OP-ED Strategic sustainability

Author: Tim Spears

Completed in the spring of 2006, the College's Strategic Plan, "Knowledge Without Boundaries," sets high standards for environmental stewardship. More than ten recommendations focus specifically on the campus environment, while the College's revised mission statement - another result of the planning process - notes that Middlebury "has established itself as a leader in campus environmental initiatives, with an accompanying educational focus on environmental issues around the globe."

Since approving the Strategic Plan, the Board of Trustees signed off on a new campus Master Plan, which depends heavily on green design principles. Perhaps most significant of all, the Board also resolved that the College should be carbon neutral by 2016. That means dramatically reducing the College's dependence on fossil fuels - and slowing the rate of global warming - through energy conservation and efficiency, renewable fuels, technological innovations, and a variety of educational initiatives, aimed at modifying (and decreasing) peoples' use of energy.

In a way, this resolution epitomizes the College's commitment to sustainability, boiling it down to a concrete, indeed quantifiable, reduction in energy use. It also challenges us to act upon our mission statement, and carry our educational theories into practice. Thus far, we have made excellent progress toward this goal, the almost-completed biomass project being an important step forward. When completed this winter, the biomass facility - which burns wood chips - will reduce our use of #6 fuel oil by one million gallons, saving money as well as energy, thereby paying for itself in a matter of years. Also, if the College's project to grow ten acres of willow trees succeeds, we will have managed to create a renewable energy source for the facility.

Having diversified our fuel sources, the next logical step might be reinsulating older buildings on campus so we can decrease our consumption of energy. As students know first hand, some of our residence halls are draftier than others and require renovation to be energy efficient.The same is true for older academic buildings such as Munroe, whose systems need to be updated and modernized.

But these projects can be costly, and the current fiscal situation will certainly slow the pace at which we renovate campus infrastructure. Indeed, to the extent that environmentally-oriented initiatives might compete for resources with other goals mentioned in the Strategic Plan, the global economic downturn softens that competition since we will be taking on very few new projects in the near term; instead, we will be focused on saving costs. Those savings will help the College maintain a first-rate academic program and its commitment to financial aid. These two areas receive special attention in the Strategic Plan, and as we move through these tough financial times, they remain our top priorities.

Eventually, we will follow up on all the "green" recommendations in the Strategic Plan, including, I hope, the plan to turn Old Chapel road into a pedestrian way. Financial capacity will dictate the timeline for such projects, and by conserving resources, we improve our chances of accomplishing them. In the event that the College receives a gift to fund a carbon-reduction initiative that is consistent with our planning objectives - say, a donation to reengineer the skins of buildings to reduce the loss of heat, which includes endowment support to offset the cost of maintaining the renovated infrastructure - then we could move ahead more quickly. Still, the watchwords these days are fiscal prudence. In this respect, sustainability refers to economic as well as environmental stewardship.

(Tim Spears is the acting Provost and Professor of American Studies.)