Homewood Sustainability StoryMap

Urban heat island effect refers to the phenomenon in which dense, impervious areas are consistently several degrees hotter than the surrounding rural areas due to a lack of undeveloped land and the preponderance of surfaces that trap and re-release heat (like asphalt, cement, and brick). Human activities like transportation, electricity consumption, and building heating and cooling regularly contribute to the release of greenhouse gases that cause increased warming in urban areas and inequitable health impacts on local communities. One solution to the urban heat island effect is to continue to increase tree canopy within cities. Trees provide essential shade and cooling through evapotranspiration, whereby they release water into the air. They also combat the effects of climate change by acting as carbon sinks, in which they draw carbon dioxide out of the air and sequester it in their roots, trunks, and branches. Therefore, more tree coverage corresponds to healthier air quality for all those who live and work on campus.

A dense tree canopy and ample green space on campus also provide essential wellness benefits to the JHU community. Walking through a beautiful, shaded, biodiverse campus can have innumerable mental and physical health benefits for students, staff, faculty, and visitors, including: reducing stress hormones, lowering blood pressure, and improving overall mood. This is particularly essential for college campuses, where emotional and physical stress is common.

The Homewood Campus has a large tree canopy and many regionally-significant, mature trees, recognized as Big Tree Champions by the State of Maryland. Big Tree Champions are certified by the Maryland Big Tree Program if they are a County Champion (the largest tree of that species in the county) and at least 70% of the size of the State Champion (the largest tree of that species in the state). The campus is covered with Pecan, Willow Oak, Eastern Red Cedar, American Holly, and other species of Big Tree Champions that provide a wealth of environmental benefits to all those that enjoy them.

Tree coverage and green spaces on campus are also important in supporting biodiversity in the area, both for flora and fauna. Trees supply habitat to woodland creatures like squirrels and birds, and they increase the number of pollinators and natural pest predators, all of which serve the natural environment and transmit benefits back to humans.

Rain gardens are sloped or depressed landscapes that are designed to collect runoff during heavy precipitation events and are typically planted with native and adaptive vegetation best suited for the local environment. This supports more passive year-round maintenance and reduces the need for watering, fertilization, or pest management. Rain gardens can be found at Malone Hall, the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory, the north entrance of San Martin Drive, and next to the Newton White Athletic Center.

Bioswales also help collect runoff, but are deeper vegetated channels typically lining roadways that filter water before being reincorporated back into the ground to help prevent flooding. Segmented bioswales line the entrance to campus along Wyman Park Drive, running parallel to the Wyman building and the Homewood Early Learning Center.

Opened in 2013, the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory (UTL) is the university’s only LEED Platinum building, the highest possible LEED rating award. At 105,000 square feet, UTL boasts high-performance fume hoods and dual energy recovery wheels that capture heat energy from exhaust air without contamination, allowing labs to operate with maximum efficiency and minimal environmental impact. UTL also incorporates modularity in its design, allowing each lab space to be decommissioned over extended periods of time, which can reduce energy use up to 75% during breaks when classes are not in session. In addition to UTL, there are three LEED Gold and one LEED Silver buildings on the Homewood campus. Employing green building standards like those within LEED enables the university to continue decreasing its emissions despite growth in population and square footage.

In 2019,  JHU signed a 15-year agreement  with Constellation Energy to procure 250,000 MWh of renewable energy annually as part of a new offsite solar installation in the PJM grid region. This agreement reduces the university’s carbon footprint by 123,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e) each year and equates to taking 26,750 passenger vehicles off of the road. At the time of its signing, this was the largest renewable energy commitment among all U.S. universities and remains the largest in the state of Maryland. The agreement ensures the development of a new, clean energy facility, therefore fulfilling the premise of additionality—the idea that a project must be truly new to have a beneficial impact on the environment.  It also supports the integration of clean power into the PJM grid while enabling the university to meet its 51% GHG reduction goal prior to 2025.

In April 2021, the university began receiving renewable energy credits (RECs)—a transferable certificate verifying that a certain amount of megawatt hours was generated through renewable energy sources—through its partnership with Constellation. Organizations use these credits as verification of their emissions reductions and to increase demand for energy from renewable sources. By “retiring” or gaining ownership to ensure no other organizations can claim the environmental benefit of these credits, JHU will meet its GHG reduction goal by July 2022, three years ahead of schedule.

On the Homewood Campus, 1,400 solar panels are located on the rooftops of the Recreation and Athletic Center, which were installed along with solar arrays at several other Hopkins buildings. The panels offset approximately 600,000 MTCO2e and generate an average of 450,000 kWh of clean electricity annually, equivalent to the yearly electricity from roughly 40 U.S. single family homes. The University buys the power generated by the panels at a set rate, and the environmental benefit, or RECs, are held by the developer and sold separately.

See how much solar energy is being generated right now on the  live Solar Dashboard .

Students and employees of Johns Hopkins also have access to convenient mass transportation options like the  Collegetown Shuttle  and  Blue Jay Shuttle  systems. The Collegetown Shuttle is a free transportation service for affiliates of Hopkins and other surrounding universities and stops at Penn Station, Towson Town Center, Towson Place Shopping Center, and the Shops at Kenilworth. 

The Blue Jay Shuttle is a free transportation resource exclusively for Johns Hopkins affiliates with regular stops in front of Mason Hall. These systems provide cost-effective and accessible alternative transportation solutions to reduce single-occupancy vehicle use and the need for additional parking and land use on campus. 

Johns Hopkins also has a partnership with  Zipcar , a car-sharing membership service that makes it easy to access vehicles on-demand. Through this partnership, Hopkins affiliates receive a membership discount and convenient access to Zipcar locations throughout the campus.