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SBC Goes Green: President Muhlenfeld Signs American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment and the Green Gets Greener
By Emily Clifton '08
STAFF WRITER

In the last year, the subject of global climate change has become more and more ubiquitous in the news media. Most Americans do not really pay much attention to the “global” cause, even though America is the top contributor of carbon (greenhouse gases) emissions in the world. Not only that, but many Americas continue to question whether global climate change is even a reality. The rest of the world has acknowledged the need for change and sustainable development, and many feel that it’s about time the American public follows suit.

Rob Alexander summarizes the issue in the following way.

“We’ve seen such poor leadership on environmental issues like this. It is not new. When I came back from New Zealand, I couldn’t believe America was still debating whether global warming exists—in the outside world, it’s not a myth. We have had a disservice by our country’s leadership and press, and still it’s obvious that it is a real issue. We as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases as a nation ought to have an ethical responsibility to address it. Instead, we’ve refused to become involved.”

That’s where American colleges and universities come in, under the ethic of educating and enabling students to change, while instituting positive changes in their own example.

President Muhlenfeld wholeheartedly agrees that American educational institutions are the ideal place for a shift in attitudes and habits. On January 16, 2007, Muhlenfeld signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, which promises to take immediate steps to move toward becoming a carbon neutral institution as well as plan and implement changes in the future that work toward the same goal.

The importance of Sweet Briar’s pledge to become climate neutral is significant because it empowers the rest of society and future generations to lead by example.

President Muhlenfeld recognized the significance and took a big step in signing our commitment. Rob Alexander expressed how proud he was that she took the opportunity, approached the Environmental Department faculty and asked their opinions to make sure that we were taking the right steps to make Sweet Briar such a leader.

Only two other institutions in Virginia have signed the commitment: Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) and Norfolk State University.

This commitment is a particular challenge for Sweet Briar in comparison to larger institutions for several reasons. First, SBC has a large campus (3,250 acres), which is used in a large variety of ways. There is a National Historic District designation on our campus, and most of the major buildings were constructed in the first half of the twentieth century.

Such buildings are not only energy inefficient, but difficult and highly expensive to renovate. In addition, the campus needs to remain open, and in order to do so the buildings must be occupied. Also, there is no designated funding for this endeavor, and it is expected to be expensive.

Regardless of expense, however, it is a crucial initiative and will allow Sweet Briar to take leadership in addressing global climate change. It is feasible, but will occur over time and in logical steps that do not hinder our ability to function as a college. Therefore, there is a lot of assessment, inventory and discussion to be done before major changes will occur.

Sweet Briar’s expansive property makes it possible to even collect and store our own energy. Rob Alexander sees both on-campus production of biofuels and wind power as feasible options, as well as solar power. He believes that it will most likely be supplemental power to regular power, but the benefits could even include storage of excess power, so much so that Sweet Briar could end up selling back units of power to the electric company. At this point, what the best options are not known.

Steve Bailey, the Director of Physical Plant, has overseen many changes in the campus, and commented “Since 2000 the school has been performing the following energy saving measures: installed a new Honeywell Automation and Control System for the campus heating and cooling systems, installed piping insulation, performed chiller plant upgrades, performed steam trap retrofits.” Physical plant has also retrofit lighting to higher energy efficient technology, installed building attic insulation, and installed water conservation measures.

He says, “All of these measures have helped to reduce the total energy consumption on campus by 22% and in effect have reduced the emission of greenhouse gases.”

The commitment that has been signed asks colleges and universities to complete an emissions inventory, which Physical Plant has already started, as well as a few initial steps immediately. There are four items on the list, but due to SBC’s size, they cannot conceivably complete a few of them. Such commitments include providing public transportation on campus, which is unnecessary at a college as small as Sweet Briar. There is a steering committee in place that is currently considering the options.

The other pledges that Sweet Briar has made are to set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral, and integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience. There are also provisions to make the action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available, which President Muhlenfeld completely agrees we will do; in fact, it is one of the five major areas she has chosen to focus on within the steering committee.

The first area is the energy inventory, and the second is the involvement of students. Student engagement in the initiative will be spearheaded by Rebecca Ambers in the Environmental Studies Department. The goal is to use existing structures on campus and work with the newly designated for 2007-2008 Environmental Hall as well as students in the general population to effect positive changes on campus.

The third area is the use of land, for which Sweet Briar currently has two advising bodies: Structure National Areas Committee, and the Land Use Committee on the Board. One idea is to reforest a field to begin contributing back more oxygen to counter carbon emissions.

The community involvement and engagement aspect will be handled by Tim Kasper and the program for sustainability that is already in place. This is the fourth major area of interest.

The fifth is the commitment to public access over time. President Muhlenfeld is optimistic in the endeavor, but it will take time. A good current estimate is eight to ten years. Environmental Studies Professor Rob Alexander commented that to become carbon neutral within that short time frame would be thrilling to achieve.

The financial aspect of the commitment is a difficulty as well. The campus currently pays its electric bill all at once, so it is not immediately clear where the largest usage originates. Hence, the energy inventory is a crucial first step in the initiative.

According to Steve Bailey, the campus is currently fueled by #2 fuel oil to run the central boilers. One possible renewable fuel that could be used would be biodiesel. One advantage of using biodiesel is that it could reduce carbon monoxide emissions (greenhouse gases) by 20%.

There are a lot of considerations to be made before such a change could be instituted, however: reductions would need to be verified for Sweet Briar’s particular boiler system, and there are always economic considerations (and availability of such fuel is also uncertain at this point).

In addition, Sweet Briar has worked with Honeywell Corporation in the past to find Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) that reduce the energy usage on campus. All new buildings will meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Finally, Sweet Briar will continuously review and check the Energy Conservation Measures that have been established over the last 6 years. The difficulty lies in the fact that Sweet Briar’s infrastructure is so old, according to Rob Alexander. “We really need an environmental audit of the entire campus,” Alexander says.

How will this initiative affect the daily life of students? Well, for current students, the commitment is still new and changes to be made are still being decided. But students interested in helping the cause can start by trying to conserve energy in their daily lives, and stop contributing unnecessarily to the emission of greenhouse gases. One very large contribution students could make is to give up driving to Guion or Babcock, and walk the short distance instead.

Future students may see major changes, depending on what the college decides to do. While not all of the options are feasible, changes will certainly be made, and the goal of the college is to involve students in the initiative as much as possible.