Campus Planners from DLR Group, the integrated design firm the College selected to partner with on developing its Comprehensive Campus Plan, returned to Bryn Mawr last week for a second engagement with the community.
They conducted interactive exercises with groups comprising students, faculty, and staff, this time with a focus on sustainability. For each group exercise, DLR gathered about 15 Bryn Mawr community members and divided them evenly around tables. On each table were 65 cards with various topics related to sustainability, from climate justice to building systems and thermal comfort.
Guided by DLR personnel, participants at each table were assigned an identity of either student, staff, or the local community, selected five sustainability topics they thought would be most important to that group, and explained their reasoning.
From those selections, the entire room of participants was then asked to choose the five topics they collectively agreed would be considered the highest priority for the College. In the second stage of the exercise, groups were asked to identify how each priority would be observed, measured, and reported if implemented.
As those ideas take shape and become part of the Comprehensive Campus Plan, they will help inform the work of Neha Sood, Bryn Mawr’s recently appointed Director of Sustainability and Environmental Action.
Sood, who joined the College this fall after seven years in Rochester Institute of Technology’s sustainability office, is leading efforts to weave sustainable thinking into every aspect of Bryn Mawr’s facilities planning — from energy and building systems to long-term maintenance, design decisions, and the Comprehensive Campus Plan.
“The focus on sustainability throughout the Comprehensive Plan has been very exciting to me, because sometimes sustainability is an afterthought of campus planning processes,” Sood says. “But from the day that I got here, I’ve been part of as many conversations as possible to integrate sustainability into the plan.”
Sood says the fact that Bryn Mawr doesn’t have a single centralized heating and cooling system, unlike some campuses, should provide several opportunities to deploy renewable energy and sustainable technologies into different parts of campus infrastructure.
“For some existing buildings, the best option might just be upgrading the current system, for others it might be installing solar panels or heat pumps, and for any new construction we can have just about any option on the table,” she says. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to sustainability.”
The Comprehensive Plan also provides an opportunity to revisit and update our climate action plan and the College’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.
“That goal hasn’t changed, but I want to challenge us to decarbonize campus operations, which goes beyond the goal of carbon neutrality," Sood says. "This plan is going to be a big part of the roadmap to reaching it."
The scope of the Comprehensive Campus Plan is wide-ranging, addressing every aspect of Bryn Mawr’s built environment. The plan will consider how classrooms and laboratories can be made more flexible for collaborative research and teaching; how residence halls, the campus center, and dining facilities can foster stronger community; how campus access and navigation can be improved for all members of the community; what Bryn Mawr’s “Library of the Future” may look like; and more.
Campus Architect Jessica Vitali is managing the Comprehensive Campus Plan project. An executive committee of members of senior leadership meets every two weeks and a larger steering committee meets monthly. Three working groups made up of students, faculty, and staff meet regularly throughout the process. Each has a particular focus — the student experience, academic affairs, and institutional spaces. Together, these groups work to ensure the plan reflects the needs and aspirations of the entire Bryn Mawr community.
On-campus engagement sessions will continue through January 2026. Visit the Comprehensive Campus Plan website for more information.
Created alongside "Building the Next Chapter," the College’s new strategic plan, the Comprehensive Campus Plan extends those same priorities into the physical environment — envisioning spaces that advance academic excellence, foster belonging, and position Bryn Mawr for global visibility.
Sustainability at Bryn Mawr
From transitioning the transportation fleet to electric vehicles, to purchasing power from renewable suppliers and funding reforestation projects, Bryn Mawr is working aggressively to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.