Brown University president in Davos to sign green campus charter

          It can be hard sometimes to figure out what sustainable means – especially since the word is used to describe everything from plastic wrap to Hawaiian vacations.

          But Brown, Harvard and Yale universities, along with about two dozen other higher education institutions worldwide, are going to define it, and hold themselves accountable to measurable goals for sustainable development, construction and operations.        

        Today, Brown President Ruth J. Simmons signed the Sustainable Campus Charter  at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In addition to the goals, the universities pledged to incorporate the study of sustainability principles and practice into classrooms.

      “Universities around the world are already confronting issues of sustainability, both in their laboratories and in their business operations,” Simmons said. “The Sustainable Campus Charter will keep these issues in focus and enlarge the community of academic and civic leaders who are productively engaged in the important principles of conservation, sustainability and environmental health.”

          Brown, Harvard and Yale have worked hard in recent years to become some "green" universities. Other U.S. universities that signed were Georgetown and University of Pennsylvania.