Bringing It Home
Campus Sustainability Series
One hundred and twenty two W&M undergraduates and twelve faculty
from across the disciplines participated this spring in the
Environmental Science and Policy program's one-credit speaker series
and seminar.
This year the theme was "Campus Sustainability," and speakers included Julie Newman, Yale's sustainability director, Wayne Vaughan, VP for Operations at Virginia Wesleyan, Mark Orlowski from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, and Janos Pasztor, Director of the United Nations' effort to "green" its own operations. Students attended small seminar discussions after each of the four talks, and attended a special final event featuring a new non-profit called the Backporch Energy Initiative (see sidebar), led by recent W&M alums Liz Burroughs and Gina Sobel.
An innovative element of the seminar is that instead of final
papers, students worked alone or in groups to develop "business plan"
proposals for greening some element of William and Mary's operations.
The proposals varied from biodiesel plants to waterless urinals to
solar dorms, some immediately implementable and some requiring
substantial resources. Below are the proposals voted by the course
faculty as the five most impressive proposals. A group of five students
will be working in the summer of 2008 with Professor Roberts to plan
how to move some subset of the fifty innovative proposals forward,
supported by a multi-year donation from W&M alum Dennis Liberson.
Many proposals became more feasible with the student "green fees"
funding (see page 7), which was approved by student body in March,
2008. The potential for internships and "learning by doing" from these
projects is virtually endless. The college will benefit from lower
energy and operating costs, and our students will be better prepared
for jobs in the new economy.
TOP FIVE PROPOSALS
"Sustaining Excellence: A Proposal for Institutionalizing Environmental Sustainability at The College of William and Mary"
—Joshua Wayland, Tyler Koontz, Daniel Souleles, Caroline Cress
"Community Garden" Proposal
—Grace Heusner, Margaret Person, Maya Cough-Schulze, Andriana Hench
"Establishment of Revolving Loan Fund"
—Christina Brown, AJ Dronkers
"College of William and Mary Food Services Audit Proposal"
—Kate McClure, Nicole Scheer-Irvine, Abigail Stokley
"A 2008 Campus Sustainability seminar proposal for reducing water use in urinals"
—-Lewis Blake, Martha Morris
These proposals and much more are available online at www.greeningwm.com
by Timmons Roberts
Photos by Maria Ivanova
