University President John Bravman recently announced future plans to extensively increase environmental funding along with the creation of the President’s Sustainability Council at the University’s second annual Sustainability Symposium on March 27.

Although the Council has not been officially created as of now, Bravman estimates the Council to formally function as early as next fall. The idea of a cohesive body to oversee and work with different levels of sustainability has been actively discussed by administration for over three years.

While a formal charter still needs to be drafted, the objective of the council is clear: the Council will be expected to undertake initiatives from all levels of sustainability both environmental and fiscal and within broader areas such as student engagement and enrollment demographics.

Running for over 18 months, the Sustainability Council will involve the participation of numerous faculty members from different departments as well as students, and will work on a larger scale to address questions of coordination and cohesion. Specifically, the purpose of the Council is to act as an overreaching university group that will evaluate and revise current sustainability efforts on campus.

“Many of us are involved with sustainability work already, and so we don’t want to duplicate that. Coordination and guiding our best use of resources is what I hope we can achieve. We want to do something, actually, that’s useful and has a good return on investment for people’s time,” Bravman said.

In addition to creating the council, Bravman has also asserted his intention to increase 10-fold the funding available for student and faculty campus sustainability projects through the Green Fund. An increase in spending will allow the investment in environmentally-friendly devices, in order to gain data on the long term capital returns.

As citizens of not only the University, but also of society, there is a real element of social welfare involved.

“I think the sustainability council is a great idea. I’m glad President Bravman is making it a top priority,” Brittany Bowers ’17 said.

“Part of this is doing good. It’s not just literally sustaining the University, it’s doing good by the University, and therefore, by the rest of society,” Bravman said.