WITH PRESIDENT STEWART'S SIGNING OF THE CLIMATE COMMITMENT IN April 2007, the College created a standing Sustainability Committee to carry on the work pioneered by the original Green Team. Led by Leach, the vice president of administration and finance, and comprising faculty, staff and student representatives, the committee is charged with soliciting ideas, encouraging debate, monitoring progress and mapping a long-term Climate Action Plan in accordance with the Climate Commitment. Much of that work is handled by four subcommittees, which focus variously on adherence to LEED building and renovation guidelines; minimizing the use of hazardous materials and production of hazardous waste; procuring local products; and procuring products that are energy efficient and recyclable.
Irene Cornish, the College's director of auxiliary services and a member of the committee, describes the group as "the sounding board for all the ideas that are coming in," and she means it literally: "You always need to be pushing us," she tells the campus community. "If you hear things or see things at other schools, in your homes or hometowns, you can be eyes and ears for us." Many of the College's recent environmental measures involve procurement policy and are overseen by Cornish. For instance, Hamilton has adopted an energy-efficient appliance-purchasing policy that requires the purchase of Energy Star-certified products. And in the fall, the College began to use all-recycled office paper. "There used to be concerns" with the quality of recycled paper, Cornish says, but "the technology is better now." All major publications including the Alumni Review, long printed on papers containing recycled content, are now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Similarly, Hamilton has quietly established itself as a leader in meeting government standards on the handling and disposing of hazardous materials, a labyrinth of regulations overseen by Hansen and his office. Hamilton was one of a handful of colleges to pass a recent EPA inspection with no violations or fines. "Meeting those dos and don'ts is the springboard to sustainability," Hansen says.
With Zipcars available, fewer need to keep private vehicles on campus
Additionally, the College began providing low-cost Zipcars to the campus and surrounding community last fall, augmenting Hamilton's Jitney and the regional bus service as an environmentally friendly alternative to keeping a car on campus.
Such achievements seldom get much notice around campus or in the media, Bellona notes, but they can have a dramatic cumulative effect. He points to the recent replacement of some electrical systems and light bulbs on campus that is saving 135,000 kilowatt-hours a year in electricity and costs — the equivalent of 96 metric tons of CO2 emissions. "These incremental steps matter," he says.
But another early step taken by the Sustainability Committee has drawn substantial attention, and for good reason. It was the demanding task of measuring, as precisely as possible, the reach of Hamilton's own carbon footprint.
