Programs abroad try to catch up

Author: Jack Lysohir

The Office of International Programs and Off-Campus Study, as well as the Sustainability Integration Office, have begun a yearlong effort to assess the environmental practices of the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad. Director of Sustainability Integration Jack Byrne and Assistant Director of International Programs and Off-Campus Study Stacey Woody Thebodo are leading the Sustainability Assessment Project.

The Project will analyze the sustainable practices of the C.V. Starr-Middlebury schools, beginning with the schools in Spain. Thebodo wrote in an e-mail that "students and faculty are working to develop or adapt a sustainability assessment tool that helps define what sustainability in Schools Abroad means, and that helps each School evaluate its own status with regard to the definition."

"The plan is to see how this research develops over the course of the 08-09 academic year, then the Directors of the Schools Abroad will meet next summer to assess the project and figure out next steps and how to implement this in other sites," she added.

This comprehensive study of the environmental practices of the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad comes in the wake of major changes in environmental policies at the College. In May 2007, the Board of Trustees voted to make Middlebury entirely carbon neutral by 2016. The Trustees' resolution, however, strives to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality only for the "College's Vermont campus," omitting the College's 30 abroad sites as well as domestic sites such as the Monterey Institute of International Affairs, and the Language Schools' and Bread Loaf School of English's satellite campuses.

In recent years, the Office of International Programs and Off-Campus Study has attempted to educate directors of the Schools Abroad about ways to "go green." However, these green initiatives pale in comparison to those taken on by the College's Vermont campus. The initiatives for the C.V. Starr schools are outlined in a guide called the "Middlebury Study Abroad Going Green Guide for Schools Abroad Directors." The guide recognizes Middlebury as one of the preeminent liberal arts colleges in the field of environmental sustainability (pointing out that Middlebury is one of only four institutions nationwide to win the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)'s Campus Sustainability Award), and endeavors to help the C.V. Starr schools achieve parity with the College's central campus in the environmental realm.

The Study Abroad Office also stresses environmental consciousness to its departing students. Students are briefed on environmental issues associated with traveling and studying abroad both in pre-departure materials and meetings.

The office recommends that students participate in the "Green Passport" program, which consists of a pledge stating that, when studying abroad, green passport holders will minimize their impact on the environment and take into account the social and environmental consequences of their actions.

A carbon offset program is also offered by the Office of International Programs and Off-Campus Study, whereby students may purchase carbon offsets to neutralize the impact of their air travel. For $36, NativeEnergy of Vermont will offset your carbon emissions, and give you a certificate as well as a pint of Ben & Jerry's upon your return to America.

Finally, the Study Abroad Office offers a more academic option to engage in environmental issues while abroad. The "Sustainable Study Abroad Grants" of up to $500 are awarded to students for projects related to the environment or sustainability issues to be pursued while studying abroad. Recent grant winners have utilized their money by working on projects as diverse as sustainability in modern Parisian architecture, to China's abundance of waste, to geothermal power in New Zealand.

Thebodo was quick to point out that "discussions about study abroad and environmental sustainability are relatively new to the field of education abroad, so we have a long way to go as a field." Thebodo has been at the forefront of the discussion on sustainable study abroad, having presented on a panel entitled "Sustainability in Education Abroad: Reducing our Global Footprint" at the Association of International Educators conference in Washington, D.C. last May.

Nonetheless, the Study Abroad Office and the Office for Sustainability Integration feel it is necessary for the Schools Abroad to begin to hold themselves to the standards of the Vermont campus.

The Study Abroad office said that implicit in their mission of exposing students to cultures different from their own, they are doing a small part in improving sustainability practices. Thebodo wrote, "the average Western European uses half as much energy as the average American … We hope our students learn about these practices when they are abroad, adapt more sustainable lifestyles and bring back what they have learned."