Goucher College Joins Nationwide Movement to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Release date: July 06, 2007 |

Goucher President Sanford J. Ungar has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, joining the leaders of about 300 colleges nationwide that have pledged to reduce sharply their emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Participating institutions must complete an inventory of all their greenhouse gas emissions within a year of signing the commitment. Within two years, the colleges must develop comprehensive institutional plans, interim goals, deadlines, and tracking systems for becoming “climate-neutral” — reducing or offsetting all greenhouse gas production in order to create a “neutral” effect on global warming. The Presidents Climate Commitment is the first effort by any major sector of society to set climate neutrality—not just a reduction in emissions—as its target.

“Signing this commitment is a natural step for Goucher,” said Ungar. “An important goal of Goucher’s Strategic Plan is to promote environmental sustainability through our academic and co-curricular programs. It is imperative that we do our part to help slow the pace of global warming.”

The colleges and universities involved also agree to expand research into ways to achieve climate neutrality, to integrate sustainability into their curriculum, and to make their plans and periodic progress reports public, so that students, in particular, can monitor their progress.

Environmental sustainability is already a focus of Goucher’s academic program and campus culture. The college’s new liberal education curriculum requires each student to explore the ecological or policy dimensions of environmental sustainability, effective with the class entering in the fall of 2007.

Additionally, the Athenaeum—the dramatic new library and community center under construction at the heart of Goucher’s campus—will be certified according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green-Building Rating System, the nationally accepted benchmark for environmentally sustainable architecture. The building will feature two “green” roofs—surfaces planted with vegetation that naturally reduces and improves the quality of rainwater runoff. Other planned features include high-performance, energy-efficient window glass and mechanical systems.

“I also have to credit our extraordinary students with being the real leaders in making our campus environmentally aware and proactive,” said Ungar. “They have helped the college embrace environmental responsibility by developing programs on alternative energy sources and energy conservation, redesigning the college’s recycling program, creating an agricultural co-op, and encouraging ‘green living’ among our student body.”