Get Herald RSSThe world has changed a lot since the spring of 2005, when the emPOWER student campaign formed to call on Brown to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources. The climate is changing and ice caps are melting, but the politics of climate change are heating up.
Over 700 mayors have committed to reduce carbon emissions with renewable energy and more efficient cities. States are moving forward aggressively to convert from a carbon economy to a green economy. The three leading Democratic presidential candidates have all endorsed the call from former Vice-President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a clean energy economy that reduces carbon emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
In the past year, 427 U.S. colleges and universities have gone far beyond simply purchasing renewable electricity: they have signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) to eventually reduce carbon emissions all the way to "climate neutrality."
Where is Brown? We're getting there. Last year emPOWER upped its demand, pushing Brown to go climate neutral as well. With strong encouragement from emPOWER, the Energy and Environment Advisory Committee (EEAC) recommended to President Simmons last month that Brown implement energy efficiency upgrades that will save the university millions and reduce its carbon emissions to 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The ultimate objective here too is 80 percent by 2050. We just need to be sure that this goal responsibly factors in University growth in coming decades.
The EEAC also recommended that Brown reach climate neutrality through an innovative program to spur community projects that will reduce emissions in Providence and Rhode Island. These projects will help local residents lower energy bills, give students hands-on experience, and demonstrate the benefits of greening Providence and Rhode Island to citizens around the state. As pundits question the ethics of "carbon offsets," we believe that this program will pave the way in how an institution can responsibly "offset" its carbon emissions.
Most importantly, this local program will give Brown students from any discipline the chance to get hands-on experience building a new green economy - something that will be critical to business, government and organizations across society in the coming decades.
To reach its intended level of effectiveness, emPOWER feels that this program must:
Involve concrete improvements - like improving energy efficiency, promoting small-scale renewable energy - to reduce carbon emission in the Providence area at least as much as the amount that Brown continues to create. This will help set Providence on the road to 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050.
Be open to project ideas generated on campus, but also be open to proposals from local companies, organizations and agencies, who can then involve students in larger-scale projects.
Ensure that benefits reach every part of the Providence community - for example, insulating low-income housing to reduce skyrocketing winter costs and spurring "green-collar jobs."
Have sufficient annual funding, through a Boldly Green Fund whose endowment could be funded by alumni and foundations, a Clean Energy for Providence Revolving Loan Fund that invests in community projects and then reinvests energy efficiency returns in the next round of community projects or another dedicated funding mechanism.
With such a program, Brown will have taken all the necessary steps to join the 427 schools on the ACUPCC. By signing, Brown will gain access to resources like financing and product discounts for energy efficiency projects that have been arranged for this consortium by the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative - and we believe President Simmons should take this step.
But we also believe Brown can go far beyond emissions reductions to prepare students to be leaders. Our generation will be building a new green economy and society and we need to be prepared to contribute to it.
Brown should create academic programs on climate change in and across disciplines within the context of a university-wide academic initiative towards sustainability. Brown must do basic things like hire a full-time professor to teach environmental economics, but also help every department address climate change. Members of emPOWER and Engineers Without Borders are creating a proposal for a Sustainable Energy Concentration. But climate change relates to everything from the sciences (to model and predict it) to the social sciences (to anticipate its effects on people and craft policy responses), from the Development Studies program (to explore ending poverty with clean energy) to the Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship program (to build the business models that will scale up climate and energy solutions).
Brown's internationalization effort must include this global issue. Brown could extend community projects to the international community, and provide technical assistance to a university Africa, India or China to help them save money on energy and green their campus, or help organize an international consortium, similar to what exists in the U.S., to address sustainability in higher education.
Finally, Brown needs structures to bring together the people doing this work already - from Eco-Reps in dorms to professors to facilities managers - to imagine what more Brown could do, from its campus culture to its national impact to its endowment, and to aid in the creation and implementation of many more ideas.
This initiative must have a prominent place in the life of the university and in how Brown talks about itself to the public. We believe there's an important place in the Campaign for Academic Enrichment for a Boldly Green climate initiative encompassing academics, facilities, community projects and more. The ideas outline above are just the immediate next steps. But to be an international, leading educational institution in the 21st century, Brown cannot do too much to make this part of the experience and education of every student - we believe we must weave a rich, thoughtful and bold response to climate change and sustainability into the fabric of the university.
Nathan Wyeth '08 invites you to join emPOWER's general body meeting on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Metcalf 129.
