Sustainability at Fordham

In New Class, Addressing Climate Change and Food Insecurity

Fordham undergraduates help transform a parking lot in Highbridge, a neighborhood just south of the Cross Bronx Expressway, into a distribution hub for fresh, affordably priced produce as part of a new class, Ecology and Economics of Food Systems.

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Workers installing solar panels on top of a building on the Rose Hill campus

Minimizing Our Environmental Impact

By working to reduce the greenhouse gases generated from all aspects of our operations, we have reduced our carbon emissions intensity by 31.77% and energy consumption by 22.6% since 2005. 

At Fordham, we endeavor to design, construct and maintain our buildings, infrastructure, and grounds in a manner that ensures environmental sustainability and demonstrates sustainability best practices in a broad range of areas. We're committed to reducing our environmental impact through targeted, verifiable measures that focus on reducing our greenhouse gases generated from all aspects of our operations. 

See our progress: 2021 Climate Action Report

Cover of Laudato Si: Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis

Care for Our Common Home

On Earth Day 2021, Pope Francis issued Laudato Si, a new imperative to our world to act courageously in addressing climate change.

This bold and visionary approach asks all Catholic institutions to holistically transform over the next seven years to stave off catastrophic global warming. At Fordham, the offices of mission integration and ministry, the provost, and facilities management came together to respond.

After convening a task force for six months, the University published its Laudato Si’ Action Plan, joining 67 other universities around the world in doing so. The document is a seven-year plan with goals that touch on everything from hosting an annual sustainability conference and conducting a comprehensive study of waste management on campus to establishing a sustainability panel at Fordham’s International Conference on Cyber Security.

Learn more about Fordham's Laudato Si Action Plan

More Sustainability News at Fordham

How to Shift from Fast Fashion to a More Sustainable Future

How to Shift from Fast Fashion to a More Sustainable Future

The 2023 Fordham Women Summit will feature a fashion-industry panel plus sessions on environmental research and the power of our personal consumption choices. Each year, the fashion industry creates about 2.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2020 report. That’s about 4% of all emissions globally. But the report also found that …

Bronx 101: Students to Learn About the Cross Bronx Expressway’s Impact on Air Quality

Bronx 101: Students to Learn About the Cross Bronx Expressway’s Impact on Air Quality

As part of an annual pre-orientation program, incoming first-year students will learn directly from local residents and policy experts about how they can shape policy decisions and build a better future for Fordham and its neighbors.  Students in the Urban Plunge program will meet on Friday, Aug. 25, at the Rose Hill campus to discuss …

Fordham Earns Grant to Expand Bronx Market

Fordham Earns Grant to Expand Bronx Market

Fordham received a $25,000 AARP Community Challenge grant in June to significantly expand the Highbridge La Familia Verde Market in the Bronx. The University launched the market last year in partnership with several community organizations; Fordham undergraduates and other student volunteers help staff it throughout the summer and fall.  The grant is part of a …

Lowering Our Carbon Footprint: Engineers Gather at Fordham

Lowering Our Carbon Footprint: Engineers Gather at Fordham

On Monday, June 5, experts in heating and cooling systems came together at the Lincoln Center campus to discuss the challenges of helping colleges and universities lower their carbon footprint. Decarbonizing High Education: A Roadmap for Decarbonization Master Planning, a half day of presentations and networking, brought together representatives from Fordham, NYU, Columbia, CUNY, Con …

Social and Environmental Justice: From Community Gardens to Tech Access

Social and Environmental Justice: From Community Gardens to Tech Access

Fordham hosted a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary conference on May 1 and 2 at the Lincoln Center campus that addressed the sources of environmental degradation, racism, ableism, and rising inequality with regard to access to resources and information around the world. In her welcoming remarks at the International Conference on Social and Environmental Justice, Fordham President Tania …

Fordham London Celebrates Earth Day

Fordham London Celebrates Earth Day

On April 18, Fordham London celebrated Earth Day with a fun slate of festivities while marking the formal launch of Our Common Home: Fordham’s Environmental Action Plan. The celebration featured several events throughout the day, including a sustainability quiz and an herb and tomato planting on the rooftop terrace. Invited guest speaker Jessica Sweidan, founder …

How Do You Save One of NYC’s Oldest Trees?

How Do You Save One of NYC’s Oldest Trees?

The oldest living resident of the Rose Hill campus is getting some extra love and care from Fordham’s facilities, with an assist from a master arborist. Standing tall next to the statue of Fordham’s founder, Archbishop Hughes, this particular specimen of Ulmus Americana, aka American Elm, has been through a lot. It survived the Dutch …

Climate Summit Kicks Off University-Wide Sustainability Initiative

Climate Summit Kicks Off University-Wide Sustainability Initiative

On April 19, Fordham marked the launch of a seven-year transformative climate change plan with an event at the Rose Hill campus that brought students, activists, government officials, and neighborhood leaders together on the Rose Hill campus. The University also welcomed back to campus Elizabeth Yeampierre, FCRH ‘80, who laid out the challenges of achieving …

White House Report Cites Professor’s Research on Climate Change

White House Report Cites Professor’s Research on Climate Change

Marc Conte, Ph.D., an associate professor of economics whose research had focused on sustainability and climate change, was cited in a major report issued by the White House in March. The 513-page 2023 Economic Report of the President, which was issued on March 23 by the Executive Office of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, …

Climate Change Pop-Up Museum Visit Inspires Students to Act

Climate Change Pop-Up Museum Visit Inspires Students to Act

Learning and teaching about climate change can be overwhelming sometimes, said Shubhangi Garg Mehrotra, Ph.D., and even evoke a sense of doom. That’s why Mehrotra, an English and disability studies professor, wanted to take students in her Pop Culture and Climate Change and Environmental In/Justice, Climate Change, and Disability courses to visit the Climate Museum …

Theologian Proposes Reimagining Our Place in the Natural World

Theologian Proposes Reimagining Our Place in the Natural World

In a wide-ranging lecture on March 21, Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., made a case for rethinking humankind’s relationship with the natural world. “We need to change from thinking that we are masters of the universe to realizing that we are siblings, or kin, with all other beings in the community of creation, loved by God,” she …