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work, lectures, critiques, instruction, and
field trips.\The art history classes are held
at various sites and alternate with lectures
that provide a historical context for the
visits. Graduate students may register for
Materials and Techniques of Venetian
Art, in which students visit restoration
laboratories and learn about master
techniques from conservation experts.
Sustainability
Pratt Institute is taking a leadership
role in sustainability for schools of art,
design, and architecture nationwide.
At this critical moment, when our
environment and ways of life are at
risk, we have a responsibility to ensure
that each of our graduates has a deep
awareness of ecology, environmental
issues, and social justice. Regardless of
discipline, our graduates must be able
to integrate best sustainable practices
into their professional lives. Within each
program, Pratt students are offered an
opportunity to learn to think in new ways
about the relationship of designer to
product, architect to built environment,
and artist to creative expression. Students
throughout the Institute are encouraged
to move outside of their majors, across
disciplines, to work together in intensive
studios that focus on environmental
issues. These studios are structured,
collaborative experiences that focus
on one of the most critical issue of our
time—the protection of our planet from
the effects of global warming.
At the same time that Pratt’s students
are challenged to develop the skills and
sensibilities to creatively and successfully
meet the challenges they will face as
they enter their professional lives, we ask
them to consider “greening” their own
lifestyle. Peer-to-peer student groups help
students choose healthier, more earth
friendly products, maximizing the use of
materials and recycling to reduce waste
and conserving energy. This program
helps move our campus closer to our goal
to be carbon neutral.
Each year our campus is working to
reduce our carbon footprint, “greening”
our dorms, facilities, and classrooms and
creating on ongoing, living laboratory
from which our students can observe,
participate, and experiment. Pratt’s
approach harnesses our extensive
resources to a diverse and vibrant pool of
talent in a world city that has taken the
lead in sustainability. At Pratt, we educate
design students about the ecological
impacts of their profession. The Pratt
experience cultivates and refines clarity
of purpose in each of our students and
asks them to use their creative talent to
design a sustainable future.
Pratt has been recognized by The
Princeton Review and the USGBC as one
of the 311 “Green Colleges” and has made
the following institutional commitments:
▶ (^) PlaNYC: mayoral challenge to
reduce our greenhouse gases by 30
percent by 2017.
▶ (^) ACUPCC: American College and
University President’s Climate
Commitment
▶ (^) In 2010 Pratt founded PALS,
Partnership for Academic
Leadership on Sustainability, which
has 33 member schools.
See http://pratt.edu/pals.
▶ (^) 2010 Imperative: to ensure that
ecological literacy becomes a central
tenet of design education
“Pratt was teaching
sustainability before the
word was invented.”
—Sebastian Lou Ambrogio,
B. Arch. ’76, Vice President,
Global Engineering, Pfizer Inc.