New interactive Pitt Sustainability Dashboards launched this month, supporting the Pitt Sustainability Plan goal to “Increase transparency between Pitt and our community for knowledge sharing, capacity building, and change empowerment.”
The new dashboards focus on University of Pittsburgh:
- Renewable Electricity
- Landfilled Materials
- Materials Landfilled & Recycled
- Recycled Materials Detail
- Organics Recycling
Renewable Electricity
Reports the percentage of electricity from renewable sources for the Pittsburgh campus from 2017 to present. Rooftop solar and a local power purchase agreement with the largest solar farm in Southwestern Pennsylvania (Gaucho Solar) are key efforts supporting Pitt’s commitment to 50% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% renewable electricity by 2037.
In fiscal year 2025, Pitt procured 39% renewable electricity.
View the Renewable Electricity Dashboard here
Materials
Materials dashboards focused on the University’s zero waste efforts, including detailed breakdowns of recycled materials and organics recycling.
- Landfilled Materials – All materials landfilled from the Pittsburgh campus from 2017 to present.
- Materials Landfilled & Recycled – All materials landfilled and recycled from the Pittsburgh campus from 2017 to present.
- Recycled Materials Detail – Detail of all materials recycled from the Pittsburgh campus from 2017 to present, including via public single stream collection, chemicals, from construction & demolition, and specialty materials.
- Organics Recycling – Total organic materials recycled from Pittsburgh campus from 2017 to present, including via compost, anaerobic digestion, & K-cup recycling.
The materials dashboards help demonstrate progress towards the Pitt Sustainability Plan goal of reducing landfilled materials 25% by 2030 (from 2017 levels). Pitt stakeholders are active participants in diverting materials from landfill to recycling; the University currently separates 17 distinct materials streams.
Pitt’s many reuse efforts are efforts not captured by the dashboards, but include reuseable to-go containers, surplus property resale, Thriftsburgh on-campus thrift store, and the annual events like Move Out Clean Out and Clean & Swap.
First launched in January 2020, the interactive Pitt Sustainability Dashboards strengthen transparency, advance analytic capabilities, and quantify the University’s impact as a sustainability leader.
All dashboards focus on Pitt Sustainability Plan performance indicators and provide interactive views of progress on select goals.
Special thanks to Pitt Sustainability intern Aidan Martin, who developed all dashboards under the guidance of Emily Potoczny and Dr. Aurora Sharrard.