Panther athletics adopts environmental outlook

When thinking of the words “sustainable” and “Middlebury,” the word “athletics” doesn’t usually fit in between. The first things to come to mind are usually the biomass plant and maybe Dining Services’ efforts to use local foods; the idea of sustainable athletics — not only the idea that athletics can be sustainable, but also the idea that athletics should be sustainable—often gets left behind.

Considering how ubiquitous athletics are on campus, with 28 percent of the student body participating in varsity sports (not to mention popular club and intramural programs) the idea of “green athletics” has been overlooked by most in the College’s ongoing effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2016.

While the ties between the athletic and environmental cultures at Middlebury may seem tenuous, they nonetheless occupy a major position on the athletic department’s yearly agenda.

Interest in the subject was piqued four years ago when a group of lacrosse players enrolled in one of Associate Professor of Economics Jon Isham’s classes was motivated to make carbon neutrality a reality for the men’s lacrosse team.

Since then, student-athletes from nearly every sport have taken the initiative in bridging the gap between the athletic and environmental worlds.

Under the stewardship of Nordic skiing head coach Andrew Gardner, who serves as liaison between the athletics and environmental offices and co-chairs the environmental council, athletes from almost every sport have been named “green liaisons” and charged with the task of looking after the sustainable interests of their individual teams.

In the past, athletic culture has been marked with waste, “driven,” as Gardner said, “by large consumerism.” This stigma placed the athletic world at odds with environmentalists, appearing counter to the goals of sustainability.

While Gardner continued, noting that at Division III schools that mentality is a little less pervasive, he said that even at Middlebury “the cultures [of athletics and environmentalism] are so separate.”

In conjunction with the green liaisons and the environmental council, he has worked throughout his four-year tenure to prove that the ideals of environmentalism “are not at odds with athletic culture.”

At last year’s sustainability summit, hosted by the environmental council, 18 of the 80 delegates present were green liaisons, representing the athletic interest in promoting sustainability on campus. The efforts of these student-athletes have produced three proposed and approved grants to the environmental council that further the athletic department’s green agenda.

Initiatives ranging from replacing light switches in the athletic facilities with more efficient ones to recycling tennis balls and purchasing a biodiesel transportation van have stemmed from the department’s dedication to eliminating excess waste and drawing the focus away from athletics as consumerism.

In attempts to further encourage collaboration between the College’s athletic and environmental programs, a dinner co-sponsored by the athletics department and Weybridge

house is in the works for sometime in the spring semester.

Athletics can no longer be considered separate from the green movement, heaped into some “other” category, and more importantly, can no longer allow itself to be left behind this movement as it picks up momentum.

As Middlebury moves toward its goal of carbon neutrality, the athletic department has proved its clout in environmental circles. The importance of student-athletic involvement in achieving these goals should not be understated, but as a distinct athletic culture, we still have a long way to go.

One of the overarching goals of the athletics department’s ventures into sustainability is not simply to change practices, but to change mindsets. With the big picture in mind, simple changes, like walking instead of driving to Kenyon, can go a long way in reducing our footprint while forging an environmentally-minded athletic culture.