Middlebury Athletics “goes green” for Homecoming

Green, aside from being the color of the fields, is not a characteristic usually associated with sports; however, students and faculty alike are working to change this image. Middlebury’s commitment to sustainability initiatives is incredibly broad-based and student-centric, as is evinced by the participation of the athletic department in the College’s goal to reduce its carbon footprint. Each team, for example, chooses a Sustainability Liaison, and these representatives meet regularly to discuss improvements as well as ways to raise awareness.

This fall, football’s “green liaison” Andrew Durfee ’11 is spearheading an event over Homecoming weekend to promote sustainability in athletics. The Green Weekend, taking place Oct. 23, will focus on providing information and encouraging students to adopt greener lifestyles. To that effect, Durfee and his co-planner, Katie Romanov ’11, have arranged to set up booths at every home athletic event, where volunteers will educate passersby on the green initiatives of the College as well as distribute green shoelaces made out of recycled plastic and “Go Midd Go Green” wristbands. These freebies come with strings attached, however: students, alumni and parents must write a sustainability pledge on a leaf-shaped piece of paper in order to receive the laces. Durfee and Romanov plan to display these pledges in a public location on campus as a reminder for all to honor their pledges.

Additionally, the Green Weekend organizers will be working with the new Residential Sustainability Coordinators to provide local foods at the booths. This dovetails nicely with the RSC’s environmental theme of the month, Sustainable Food and Agriculture.

“The goal of the weekend is to reach out to as many people as possible,” said Durfee. “We strongly believe that this event would bring the eco-kids and the athletes together in a high profile event during a high profile weekend (Homecoming) and would result in a broad benefit for the campus community.”

Just as athletics is not something traditionally associated with the green movement, Durfee himself is a newcomer to environmental concerns. He credits a class taken with Professor of  Psychology Michelle McCauley, Environmental Problems and Human Behaviors, as being his introduction to sustainability, and has since taken impressive strides to include more of the campus within the College’s sustainability umbrella.

“Middlebury College is on the forefront of sustainability in many ways, but has yet to effectively engage the athletics department in environmental awareness and action,” said Romanov. “I really wanted to involve athletics because if you can change just a small part of athlete’s behaviors, it can make a huge difference,” added Durfee.

To that effect, the Sustainability Liaisons have discussed other changes in the operations of the athletic department, such as introducing a cleats drive at the end of every season as part of a “reuse a shoe” initiative. The old cleats could be reprocessed and recycled into turf or other recycled materials. Furthermore, an overarching goal in athletics is to decrease the car traffic on campus and promote more bike traffic, and efforts are being made to encourage athletes not to drive to practice. The practice fields are a bit of a hike, but local traffic is responsible for a fairly significant emissions footprint and taking the extra 10-15 minutes to walk over could make a noticeable difference.

Sustainability is relevant to every department and organization on campus, and the Athletics Department is making a concerted effort to help fulfill the College’s carbon neutrality goal, involving a broader cross-section of the campus in the process.