Opinion
The breakdown of CO2 emissions at the College for the 2016 fiscal year; Graphic courtesy of Steve Bellona
Relentless incrementalism: a sustainable practice in uncertain environmental times
By Will Kaback ’20
March 30, 2017
Tags opinion
On Tuesday, President Trump signed his 19th executive order titled “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” which stands to expand coal mining on federal land and potentially scrap the Clean Power Plan, the key climate change initiative of the Obama Administration. Trump’s order, in his own words, will attempt to end “the war on coal” while ushering in “a new energy revolution.” It’s an alarming, but unsurprising, action that falls in line with the Trump Administration’s general apathy towards climate concerns.
Here at Hamilton, Trump’s order no doubt provoked concern among the student body. After all, it will be this generation that has to live the bulk of its years under a growing shadow of rising ocean temperatures, melting glaciers and pollution, while septuagenarians like President Trump can live out the remainder of their lives on the verdant greens of Mar-A-Lago with little concern for the Earth’s future prospects. That Trump holds the power to hinder climate changes efforts so easily is dispiriting, but for those at the College looking for ways to support initiatives like the Clean Power Plan on a more individual level, look no further than, well, this campus.
Unbeknownst to many outside of the administration and Physical Plant, Hamilton has set its sights on carbon neutrality by the year 2050. Achieving this lofty goal will mean that the carbon released from all college-related activities (from heating, to electricity, to waste disposal to even study abroad travel) will be fully balanced out by carbon that would have been used but is instead conserved through sustainable practices. It is a tall task; the College has 110 buildings to manage in addition to aforementioned energy-users like disposal services and travel. The daunting nature of this task, though, has proved manageable under the guidance of Steve Bellona, Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning.
Bellona’s resume on the Hill is impressive. Following a 24-year career in the Coast Guard, he came to Hamilton in 1997. In his first years, he oversaw the construction and renovations of prominent buildings like the Taylor Science Center, Blood Fitness & Dance Center, Kirner-Johnson Building, Sadove Student Center and Wellin Museum. Furthermore, he helped three buildings on campus earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for New York State. His largest undertaking, and one that may come to define his career, however, has been his work in sustainability, most notably the drive for carbon neutrality. And, as Bellona will say, a key variable in achieving this goal will be the role students play in aiding the overall efforts.
First, some context. The College sits pretty average relative to most of the other NESCAC schools as far as sustainability, but it has a long way to go before carbon neutrality is in sight. Bellona has compiled expansive data specific to Hamilton and other schools in his efforts to demonstrate the progression of energy savings. His most recent figures show that Hamilton’s fossil and electric BTU per gross square foot (around 95,000) places it well below the college and university average of 130,000 BTU/gross square foot.
In 2016, the majority of CO2 emissions at the College came from heating fuels like natural gas and oil, in addition to other factors like electricity and solid waste. Obviously, the need to heat and power our buildings is unavoidable, but that does not mean we cannot develop more sustainable ways of doing so. And that is just what Bellona and his team have done. The addition of two major solar power projects and a wind turbine accounted for over 40,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy for the College in 2016, which is in line with the output from previous years. These results are largely thanks to the aforementioned renewable energy commitments and overall integration of sustainable practices.
Bellona has also taken his carbon neutrality project to the mass market in buying carbon credits. Carbon credits are permits that allow an institution like Hamilton to essentially “write off” certain amounts of CO2 emissions. In buildings or facilities that lack the infrastructure necessary to implement more sustainable features (think older places on campus like Root Hall), the College can buy a carbon credit, which represents the right to emit one tonne of CO2 or a CO2 equivalent for a set price per credit. That money then goes to the carbon trading market, where it can be used to pay for other sustainability initiatives that are feasible but lack funding. Here, the College can progress towards carbon neutrality without taking immediate, drastic steps to alter its existing infrastructure.
Currently, the results from sustainability efforts have outpaced Bellona’s projections. For the 2016 fiscal year, CO2 net emissions stood at 13,765 MTCO2e, well below the projected 16,000 MTCO2e. In fact, this data shows that the College has already met its emissions goal for 2030, and the overall pattern since emission data graphing began in 2007 shows a sharp downward trend. These encouraging results, however, should be used as motivation to continue such aggressive efforts. Now that their success has been proven, the onus is on the entire community to ensure the expansion and maintenance of these sustainable practices.
This brings me, in a roundabout way, to the main point of this article: the role of students in these efforts. While we might not be able to erect a wind turbine or install solar panels, there is just as much impact to be had by adopting a policy of “relentless incrementalism.” This term, a favorite of Bellona’s that he credits to David Smallen, the Vice President of Library and Information Technology, speaks to the idea that the culmination of small, environmentally-conscious actions by individuals within the student body add up in the long term. Actions as simple as keeping the temperature low in rooms with thermostat autonomy, unplugging electrical devices when not in use and refraining from using vehicles to drive from dorm to class are examples of the kind of “incremental” progressions Bellona envisions when he uses the phrase.
Now that we seem to be entering a time of uncertain environmental prospects, Hamilton’s goal of carbon neutrality takes on an even more urgent purpose. Certain matters, like Trump’s executive action, are out of our hands, but green initiatives at home remain vital. Students, with our phone chargers and coffee makers and all-wheel drive vehicles, possess a considerable amount of power to spur positive environmental change within the community. Heightened mindfulness combined with a drive to improve the health of the planet by even the smallest of measures can form an amalgamation of progress with the ability to aid existing sustainability initiatives. Relentless incrementalism should be a real and reasonable expectation of every student.