The recommendations of this Report are pathways to a green campus--options and opportunities that Middlebury College is in a position to choose. However, the most fundamental need of the College at this point in its evolution as an environmentally responsible institution is a clarification of its vision for the future and of the purposes and values to which it is committed. With this in mind the Environmental Council has designed an Environmental Mission Statement, and adoption of this Mission Statement by the College is the Council's first recommendation.
The Environmental Mission Statement is primarily concerned with the policies and activities of the College as an institution and community rather than with the Environmental Studies Program and the academic curriculum. The Council's recommendations for how the College might use this Mission Statement are presented and further discussed in Chapter II, Administration and Business Management.
Following the Mission Statement there is a listing of all the major recommendations of the Report. After each recommendation there is a reference to the Report chapter where the recommendation is fully discussed. In many cases specific steps and procedures are proposed for implementing a recommendation.
A. Proposed Middlebury College Environmental Mission Statement
Middlebury College as a liberal arts institution is committed to environmental mindfulness and stewardship in all its activities. This commitment arises from a sense of concerned citizenship and moral duty and from a desire to teach and lead by example. The College gives a high priority to integrating environmental awareness and responsibility into the daily life of the institution. Respect and care for the environment, sustainable living, and intergenerational responsibility are among the fundamental values that guide planning, decision making, and procedures. All individuals in this academic community have personal responsibility for the way their actions affect the local and global environment.
In its efforts to fulfill its environmental mission, the College is committed to the following objectives:
In its stewardship of land, the College endeavors to:
maintain biodiversity and health of ecosystems
restore ecological processes that become damaged
conserve natural resources
- safeguard the beauty of the landscape.
In its operations and management of facilities, the College seeks to reduce environmental impacts, and it endeavors to:
prevent pollution
reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency
conserve water
reduce waste, reuse, recycle, and purchase recycled content products
- increase reliance on renewable resources
The College supports many of these measures as important cost-saving initiatives as well as matters of environmental responsibility.
When siting, designing and constructing new buildings or renovating old ones, the College seeks to minimize environmental impacts, and it undertakes environmental impact assessment studies when an activity is likely to cause environmental harm.
The College pledges itself to create a safe and healthy environment both indoors and outdoors for all who live and work on the College campus and its properties. It considers full compliance with state and federal law to be the minimally acceptable standard. It strives to prevent and eliminate harm to public health.
When making financial investments, the College takes into consideration long-term as well as short-term environmental consequences.
- The College is committed to maintain an ongoing program of environmental awareness education on campus and to serve as a local and regional resource in support of efforts to increase environmental awareness outside the institution.
Environmental studies are recognized and supported as a major component of the College's academic curriculum. Through its many environmental awareness initiatives and its diverse course offerings in environmental studies, the College seeks to ensure that its graduates will have the knowledge, skills, and values to become leaders in the worldwide endeavor to restore and protect the environment.
B. Major Recommendations
Environmental Mission Statement - Middlebury College should adopt and the President should sign an Environmental Mission Statement. This statement should be distributed throughout the College as a statement of the fundamental principles and objectives governing College policy pertaining to the environment. (Chapter II)
Policy Formation - The President and senior Administration of the College should lead the institution in an effort to formulate in writing the environmental policies and procedures that should govern the various departments, programs, and activities of the College, using the Environmental Mission Statement as a general guide. (Chapter II)
Environmental Audit - The College should conduct an audit of its environmental impacts on a regular basis (every two, three, or four years). The Environmental Council or another appropriate group in the College should undertake a report on the environmental state of the College, using this Report as a point of reference, during the year 1998-1999 so that the College can prepare to enter the twenty-first century with its environmental policies and programs in first-rate order. (Chapter II)
Investment Policy - When making financial investments, the College should consider long-term as well as short-term environmental impacts, seeking to avoid investments in businesses and products that are inherently unhealthy for human beings or that threaten serious environmental harm. (Chapter II)
