$50,000 Grant Award Supports Development of Online Platform to Help Fast Track Sustainability Efforts at UR

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — The Office for Sustainability at the University of Richmond has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to help develop a new online platform that will identify how proposed projects on campus will help the University achieve sustainability goals.

The grant enables UR to collaborate with the Sustainable Endowments Institute to enhance the capabilities of the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) by creating a new online tool that will allow UR to experiment with greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and waste reduction scenarios.

These features will enable UR to streamline and easily track energy, financial, and carbon-saving data and GRITS goals for each sustainability project proposed on campus.

“This system is going to allow us to identify projects that will help us reach the goals laid out in our Sustainability Plan as quickly as possible,” said Director of Sustainability Rob Andrejewski. “We’ll be able to create visual evidence that prioritizes actions with the best economic and environmental returns, which ultimately will help improve decision making, communication, and collaboration.”

The platform’s development, led by Andrejewski, will be completed in three phases over the next year.

###

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund works to expand access and create opportunity by investing in people, organizations and communities that were important to Jessie Ball duPont.