Jonathan Rueffer
Science Editor
As the College navigates budget cuts, staffing changes and restructuring across departments, the Office of Sustainability has continued to expand. According to Director of Campus Sustainability Brian Webb, the Office has engaged with nearly 30% of the student body this year through initiatives and projects aimed at increasing sustainability.
Webb joined the College in August 2023 alongside President Anne McCall. He said that the office’s mission ranges from connecting with students on campus to planning events around sustainability. The Office “measure[s] the carbon footprint of the College, work[s] with facilities to reduce energy consumption [and advises] the administration on best practices in sustainability,” said Webb.
The Office is made up of two staff, eight student interns. Along with Webb, Eva D’Intino serves as the Administrative Coordinator and oversees the Ex Uno Fonte program, which centers around the intersection of religion and the environment. According to D’Intino, Ex Uno Fonte is “the passion project of an alum who is giving us a bunch of money to do some programming around [the environment and religion].”
Although the Office of Sustainability is structurally under the President’s Office, most of their funds do not come from the standard operating budget that supports most offices on campus. Instead, a significant portion of their funds come from a variety of unique sources. For example, D’Intino’s position is fully funded through a grant donation from an alum, and endowed funds are used for other forms of programming. Additionally, the Office manages a “green revolving loan fund, which is something that allows us to finance projects that have cost-savings to them and environmental benefits,” said Webb. Those savings pay back the fund and can then be used to fund other projects, such as the LED retrofit project, which saw campus streetlamps replaced, reducing energy consumption and saving the College about $5,000 a year.
The Office has recently initiated a system of collecting engagement metrics to analyze their own performance, using them to specifically target first-year student engagement. For this current school year, they found that 28% of the student body have engaged with the office through their many events. Other projects that the office has undertaken include growing the campus garden to create native pollinator spaces and working with dining services to reduce waste and localize composting.
Despite recent College-wide restructurings involving budget cuts, staffing consolidations and reductions, the Office of Sustainability has not experienced any cuts. This is largely due to the fact that a significant portion of their budget comes from outside of the normal operating budget.
Throughout the campus meeting on Feb. 5, President Anne McCall frequently made reference to the proposed Greenbelt project, or as she called it the “Greenway project,” which caused some confusion and frustration among the audience regarding the source of its funding. Professor of Medieval History Madonna Hettinger raised concerns about the insensitive timing of the project’s announcement. “Have we considered perhaps putting the Greenbelt on hold and focusing our material resources in other ways so that we can support the human resources that really keep our students here?” McCall went on to clarify that “The Greenbelt will only exist if it attracts philanthropy … we do not have funding to do this.”
Webb, as a part of the interdepartmental group connected to the project, shared that the project is in its early stages, and the group had their first meeting on Feb. 10. He stated that the Greenbelt initiative reflects a larger question regarding the future of the College. “How do you grow the institution in an era where you have to make cuts, I think one of the answers to that is by creating new exciting, energizing projects that will draw students and student interest.”
Webb speculated that the long-term desire might be to move away from student houses and convert them into greenspace. “I definitely think there is a lot of potential with a project like that, and I think it’s a fundable thing too,” said Webb. “I think that donors might get excited … I would love to see a bike path in that, maybe that could be the impetus for a bike share program.”
D’Intino shared the frustrations around the initiative’s unveiling. It “just doesn’t seem like a great rollout for what could be a super cool project, especially when it’s very much in the early stages … I don’t want sustainability initiatives to seem like [they] come at the cost of the greater good.”
Although the College has not committed to a carbon neutrality timeline, Webb said that the goal is attainable. “It’s absolutely achievable, it requires long term planning, it requires a long term economic analysis, it requires generous funding.” He added that “most schools that pursue carbon neutrality do so over a period of two to three decades.”
Looking ahead, the Office hopes to introduce more pollinator gardens, reduce single-use plastics, increase composting and encourage new consumer habits to be more cognizant of sustainability. D’Intino emphasized the role of student leadership in campus sustainability. “Students should bring us their dreams,” she said. “I think that our desire for change is such a powerful resource … we just need dedicated students who have commitment to making those changes.”
