The Olympian

Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Anthony James Built for the environment. OC Poulsbo, opened in 2004, was built with sustainability in mind and has won awards for both design and "green" construction.

When Olympic College President Dr.
David Mitchell signed the American
College and University Presidents'
Climate Commitment in December, the
Environmental Task Force was formed
in accordance with the commitment to
meet their long-term goal of all signatories
achieving climate neutrality by the middle
of the 21st Century.
"Teachers here at OC have wanted to
help the environment for some time," Kim
McNamara, Director of OC Shelton and
spokeswoman for the Environmental Task
Force said. "Now that OC is a part of this
commitment, we can act upon what has
been discussed for years."
The commitment means a high-visibility
effort to address global warming by
garnering institutional commitments to
neutralize greenhouse gas emissions and
to accelerate the research and educational
efforts of higher education to equip society
to re-stabilize the earth's climate.
"Here at OC, we are well into the
first step of the commitment's outline,"
McNamara said. "Now, we need an inventory
reading of our energy consumption
and carbon output, which will be done by
a Washington state auditor."
The audit information will be the starting
point for OC's own definitive plan,
developed over two years, to reaching
climate neutrality.
The second step of the commitment is
to initiate two or more of seven tangible
actions outlined directly by the commitment.
McNamara said they are deciding
between three actions - have building
requirements meet at least the U.S. Green
Building Council's LEED Silver standard,
purchase Energy Star certified products for
all school appliances or establish a policy
or a committee that supports climate and
sustainability shareholder proposals at
companies where our institution's endowment
is invested.
Out of the 426 colleges and universities
that have signed the commitment, 20 are
from Washington State.

Continued...

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