President Jane McAuliffe has renewed Bryn Mawr’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. President Nancy J. Vickers originally signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), pledging to assess the campus’s energy consumption and eliminate or neutralize its greenhouse-gas emissions over time.
The ACUPCC has more than 600 signatories. Participating colleges must complete an emissions inventory, set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate-neutral, take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and make sustainability part of the educational experience. The President’s Sustainability Committee, a group of Bryn Mawr administrators, faculty, and staff, and students, has been charged with overseeing progress.
In other efforts to its reduce environmental impact, the College has revitalized its recycling program, “with new containers that take a long list of items,” said Energy Sustainability Initiative Coordinator Don Abramowitz. “Our housekeepers are very involved in a push to raise consciousness in the dorms, and Dining Services is exploring a number of measures. Lighting systems in major buildings have been upgraded to high efficiency fluorescents and has swapped out incandescent bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents wherever possible. Student laundry rooms already have front loading washers for water savings. Free for some years, they may be made coin operated again to encourage water saving. One of the big blue buses and one shuttle can run on natural gas; the College has its own natural gas fueling station. Biodiesel is used in other buses, vehicles and diesel-powered equipment. The College also has a computerized energy and temperature management system to monitor buildings, with more than 500 temperature sensors located in rooms across the campus.
The campus is already used as an academic laboratory, with studies of water quality and fish in Vickers Pond, and of bees and vegetation, for example. Students in a Praxis course have been working for two years with local municipalities on switching their fleet vehicles to natural gas.
This residential-appropriate windmill powers the Multi-Cultural Center on Cambrian Row. Although this source of renewable energy provides a tiny fraction of Bryn Mawr’s total energy consumption, the windmill’s purpose is a demonstration for students.
