Long Term Value of Green Spaces

There is something so lovely about just being in a space surrounded by nature, or even your local plant store. According to an abstract by Andrew Chee Keng Lee, as sourced by the National Library of Medicine, “Urban green spaces provide environmental benefits through their effects on negating urban heat, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, and attenuating storm water. They also have direct health benefits by providing urban residents spaces for physical activity and social interaction, and allowing psychological restoration to take place”. Essentially, green spaces are beneficial for us as well as Mother Earth.

One example of sustainable green spaces is at the Center for Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University, which is heralded as the largest fossil fuel-free building in Boston. In addition to being just a beautiful piece of architecture with awesome study spaces (can you tell I attend this university?), “eight green roofs provide outdoor space for building occupants to spend time outside, capture rainwater, and help reduce the urban heat island effect,” according to the Boston University website for sustainability efforts.

The building cost $305 million to build over three years. Of course, this also includes other sustainability efforts in terms of energy efficiency, and the fact that the building is also large (19 stories). However, adding green roofs to other buildings, even at other academic institutions, would greatly increase each institution’s sustainability. These efforts are also beneficial to not only students and the city’s constituents, but to the university itself. For example, Boston University (BU) has seen an increase in applications to the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS) since its launch in fall 2021. Applications to CDS increased by 49% for the Class of 2027. The number of students in the CDS program has grown steadily, with 93 first-year students in fall 2023. The minor in data science, launched in spring 2022, has grown rapidly, with a projected 160 students enrolled as of fall 2023.

While I am not a student in any of these areas, the benefits of a study area, an on-campus Saxby’s, and on-campus job opportunities are too great to ignore. Despite an upfront cost, there are minimal disadvantages to installing green spaces and sustainable efforts, particularly in college campuses. Hopefully other institutions will follow BU’s lead!