Sustainability Committee focuses on conservation

Sarah Brown Senior Editor

During the past academic year, the Sustainability Committee has been trying to transform the campus into one that is more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly. The Committee, which meets every other Friday at 12 p.m. in the Jade Parlor, was created this year with the intention of providing a forum for students and administrators to devise ways to instigate positive environmental changes at Vassar.

One of the primary goals of the Committee has been to reduce the amount of food waste produced by the College. According to Associate Director of Buildings and Grounds Jeff Horst, the College has been able to increase its composting through the use of the organization Greenway Environmental.

Food leftovers from the Terrace Apartments, South Commons, the Town Houses, Ferry House and the All-Campus Dining Center that were previously thrown away can now be turned into compost just a few hundred meters away on the Vassar Farm.

The Committee has also worked to improve the aesthetics of the College while reducing the use of detrimental herbicides.

“We have tried to cut back on herbicides, yet maintain good-looking turf,” said Horst.
On March 24, Sustainability Committee member Cat Foley ’08 met with former Director of Purchasing for the Sustainability Committee Art Punsoni and library administrators in order to purchase compact fluorescent lightbulbs and reduce the large amount of energy consumed by the incandescent lightbulbs currently in place in the library.

The Committee organized a local foods brunch on Sunday, April 7. Currently, the Committee is continuing to work on instituting a sustainability policy that would cover issues impacting most aspects of the school, and would cover recycling, purchasing, building/construction, composting, education, conservation, energy consumption, and increase the patronage of local food vendors.
“We are hoping to get a committment from the College to make the campus a ‘greener’ place,” said Foley.

The Committee hopes that the policy would be one of the new changes enacted under President Catharine Hill’s leadership that would be a legacy of the Committee’s work for years to come. The Committee has also been working on Stopping Waste and Promoting Recycling (SWAPR). SWAPR is an annual event that extends into Senior Week. During the week, student volunteers will help move furniture out of the dorms and put some items into trailers to be stored over the summer and re- sold at the fall SWAPR sale.

“Numerous charities benefit from the donated items of the Vassar Community,” said Foley. “Whatever isn’t given to the charities is recycled and reused the following year.”

One of the main goals of the Committee is to urge students to understand how actions such as putting their computer display to sleep or buying a compact fluorescent light bulb affect the College and the world.

For instance, few students realize that tuition increases at the College are partly tied to the amount of energy consumed by the campus.

In terms of the global impact, the Committee would like to help students see the direct connection between cutting energy consumption and reducing global conflict.

“We can have a tendency to be apathetic towards our energy consumption, not realizing the power we have to conserve energy,” said Foley.

“So much of our nations’ fighting stems from our need to find energy sources, particularly un-renewable sources such as oil and coal,” continued Foley. “We need to realize that our actions really do make a difference.”

As the school year comes to a close, Horst said he was encouraged by the level of interest from the students on the Committee for 2005-2006.

“For a group of students to be so actively engaged in these issues is refreshing,” said Horst. “I have learned a lot from this core group of students that drive the sustainability issues. I think that the Committee will help more students catch on to the need for further work in the field of sustainability.”