Recycled Paper and Printing Policy - (1) The College should adopt and circulate a formal policy of using recycled paper with a high percentage of post-consumer waste for all College offices, publications, and posters; and (2) the College should use soy-based ink, or an ink that is equally benign from an environmental point of view, in all its printing processes and publications. (Chapter II)
Environmental Council - The Environmental Council should become a standing College council whose chair is appointed by the President of the College. (Chapter III)
Environmental Coordinator - The position of Recycling Coordinator should be renamed Environmental Coordinator and be established as a permanent position, and an Environmental Coordinator should be hired for the 1995-1996 year. (Chapter IV)
College Catalog - The Middlebury College Catalog should put greater emphasis in its first section on Middlebury's Environmental Studies Program and commitment to environmental awareness and responsibility. (Chapter V)
College Handbook - A new set of regulations on "Respect for the Environment" should be added to the Middlebury College Handbook in the section on "General Regulations" after the subsection on "Respect for College Property." (Chapter V)
Environmental Studies Program - The College should continue to support a strong Environmental Studies major. The College should support initiatives to increase environmental education across the curriculum, including staffing to allow for an Environmental Studies minor and courses for non-majors. The Faculty should also add the environment to its distribution requirements. (Chapter VI)
New Student Orientation - The Dean of Students should include in the new student orientation program in September and February a 30-minute environmental awareness session to be conducted in the relevant residence halls by the Environmental Coordinator. Attendance at this environmental awareness session should be mandatory for all entering students. (Chapter VI)
Environmental Monitors - The Residential Life Program, under the supervision of the Dean of Students, should take on full responsibility for appointing Environmental Monitors for all student residence halls and should ensure that monitors carry out their responsibilities. The job description of the Director of Residential Life, the RAs, and the JCs should include responsibility for promoting environmental awareness, conservation, and recycling. (Chapter VI)
Energy Conservation - An energy management policy for the 90s should be formulated, written down, formally adopted, and circulated. (Chapter VII)
Energy Impact Study - An energy impact study and environmental impact assessment should be included as part of every College renovation and new construction project. Life cycle costing should be a primary element in design and equipment selection. The project budget should make provisions for all energy conservation measures that have a simple payback of five years or less. (Chapter VII)
Environmentally Advanced Dormitory - The College should construct a dormitory that is state-of-the-art in energy/environmental technology as a learning center for students, faculty, and staff. (Chapter VII)
Dining Services and Food - Dining Services should continue to (1) reduce and responsibly manage waste in all of its operations, (2) search for alternatives to disposable products, (3) support local and sustainable agriculture, and (4) increase awareness concerning organic and locally grown foods. (Chapter VIII)
College Lands - (1) The College lands should be entered into a Geographic Information System (GIS) data base through a cooperative effort among College land administrators, the Geography Department, and other interested academic departments; and (2) the College should encourage organic and sustainable agriculture on its farmlands. (Chapter IX)
Written Policies and Procedures for Toxics - With guidance from the College Safety Officer, current policies and procedures relating to toxics and pollutants should be clarified and written down. Uniform policies should be established for the campus, and appropriate procedures should be established where lacking. Middlebury College should be in conformity with state and federal regulations. (Chapter X)
Toxics Inventory - Middlebury College should take an inventory of toxic materials to help in identifying areas where policies and procedures are needed, to document the need for a hazardous storage facility, and to comply with federal regulations concerning the quantity of hazardous waste produced and stored by hazardous waste generators. (Chapter X)
Toxics and Pollution Policy - Middlebury College should (1) prevent and reduce hazardous waste and pollution at its source whenever possible, (2) handle and recycle in an environmentally safe manner hazardous waste and other pollutants that cannot be prevented, and (3) dispose of in an environmentally safe manner hazardous waste and other pollutants that cannot be recycled. (Chapter X)
Waste Minimization - The College should increase efforts aimed at waste minimization by (1) putting a new emphasis on source reduction, (2) using purchasing as a waste reduction strategy, (3) establishing a formal recycling policy, (4) further developing the recycling and composting program, and (5) continuing community education. (Chapter XI)
- Pedestrian Campus - The College should adopt and implement a plan that will minimize driving on campus by members of the community and create a pedestrian campus. This can be accomplished by (1) assigning all student, faculty, and staff cars to specific parking lots, (2) blocking specific roads on campus to create cul-de-sacs and reduce traffic, (3) working with the town to restrict parking and improve safety along College Street, and (4) increasing parking enforcement. (Chapter XII)
Proceed to Chapter 2 Administration