As a part of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (PCC), Smith College recently announced a plan to go carbon neutral by the year 2030. Smith physics professor and Chair of the Committee on Sustainability (COS), James Lowenthal, discussed the PCC and Smith’s plan as an institution and a community.
“The PCC says you need to produce within two years of signing a plan for reducing to zero your institution’s greenhouse gases. It doesn’t say how, or by when, climate neutrality needs to be done—just the plan,” Lowenthal explained.
Smith College President Carol Christ signed on to the commitment in November of 2007, joining the group of 680 US college and university presidents who are working to reduce their school’s impact on the environment.
Lowenthal pointed out that Smith expects this project to reap rewards for the college.
“Saving wasted energy saves money,” Lowenthal stated. “Implementing much of the actions we propose will cost money up front, but will save the college money in the long term,” he continued. Such fiscally and environmentally responsible measures include weatherproofing buildings, which Lowenthal eagerly asserted, “will pay for themselves as quickly as two years, a better than 40 percent return on investment. Try to beat that in the stock market!”
However, the advantages of going green are not solely monetary. Lowenthal stressed other important benefits, saying that the plan “will provide very important benefits including moral imperative, [and] educational value of addressing the globe’s current foremost enviro/socio/economic crisis.” Additionally, and perhaps of principal importance to Smith as an institution, the commitment will add to the “credibility and attractiveness of the college to prospective students, thus promoting the college’s own long-term sustainability,” Lowenthal concluded, referring to the connection between environmental sustainability and general longevity.
While Smith modeled this plan off of many other institutions, the COS faced some unique issues in creating a program for going carbon neutral.
“What was unusual about our case was the large number of old, leaky, inefficient buildings on campus,” said Lowenthal, referring to Smith’s aging architecture—an obstacle Mount Holyoke would also have to address if the College were to commit to PCC.
Lowenthal, though excited to be a part of Smith’s efforts to become carbon neutral, is aware that the process will not be easy. “It will be crucial, but very challenging for Smith or any other institution to achieve [carbon neutrality],” he remarked. He added that the journey, though extremely difficult, would ultimately be very advantageous and throughout a learning experience.
“We will become more aware of how we produce, use, and waste energy, how we make local decisions with global consequences, how we can influence policy and politics outside of our own sphere,” Lowenthal said, as well as helping Smith reduce greenhouse gases.
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