September 10, 2007

Kalamazoo College Commits to Climate Neutral Campus

Kalamazoo, Mich. – Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran committed to sharply reducing and eventually eliminating all of the College’s global warming emissions by signing the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). She joins the leaders of 347 other institutions across the country and becomes the second Michigan college president to sign the document.

“Global warming is a defining challenge of our time,” said President Wilson-Oyelaran. “Human activities contribute significantly to this problem. Working together we have the capacity to make a critical difference. This will require taking serious action today, and Kalamazoo College is committed to this effort.”

As part of the commitment, President Wilson-Oyelaran has established a campus wide committee, chaired by Director of Facilities Management Paul Manstrom, which will create a comprehensive institutional action plan to move toward climate neutrality. In addition, in the short term, the College will continue its participation in the Recyclemania Waste Minimization competition, launch a campaign to reduce campus waste currently going into landfills, and only purchase products with ENERGY STAR certification.

These efforts build on ongoing commitments to sustainability, including the nationally recognized recycling program, the anticipated silver level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the renovation of Hicks student center, and “Farms to ‘K’,” a program administered through the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute of Service-Learning. The program promotes local sustainable agriculture and the use of locally grown food in the College’s food services operation, one beneficial effect of which is reduction in transportation emissions. For her work on this program, Kalamazoo College student Holly Anderson was one of five students in the United States to receive the 2007 Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award, sponsored by the National Campus Compact.

ACUPCC is the first such effort by a major sector of society to set climate neutrality as its target. Under the guidance and direction of the Leadership Circle of presidents, ACUPCC is supported and implemented by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Second Nature, and ecoAmerica.

A Fellowship in Learning: At Home in the World, Kalamazoo College is a national liberal arts college and the creator and home of the Kalamazoo Plan. By emphasizing scholarship, civic engagement, and foreign study, Kalamazoo College cultivates a fellowship in learning among students, faculty, and a community of scholars throughout the world. Its students shape elements of the Kalamazoo Plan--rigorous academics, career internships, study abroad, service-learning, and a senior individualized project--into an educational experience that provides insight into the meaning of the kind of citizenship that is at home in the world.