Going Green @ Haverford

During the 2007 Plenary, Haverford students elected to spend an extra $60 per student to purchase 100% wind energy for the College.

While the College is not directly buying wind energy, it is buying “offsets” that invest in renewable energy. For instance, funds are used to create wind farms that will eventually provide electricity.

Haverford College is one of a growing number of colleges purchasing wind energy for their campus. In July 2008, the United States overtook Germany as the world’s top wind energy producer.

Photo by Gerard Lovett, used under the creative commons license.

The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate.

President Emerson signed this commitment in the summer of 2007.

The presidents signing the Commitment are pledging to eliminate their campuses’ greenhouse gas emissions over time. This involves:

• Completing an emissions inventory
• Within two years, setting a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral.
• Taking immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by choosing from a list of short-term actions.
• Integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience.
• Making the action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available.

Learn more about this initiative including the full text of the commitent.

Claudia Kent, sustainability coordinator, will periodically post the CER’s “Campus Sustainability Status Report” in response to the president’s commitment. The report for the period of May15 – June 30, 2008 is available as a PDF.

Haverford’s Committee for Environmental Responsibility continues to promote personal responsibility for protecting the environment with its latest efforts to bring PhillyCarShare to campus.  PhillyCarShare gives students a chance to lighten their ecological footprints by sharing a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle that resides on campus instead of using their own vehicles for errands, trips into the city, airport runs, etc. PhillyCarShare is an economical opportunity for the College community to do its part to reduce dependence on automobiles in and around Philadelphia.

The Tommy T Challenges were an annual challenge to the Haverford Community to help the environment and ran for three academic years, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007.

2004-2005 Challenge: “Do it in the dark.”/”It turns me on when you turn me off.” Purpose: To conserve electricity.

2005-2006 Challenge: “Do it front and back.”/”It turns me on when you turn me over.” Purpose: To reduce the amount of paper used on campus.

2006-2007 Challenge: “Do it in the dirt.”/”It turns me on when you break it down.” Purpose: To encourage composting of food scraps.