-by Lisa Carey Moore
When Selim Zilkha graduated from Williams in 1946, the need for an office such as the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives could hardly have been anticipated. But in September 2007, the College officially launched the Zilkha Center “to work with students, faculty, and staff to incorporate principles of sustainability into the fabric of campus life – in learning, in our purchasing and operations, in capital projects, and in the daily routines of us all.” One specific objective of the Center will be to help the College achieve its ambitious goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 10% below 1990-91 levels—representing nearly 50% reduction from the 2006 benchmark.
“In launching the Zilkha Center, the College made sustainability an institutional priority,” explains Stephanie Boyd, Acting Director of the Center. Boyd points out that this puts sustainability on par with other goals of the College, such as making Williams accessible for low-income families.
Greener Buildings
Operating buildings represent one of the most significant components of the College’s greenhouse gas emissions. Steps to make them more sustainable are guided by a recent energy audit. Examples of such measures include replacement of fan motors and upgrading lighting sensors and controls. While at the campus’ co-generation plant, which accounts for 40-60% of the College’s CO2 emissions at any time, more natural gas is being used to replace number 6 heating oil. All of these measures are part of a broader, multi-year energy conservation plan.
The College is also seeking ways to employ renewable energy. Just recently, the College received an award of $92,670 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative “in recognition of the College’s continued leadership and dedication to renewable energy.” The award will help the College offset costs for the 26.88-kilowatt photovoltaic system for the new off-site library shelving facility. Other buildings under development—such as the Stetson-Sawyer Library expansion and renovation, the near completed academic complex in the center of campus, and the Weston Field athletic complex that is slated for development beginning next fall, will be LEED certified (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the United States Green Building Council. One feature of the new buildings, and the retrofits of older structures, is that individuals can now monitor the energy use in real time, or see how much energy is being produced by the photovoltaic cells. Not only do these steps provide interesting laboratory space for courses throughout the curriculum, but it also helps raise awareness in the community about the goals and impact of specific measures.
A Greener Commencement
Looking through the lens of this year’s commencement, there are a number of practices being employed to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions the event generates. Waste reduction remains a primary goal. In 2006, the College served approximately 3000 guests at the post-commencement picnic and had waste left after the event equaling one 15-cubic yard dumpster. The 2007 event had similar attendance, but it featured reusable plates and some cornstarch-based service products that could be composted with food waste. Staff at the event also promoted aggressive recycling. The result of these efforts is that the 2007 event produced 11 bags of trash, only 1/5 of the previous year, as waste was diverted to compost and recycling containers. (In fact, reducing waste is a big priority across campus, with everything from untouched food to paper waste being monitored, and with recycling centers prominent in all areas.)
This year, Dining Services, with the support of the Zilkha Center, increased their investment in reusable service ware by adding glasses. At the commencement picnic, bottles and cans will be absent—a savings of 8,000 bottled beverages. Student volunteers will work with patrons and assist them with disposal, while electric carts will be used to set up and remove items. Now the College just needs to convince the 5,000 ticket holders at the commencement ceremony to recycle their allotted water bottle instead of throwing it away.
Another tenet of being green is procuring food locally. “While organic produce, and sometimes local produce, can be a bit more expensive,” Executive Chef Mark Thomson notes, “what you gain is fantastic quality and taste.” However, the price of local food is becoming more competitive with rising transportation costs, and Thompson eagerly points out that by buying local the College is reducing its carbon footprint. He estimates that at least 30% of the College’s food comes from local sources with another 10% being organic. For commencement, over 50% of the food on the menu will be from local sources (up 25% from last year). Of course the challenge of trying to acquire your food locally is that sometimes you need to be flexible about when you get your produce, or what produce you end up getting. For example, the region is still a few weeks shy of its first strawberries, so Thompson hunted for another dessert crop and found some Fuji apples from a farm in neighboring New York. “These apples have been cold stored,” Thompson says, “and while color might not be the brightest their taste is wonderful.” Other items on the College’s menu include the commencement weekend favorites of coffee and chocolate, both of course, Fair Trade.
However, in order to sample the menu items, visitors of graduating seniors will first need to get to campus. The College estimates that their travel, combined with the CO2 costs of operating the campus for commencement weekend, amounts to approximately 8700 tons of CO2. As it did in 2007, the College will purchase carbon offsets from Native Energy, a broker of carbon credits that facilitates financing for the construction of new renewable energy projects that need additional capital to succeed. Williams has chosen to support The Brubaker Family Farm Methane Digester Project that will produce renewable energy to power the farm with excess energy going to the local power grid. For more information on the project visit http://www.nativeenergy.com/pages/our_projects/14.php#Bru.
