Early in January, Lafayette became the first college in the Lehigh Valley to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment! Congratulations to Lafayette President Dan Weiss for taking a leadership role in this critical area!

(See the Morning Call article and Lafayette's statement below.)

Morning Call January 17, 2008

Not easy being green? Lafayette disagrees

College joins growing list of institutions to sign climate pledge.

By Arlene Martínez

It's just two pages long, but if those who have signed a pledge follow through, at least 474 colleges and universities across the country will be climate-neutral in just a few years.

Joining them is Lafayette College, which last week became the first area higher education institution to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a multipronged approach to reducing greenhouse gases and energy use. The agreement also calls on signatories to take action like increasing access and use of public transportation to purchasing energy-efficient appliances.

Anybody can sign a pledge, Lafayette President Daniel Weiss figured, but he wanted to be certain the college could actually meet the commitment's goals. Students and faculty determined they could.

"It's really not onerous," Weiss said. "It isn't the highest threshold. It's the minimal threshold as to what we need to be doing."

The commitment has caught on with lightning speed. In June, just over 200 presidents had signed the agreement. Now, it's nearly 500 and growing every week, according to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment's Web site.

Students urged Weiss to sign the commitment and, along with faculty, are developing a comprehensive plan that includes dates for when the goals will be met -- including a year for when the college will be carbon-neutral.

Weiss said Lafayette's slow response to climate change is why he placed the environment at the top of his list of priorities this year.

Lafayette junior Dan Goldberg, president of Lehigh Environmental Awareness and Protection, said by signing the agreement the college was setting an example for the community to take action too.

"If only one person completely transforms their environmental habits then in the big picture not much is accomplished, but if each person slightly changes their mannerisms with respect to the environment then much, much more can be accomplished," Goldberg wrote via e-mail. "The goal of this agreement is to show that a large group of people making small choices for environmentally friendly options can go a long way."

Peter Crownfield, a steering member for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities of the Lehigh Valley, which has urged all area higher education institutions to sign the pledge, agreed.

"I'm impressed by their vision and leadership in taking on this important challenge," he said.

Lafayette College January 2008

Lafayette Signs American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment

College is committed to creating a sustainable campus environment

EASTON, Pa., January 17, 2008 Lafayette has joined the signatories to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Lafayette President Daniel Weiss is among more than 450 college and university presidents who have pledged to eliminate their campuses' greenhouse-gas emissions in a period of time determined by each institution. This involves:

Setting up a mechanism (committee, task force, office, etc.) within two months to guide the process;
Completing an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions within one year;
Creating and implementing a climate-neutral plan (that includes a target date and interim milestones for achieving campus climate neutrality) within two years;
Taking two of seven immediate steps specified in the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while the more comprehensive plan is being developed;
Integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience;
Making the action plan, inventory and periodic progress reports publicly available

In addition to addressing global warming by gathering pledges to neutralize greenhouse-gas emissions, the Presidents Climate Commitment initiative aims to accelerate higher education's research and educational efforts to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate. The commitment states: "We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate-neutrality. Campuses that address the climate challenge by reducing global-warming emissions and by integrating sustainability into their curriculum will better serve their students and meet their social mandate to help create a thriving, ethical, and civil society."

Weiss says, "Lafayette is fully committed to creating a sustainable campus environment, and we are dedicating substantial resources to this crucial objective." Advocating for state-of-the-art strategies for enhanced sustainability is among the primary objectives of a new department at the College, the Department of Facilities Planning. Created principally from current College personnel and existing financial resources, the department will be responsible for the planning, development, construction, and cost-effective delivery of capital projects. George Xiques, formerly the College's assistant director of plant operations, will serve in the new position of manager of sustainability and environmental planning within the department.

In December, students in a Technology Clinic class wrapped up a two-semester project, commissioned by the Office of the President, to formulate recommendations for steps that would serve as "the groundwork for future actions toward a green Lafayette campus." Their report set forth many ideas for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.

"We appreciate and take very seriously the work that these students have done," Weiss says.

[Posted January 25, 2008]