The account includes the major initiatives behind the effort as well as a look ahead.

Renovation project increases sustainability and retains historic character.

AASHE's 2016 Sustainable Campus Index recognizes top-performing colleges and universities.

Biomass plant and land preservation help push Middlebury past target in an ambitious multiyear effort.

Dr. Gregory Trencher, Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Policy at Clark University, will discuss Innovative Strategies towards a Low-Carbon Society in Japan.

The lecture will showcase innovative policy and technological measures in Japan’s planned transition to a low-carbon, sustainable society, focusing on 2 key initiatives: The Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City, near Tokyo, and the vision for a hydrogen economy. He will briefly discuss Fukushima’s impact on energy policy and CO2 emissions.

Dr. Trencher holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Science from the University of Tokyo and an M.A. in Environmental Studies from Sophia University. His current interests include energy efficiency and retrofitting policies for existing buildings and smart city initiatives in Japan and China.

The Japanese Studies Department, the East Asian Studies Program, the Environmental Studies Program, the Franklin Environmental Center and the Japanese Club.

Meet on the front porch of the Franklin Environmental Center (FEC) for the very popular Campus Tree Tour led by passionate Middlebury horticulturalist and tree expert Tim Parsons. This year, FEC is focusing on the theme Urban Innovations, Sustainable Solutions, which will include exploring connections between urban and rural. As part of the tour, Tim will explain why he manages our rural Vermont campus as an urban forest. Stick around after the tour for a tree planting, complete with hot cider and fresh local donuts. Bring your willingness to learn about and to get a little dirty.

The Fire Inside is a 35-minute documentary that asks provocative questions and offers thoughtful perspectives on our relationship to the natural world and the ecological crises we face today. What is nature? And what is the human experience of that world? In the everyday push of our modern lives what connections have been lost and what remain? This film follows a small, diverse group on a contemplative retreat as they explore the wildness about them and the passion for place within.

After the screening, a panel discussion will take place with Middlebury faculty members Rebecca Kneale Gould, Marc Lapin and Michelle McCauley and Tim Lilburn, a faculty member from University of Victoria.

Environmental Studies students will present their Senior Seminar projects.

Jessica E. Jay, Land Conservation Attorney and Law Professor

As the use of perpetual conservation easements to protect private property continues to grow in popularity, so grow the challenges and opportunities associated with these perpetually binding promises. Today’s conservation community faces significant challenges to the durability and flexibility of perpetual conservation easements as a result of changing conditions, landscapes, climate, and public interests. Conservationists will need to look to new frontiers for answers and opportunities to respond to these changes and challenges, and to shape our protected landscapes going forward.

Curt Stager, Author, Educator, Scientist

Scientific explanations of global warming are important sources of information, but the world faith community is also providing inspiration to address its impacts on the planet, the poor, and future generations as a moral issue. Pope Francis has recently called pollution a sin and welcomed non-religious scientists as "precious allies" in the struggle to care for Creation. In that role of "precious ally" Curt Stager will explore some of the long-term effects of global warming and our place in nature from a scientific perspective, and also show how the pope's encyclical reinforces the science with a call for better stewardship of the planet and its inhabitants.

Ted Levin, Nature writer, recipient of the 2004 Burroughs Award

During this talk Ted will be discussing his most recent book America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake. This is a book about love—but also about fear, danger, and a long history of misunderstanding. It tells the story of the much-maligned timber rattlesnake, one of the most iconic animals in the American landscape, feared and hunted relentlessly since Pilgrim times and now the focus of sustained—and often contentious—conservation efforts on the part of both working scientists and obsessed, dedicated amateurs.

Teresa Mares, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Vermont

This talk examines household food access among Latino/a dairy workers in Vermont, the majority of whom have migrated in recent years from central and southern Mexico. As a border state with an active presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, many of the same fears, anxieties, and dangers that are connected to the southern border are reproduced in the state of Vermont; with significant consequences for food security, diet-related health, and the overall well-being of migrant workers.

Johannes Urpelainen, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University

For centuries, fossil fuels have played a central role in human development and the growth of the industrial society. Coal, oil, and natural gas have fueled the world economy, enabling rapid industrialization. However, fossil fuels carry a high environmental cost. In less than a decade, activism against the fossil fuel industry has exploded both in the United States and elsewhere.

Matthew C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication at Northeastern University

Nisbet reviews research insights and evidence-based strategies that experts and advocates can use to effectively communicate with the public and policymakers about climate change and energy-related issues.

