Environmental Responsibility
Our support of education underlies our commitment to environmental stewardship. UE’s member institutions include world-class research institutions and other education leaders that have a significant role in research and innovations addressing climate change challenges.
We also are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our operations. Examples include:
- In 2022 we moved to a hybrid workplace, with employees coming into the office two or three days a week and thereby reducing the number of commuters on the roadways in our D.C. area.
- We located our headquarters near public transportation and offer employee subsidies for Metro and Bikeshare.
- We implemented and are enhancing digital initiatives for ease of doing business and to reduce the use of paper.
- We run an active recycling program throughout the office, provide filtered water refill stations, and reduce purchases of single-use plastics in marketing materials.
- We are headquartered in the Bethesda Place building, which is committed to its recertification for the LEED Gold standard by:
- Installing variable frequency drives (VFDs) for all the core unit air handlers
- Buying only LED lighting approved by Energy Star
- Using low consumption repair parts
- Operating garage fans off CO2 sensors that operate as needed based on parts per million, rather than running continuously
- Using all biodegradable chemicals