MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Middlebury College Director of Environmental Affairs Nan Jenks-Jay announced today that the college will proceed with its plan to construct a biomass plant, which will cut the college's greenhouse gas emissions by almost 12,500 metric tons annually with power generated from wood chips rather than fuel oil. Her announcement followed a meeting of the Middlebury board of trustees, where the board approved the recommendation by administrators to build the facility.

Soon, Middlebury's preemminent Environmental Studies program will have a new home which it will share with the college's Department of Environmental Affairs and Community Based Environmnetal Studies program. Instead of constructing a new building for its environmental programs, the College will create a model of resource and energy efficiency through the adaptive reuse of Hillcrest, an 1875 Italianate-style Vermont farmhouse.  Middlebury will for the first time test the feasibility of third-party certification for its sustainable building practices by registering for LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Environmental Econ 265 students worked with Campus Sustainability Coordinator Jack Byrne to assess the change between 1995 and 2005 of the College's overall use of resources expressed as its "ecological footprint." They researched methodologies, collected historical data on the college's reource consumption and calculated the footprint per capita in 1995, 2000, and 2005.

The new turbine is located adjacent to our recycling facility and provides power forthe lights and machinery in the building.

Middlebury College is installing a meteorological tower at the college's ski area, the Snow Bowl, in Hancock to assess the potential for producing electricity from wind.