordinating the decarbonization of heat is crucial. While a general shift to electric heating systems – powered by clean energy – is necessary, meeting heating peaks in cold climates remains a regulatory and technical challenge worthy of MIT’s focus and attention.
• Timing matters. Each decade of delay locks in costs and emissions. Acting now means MIT can learn, iterate, and lead instead of catching up later.
• Offsets aren’t solutions. Purchasing credits may appear to balance ledgers, but they don’t reduce the carbon we actually emit.
• This is an educational opportunity. Our students come to MIT to develop and demonstrate the technologies and systems they’ll deploy globally. The campus itself can be a teaching tool – a real-time demonstration of energy transition in action.

An invitation to engage
The new How to decarbonize the MIT campus white paper was triggered by our shared assessment that MIT’s decarbonization strategy can be more ambitious and aligned with the Institute’s aspiration to be a leader in tackling the climate crisis. It maps out the technical options – but also raises larger questions of governance, investment, and community vision. How ambitious should MIT be? How fast can we move? What experiments can we run on our own campus to accelerate global learning? Faculty play a crucial role in shaping these answers. Whether through research, teaching, or departmental leadership, we each have a stake in how MIT models the future. 

Click here to read the full white paper. Join the conversation. Help make the MIT campus a prototype of the world we want to live in.

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