The signing of The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment by University President Steven Knapp marks an important milestone for the University on the road to sustainability. With this commitment, GW joins 518 other colleges and universities who have agreed to make their institutions carbon neutral. The UPCC along with the President’s Task Force on Sustainability, which has been working on a series of recommendations towards that end since October 2007, have positioned GW as a leader in environmental stewardship within the District. Yet the news is not all good; perilous challenges lie ahead.
The size of these challenges cannot be underestimated because the greatest roadblock to sustainability is not getting a piece of paper signed; it is implementing those strategies outlined on that paper. In fact, the University has been down this path before with limited success. In 1994 a group of interested members of the GW community formed the Green University Initiative with the intention of reshaping GW into a “model of environmental excellence and sustainability.” Unfortunately, after two years their progress abruptly ended. Some of those involved, though battered and bruised, are still fighting in the offices and hallways of our campus and the Initiative’s website floats somewhere in the ether of the gwu.edu domain.
So why try again? If indeed GW has strived for sustainability and failed before, it seems unlikely or unwise to try again. Following this sentiment would fail to recognize three important factors that have primed the pump in favor of action: finance, knowledge and, most importantly, will. The GreenU Initiative was entirely supported by “the volunteer efforts of students, faculty, staff and administration.” Apparently those intrepid volunteers were going to generate “profound changes” to the University’s operations and culture pro bono. As a student involved in many of GW’s green organizations and initiatives for the last year, I cannot imagine how one could believe that such things could be accomplished without financial support.
Though initial investments are necessary, time has proven sustainability to be quite profitable. This brings me to my next point, knowledge. A decade ago, choosing to go green required hard to come-by technologies and even harder to find specialists. Those days are over and the premium one has to pay to go green has been progressively washed away along with the color green from our tens, twenties and fifties. One would hardly have to go off campus now to find those necessary skills. Lastly, the will to act, the will reduce the University’s carbon footprint, has never been stronger. Coupled with an aptly minded University president and an impending climate crisis, GW no longer has the option of putting off sustainability.
These bumps in the road cannot be flattened with words alone. The recommendations of the Task Force and the UPCC are only pieces of paper; the University must begin immediately setting up an office to ensure the proper implementation of those recommendations and steer the University towards the goals of the Climate Commitment. Without the necessary authority, the University’s electric bills will still be overwhelming, students will still neglect to recycle and we may have to wait another decade before GW takes responsibility for its impact.
The writer is a senior and the former policy director of GreenGW.
