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Peter Holzaepfel '05 on Graduates for a Greener Hamilton

Graduates for a Greener Hamilton grew out of our desire to continue supporting our College during the early years of our professional careers, when finances are often incredibly tight. We spoke with many recent and not-so-recent graduates who wanted to give to Hamilton but, in many cases, felt equally or more compelled to give to organizations that address environmental and climate issues.

Working with the College and with the support of hundreds of graduates, we created the Green Initiatives Fund as a way for graduates to give to Hamilton while supporting initiatives that increase the College's environmental responsibility and reduce its carbon footprint. Hundreds of alumni signed a ­letter to President Stewart urging her to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment and increase environmental responsibility throughout the College community. Additionally, we have spurred great dialogue among alumni as well as between alumni and current students. In many cases alumni (and members of the GGH executive board) have provided their professional expertise to students in support of their environmental initiatives on campus, ranging from the Community Garden to a student initiative to increase the amount of renewable energy purchased by the College. GGH also set up an on-campus event that brought together a number of graduates working in the environmental field to talk with students about professional opportunities.

We are certainly hoping to grow the Green Initiatives Fund into a permanent endowment that would support environmental initiatives on campus, including energy efficiency upgrades, green building, on-site renewable energy generation, environmental studies faculty, and student activities and initiatives.

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