Amy Frazier, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University

Forest fragmentation is an on-going threat in forest communities, especially in the Eastern U.S. where the prevailing pattern of dispersed, low intensity development penetrates intact forest, increasing the amount of wildland urban interface (WUI). 

In this Fall’s core faculty colloquium, we will examine the concept of “safety” from a number of perspectives. How do we translate the abstract concept of safety into actual, on-the-ground policy? How helpful are broadly accepted parameters (such as EPA limits) if these limits have more to do with what is technically "achievable" than with what is actually healthy? And is safety for me the same as safety for you? How do concepts of "environmental safety" get shaped and mitigated by geography, race, class, gender and culture?

Julia Berazneva, Assistant Professor of Economics, Middlebury College

In this talk Professor Berazneva will present several of her projects that study soil and forest resources. In one we investigate the effects of changes in agricultural practices on maize yields and soil carbon sequestration in Kenya; and in the other, we examine the links between deforestation, malaria, and child health in Nigeria.

The U.S. Green Buildings Council awarded the recently renovated building its highest ranking.

Munroe honored for her work connecting Middlebury students and faculty with community partners around the state.

Middlebury's expansive new sports facility has met stringent criteria set by the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

ENVS 401 Projects with Professor Molly Anderson's students:
•    An Exploration of Energy Innovations and Implications of the Proposed Carbon Pollution Tax for the Vermont Maple Industry
•    Alternative Heating Sources in Vermont Greenhouses
•    Vermont Food Rescue Toolkit
•    Water Quality & Tile Drainage Within Addison County

The students in Michael Sheridan's SOAN 211 Human Ecology will present their research projects as posters.

Topics include:

Fisheries policy in the South Pacific
Guatemala coffee cooperatives
Indigenous people and conservation in Cameroon
Elves, fairies, and ecology in Iceland
Mountaineering, Sherpas, and ecology in Nepal
Pastoralism and climate change in Mongolia
The Sarvodaya spiritual ecology movement in Sri Lanka
Vegetarianism as a cultural system
Lakota Sioux political ecology
….. and more

ENVS 401 Projects with Professor Rebecca Kneale Gould's students:
•    Communicating Environmental Issues: Using the Arts for Education, Inspiration and Engagement

Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series. Robert Greeley, Visiting Instructor in Arabic at Middlebury, will discuss how protected areas have undergone a powerful and sustained social critique, however, very little of this it addresses biosphere reserves and only a small fraction addresses the zoning practices of biosphere reserves. This talk is based on months of interviews and participant observation with biosphere personnel, police, politicians, Shouf residents and hunters in the transition zone of the Shouf Biosphere reserve. Greeley will address the intersections of state and local agendas in creating environmental governance in and beyond the transition zone.

Kae Fink '16.5, Joint Chemistry and ES with an environmental chemistry focus, will present her thesis: Sorptive behavior of hexadecyltrimethylammonium-modified montmorillonite: Elucidating effects of interlayer chemistry and contaminant structure. Lunch will be provided at 12:15.

Woodin Colloquium: This presentation will be given by Brian Deese ’00, Senior Advisor to President Obama.

This documentary focuses on Ziggy Gruber, who co-owns a large deli in Houston and is also the grandson of the original owner of the Rialto Deli, the first Kosher deli to open on Broadway in New York City in the 1920s. The deliis the main love in this man's life. While the film also covers other famous Jewish delis in Manhattan, Queens, Los Angeles and San Francisco and their histories, the emphasis is on the cultural aspects of the food and how the culture and the desire for this food is disappearing. There were once thousands of these delis and now there's fewer than 150 left in the entire U.S. Such luminaries as Larry King, Jerry Stiller, Fyvush Finkel, Freddie Roman and Alan Dershowitz as well as various deli owners express their love for the culture and the food. Co-sponsored by Middlebury College Hillel; the Departments of Film and Media, Sociology/Anthropology, and Jewish Studies; Havurah; and The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

"A Small Good Thing" is a film about the next American dream to live a more wholehearted, connected life. The film asks whether we can change our larger goals as a nation and learn from the rest of the world about the small truths that are the sources of human happiness. Can our dreams serve as a conduit for the developing world’s financial well-being? The film explores how working in small but meaningful ways, we can overcome obstacles to happiness – the isolation of suburban comfort as well as the despair of poverty – to create joy for ourselves and others. There will be a Q & A afterwards with Bill McKibben and others from the film. Click here for more information. 

Woodin Colloquium presented by Katherine Michels '14.5, Environmental Philanthropy Associate at the High Meadows Fund.