December 11, 2006 -- With the stroke of a pen, Oberlin took a leadership role in environmental stewardship last month when President Nancy Dye established Oberlin as one of the nation’s first institutions of higher education to accept the goal of climate neutrality by signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

As a charter signatory, Oberlin becomes one of four schools in the United States and the first in its peer group to sign the ACUPCC, an environmental initiative developed by Second Nature, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and ecoAmerica to address what they term “the defining challenge of our century—the twin crises of energy sustainability and climate change.”

“Addressing climate change in our curriculum and in our campus operations is an urgent and integral part of our mission as educators and in our social obligation to society,” says Dye in a letter of intent to Antony D. Cortese, a major figure in the campus sustainability movement, who spearheaded the initiative.  

“Higher education plays a critical role in preparing the new workforce and creating the knowledge that will help society create the strategies, technologies, policies, and economic opportunities that will allow humanity to thrive while protecting our life-supporting environment.”

As a first signer, Dye also has opted to become a member of ACUPCC’s Presidents Leadership Group, a cadre of 10 to 20 presidents and chancellors representing institutions currently at the forefront of sustainability in higher education pledging to build support among college and university administrations across America.

The Presidents Commitment project has set as its goal the participation pledge of at least 200 college and university presidents by June 2007. “Presidents who sign are committing their institutions to a series of short-term actions and an institution-specific planning process that is ultimately directed toward climate neutrality,” says John Petersen, associate professor of environmental studies and biology at Oberlin. “Nancy Dye deserves significant credit for this bold initiative, and Oberlin students are to be commended for keeping the issue of climate neutrality in the spotlight.”

Earlier this year, Oberlin’s student-led Environmental Policy Implementation Group introduced the ACUPCC to the Student Senate, which ratified the commitment and presented it to President Dye for consideration.

The commitment document lists the actions needed to achieve climate neutrality, a number of which Oberlin College has already taken, such as the completion of a comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory in 2002 and an agreement with Oberlin Municipal Light and Power in 2004 to purchase approximately 50 percent of its electricity from green energy sources.

Other required commitments that Oberlin has already made include a “LEED” silver certification requirement for all new campus construction projects that was approved by Oberlin’s Board of Trustees over the summer. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an environmental certification program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Other actions in keeping with the Climate Commitment include a pending purchasing policy that requires the purchase of Energy Star certified products and a student referendum from several years back that allocates a percentage of the student activity fee to subsidize public transportation.

Petersen points out that Nancy Dye’s decision to sign the ACUPCC is a natural extension of the comprehensive environmental policy adopted by the College in 2004. This policy calls for integrating sustainability into the curriculum, transforming campus management of buildings, food, travel, purchasing, and waste, and developing mechanisms to track progress.

“The pursuit of climate neutrality, the planning process, the pathway, and the timeline are to be determined by each individual signatory institution,” he adds. “I am confident that we can structure this process to ensure that we make commitments that are realistically optimistic and fiscally sound for Oberlin College. Past experiences demonstrate that environmental leadership generates opportunity as well as hope.”

“Although colleges and universities are responsible for a relatively small fraction of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.,” says David Orr, Paul Sears Professor of Environmental Studies, “they are in a powerful position to lead on this issue.” “In addition to educating our students, faculty, and administrators, we can influence changes far beyond. We now know that human survival depends on achieving a rapid worldwide transition from fossil fuels to an era of energy efficiency and solar energy. Oberlin College has a unique opportunity to play a leading role in developing a model of climate neutrality and equip a generation of students for the great work ahead."