On Saturday morning, representatives from the Sunday Night Group (SNG), Middlebury’s one and only ultimate climate activist group, put on their negotiating shoes and walked confidently into a meeting with the Middlebury Board of Trustees to challenge them to make Middlebury carbon neutral in 10 years, at the latest.
Students spoke to the groundswell of support on campus for carbon neutrality, the learning opportunities inherent in the project, and the importance of taking action now. The trustees were receptive to the idea and the President of the college agreed that the project should move forward and invited students to present a plan outlining the process of achieving carbon neutrality which the trustees would vote on at their next meeting. So now, we get to work! We will be re-assessing our inventories, debating solutions, and also engaging artists, poets, and students from across the college to add to their perspective on the need for Middlebury to take this important step. When we come back to the trustees in the spring, we’ll have such a bomb-proof plan and such support for it that it’ll be impossible to refuse.
Many thanks to Maura Cowley, our SSC Northeast organizer who’s pulling the region together under the Energy Action banner! Keep this movement rolling . . .
Great! You all will definitely have to keep us updated on how this works out.
There is no one model for how to go “carbon neutral,” and there are countless different ways to address this challenge. I don’t even know what carbon/climate neutrality looks like – are we counting faculty/staff/student commutes to school? the energy required to provide food for the campus? the energy required to recycle paper and other products? are offset purchasing programs considered legitimate and sustainable ways to address these things? This can clearly get pretty mind boggling pretty quick – best of luck negotiating a strong policy with real, clean solutions.
The rest of the movement really needs leaders and precedents like you all are providing.
Well done guys, super amazing work. How many students go to your university?
I think it great the measures that your taking to show the importance in becoming a carbon neutral world. We are now working on putting together a carbon neutral concert event in Dallas Texas for Earthday in 2007. Your an inspiration to us all!