One event related to commencement is wrapping up—GIVE IT UP! a collection drive for clothing, books, and other items at twelve “pods” placed near student housing. As anyone who has visited a campus at the conclusion of an academic year can attest, piles of discarded items tend to be significant. Not only does this put a huge strain on facilities staff as they prepare the vacated rooms and houses for future occupants, but it is tremendously wasteful as many of the items discarded could be recycled or reused. According to College Chaplain Rick Spalding, who is leading the effort to redistribute the items to charitable organizations, the pods have been well used. “Basically, the new system seems to be working so well that we’re feeling quite overwhelmed at the moment. I’m surprised at how many students have said things like, thanks for making this so convenient and the pods are a great idea—even though using the pods entails more steps away from their dorms. I think they have captured people’s imaginations.” And what do the students think about all of these efforts?
Greener Students
For the first time this year the senior class gift is being used to create a fund to address sustainability projects. “This is unique,” explains Jim Trapp, Director of the Alumni Fund at the College, “because money raised from the seniors is traditionally their first gift to the Alumni Fund. Gifts to the Fund are normally unrestricted so that they can be put toward the highest priorities of the College. But given that it’s the first year of the Zilkha Center and that there’s considerable student interest in meeting our sustainability goals, we worked out a compromise.” Perhaps four year’s of campus-wide competitions with such catchy names as “Do it in the Dark” have finally sunk in?
“I definitely think Do it in the Dark has helped raise the campus’ collective consciousness,” said Julia Sendor’08 during a brief break from writing her senior thesis. Sendor is one of the individuals credited with bringing forward the idea for the class gift as Co-President of the Thursday Night Group. Do it in the Dark is an annual competition that encourages students to unplug cell phone chargers and to turn off lights, computers and other devices, all for bragging rights as the most efficient dorm or house on campus. According to Sendor, the Thursday Night Group evolved to bring together stakeholders from the entire community to define concrete steps that could be taken to address climate change. “One of the objectives identified by members was this concept of a fund that will be managed through the Zilkha Center, but whose projects will be determined by submissions from the larger community.”
However, as with all initiatives that aim to alter the status quo, there are those students who are unhappy with the changes and cite concerns with low flow showerheads and trayless dining. Boyd acknowledges that it is the Zilkha Center’s challenge to educate the community about the specific goals of green measures while trying to improve means of soliciting input. “We’ve held all campus meetings, talked with editors of the student newspaper, and maintain a blog on the Center’s website to communicate with members of the community and I welcome input from students and staff at any time.”
Getting Green Data
Calculating emissions and generating the green data necessary to measure change falls on the shoulders of Amy Johns, an important member of the sustainability effort on campus whose position is funded by a grant from the Luce Foundation. As an Environmental Analyst she worked to get the information that both the skeptics and supporters want. For her first project, she crunched more than fifteen years worth of data to estimate the College’s carbon footprint based on all of the energy sources and costs associated with running the campus. From this, the College was able to set its target of reducing emissions by 10% of the 1990/91 baseline. She also works on specific projects like calculating the CO2 emissions generated by commencement-related travel, as well as the impact of things like trayless dining and low-flow showerheads.
As a scientist, Johns shares the concern that some people have with the precision of her work—another challenge faced by the sustainability movement. “For instance, while electricity is well metered in some areas, in others we don’t yet have the capacity to measure outflow precisely,” she explains. “What we need to decide is what level of metering is useful for making policy decisions, relative to the cost of establishing the measuring capacity.” While Johns concedes that it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact impact on CO2 reduction of some conservation measures, she points out that there are other green agendas being served. Preliminary feedback from trayless dining is that there’s less food wasted, particularly liquids, and low-flow showers help conserve water and lower the College’s water and energy bills. Measuring the impact of particular activities will become more doable, notes Johns, as the Zilkha Center pursues a more cohesive institutional approach to sustainability.
Not Just for the Students
Entering the offices of Alumni Relations and Development, you’ll note a small sign on the door that says, “We may be dim but we’re still in!”—further evidence of the Do it In the Dark Campaign. In speaking with Jim Trapp (a member of the Class of 1976) about this year’s class gift, he expanded the conversation to highlight what is being done on the administrative level. “Even within the Alumni Fund we’re consciously cutting down on paper communication. The youngest ten classes will receive almost all of their correspondence electronically and this is the last year we will produce a hard copy of the Alumni Directory.” Considering there are more than 25,000 alums scattered across the globe, this is a significant step. Trapp adds that the College has been working to collect information from alumni about their preferences for receiving mail and other correspondence, and as this becomes more apparent they’ll be able to better design the website and other tools for making communication with, and between, alums more effective. One small example of this effectiveness is the increase in online giving. In 2001, the first year online giving was possible, 40 transactions occurred representing 1% of total gifts to the alumni fund; this year, more than 5,000 gifts have been made online representing 35% of the total. Like the students, Trapp expressed his interest in knowing more about how much energy, and resources, his office uses, noting that this will help them take more targeted steps towards reductions. “Being greener is a genuine sentiment that everyone agrees on and endorses but we still have a long way to go,” he says, “We’re taking baby steps in our office and we certainly are ready to do more.”
Members of the Class of 2008 will be taking much bigger steps graduation weekend as they move on to new opportunities beyond the purple valley. With the College making an impact on sustainability, the hope is that these new alums will be greener wherever they go.