September
10, 2004
Mount
Holyoke Enters Partnership to Combat Global Warming
Photo
by Fred LeBlanc
Clean
Air-Cool Planet's Ned Raynolds and MHC President Joanne
V. Creighton join forces to fight global warming. |
For
people concerned about the impact of global warming, the summer
blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow was more than just a Hollywood
disaster flick—it was a wake-up call about the future viability
of our planet. This summer, Mount Holyoke College formally joined
the fight against global warming by entering into a partnership
with Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP), the region’s leading
organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to
global warming.
In signing the partnership agreement, Mount Holyoke joined a host of other organizations
committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the local, state, and regional
level.
The growing list of CA-CP partners includes Verizon, Shaw’s Supermarkets,
and Timberland, as well as the University of New Hampshire, Bates College, and
numerous other educational institutions in the Northeast. CA-CP will work with
the College to implement practical solutions, as well as help members of the
Mount Holyoke community reach out to their constituents and regional policy makers
to advocate for state and regional programs.
The partnership agreement commits the College to identifying greenhouse gas emissions
through an inventory using software developed by CA-CP. “Our software tool
allows institutions to input basic data about fuel types and amounts used and
come out with a firm and detailed picture of their greenhouse gas emissions,” explained
Ned Raynolds, senior program officer overseeing CA-CP’s campus and municipal
programs. Once such an inventory is completed, Raynolds said, the College will
be ready to outline a plan for reducing emissions. “The process will also
provide opportunities for education of all the members of the Mount Holyoke community,” he
added, “from faculty, staff, and students to alumni, trustees, and others
in the field of higher education.”
“We at Mount Holyoke’s Center for the Environment have been working
on monitoring and quantifying campus greenhouse emissions for the past four years,” said
Thomas Millette, director of the center and associate professor of geography. “We
think it is important to be a leader in reducing greenhouse emissions and fully
endorse the efforts of the EMS [Environmental Management System] program to institutionalize
this effort.”
A major focus of CA-CP’s work with the College will be building support
for the implementation and strengthening of the New England Governors’ and
Eastern Canadian Premiers’ regional Climate Change Action Plan. “When
the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers signed their historic
climate agreement in 2001, they specifically noted the importance of the leadership
role of higher education in the success of the pact,” CA-CP executive director
Adam Markham noted. “It is particularly good news when an institution with
the stature of Mount Holyoke makes a commitment to action. We are looking forward
to working with them.”
The partnership is part of the College’s strategic efforts to “accelerate
our progress toward systematic practice of environmental stewardship” as
described in The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2010. Nancy Apple, director of safety
and environmental affairs and coordinator of the campus’s Environmental
Management System program, is enthusiastic about the support the partnership
will bring to those efforts. “The partnership will support our ongoing
development of an EMS on campus,” she said. “We look forward to working
with CA-CP and collaborating with their other partners to reduce the College’s
impact on the regional and global environment.”
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