Middlebury’s new Energy2028 plan builds on a history of thinking holistically about sustainability. In 2007, then-President Ron Liebowitz signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, and the campus achieved carbon neutrality within ten years - a story shared in this video. The college has won numerous awards for its integrated approach to sustainability, including campus operations and curriculum. The new integrated plan also includes ambitious targets for using the college endowment’s investment strategy to fight climate change.
After a decade-long crusade of student activism, Middlebury has begun its long march toward divestment. In a unanimous decision last January, the Board of Trustees approved Energy 2028—an ambitious and sweeping plan that promises certain reductions of the college’s environmental footprint in response to the mounting climate crisis. With the vote, the board set a timeline for meeting a series of environmentally-minded goals and initiatives.
Middlebury College announced on Tuesday that it would divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies in an effort to address climate change.
“Recognizing the profound threat of climate change, Middlebury College today announced a 10-year commitment that will put the institution on a path toward a complete shift to renewable energy to power and heat its central campus,” the college wrote in a statement.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College’s board of trustees voted unanimously on Jan. 26 to fully withdraw over time the institution’s $1.1 billion endowment’s investments in the fossil fuel industry.
After Middlebury College rejected its students demands to divest from fossil fuels in 2013, students kept fighting—and now, the school has unanimously voted to divest.
Middlebury College announced a commitment to power its core Vermont campus with 100% renewable energy by 2028. The College also set ambitious goals to reduce energy consumption, to phase out direct fossil-fuel investments in its endowment, and to create new educational programs and opportunities that will help empower future generations of environmental leaders.
