Washington College Magazine
The Greening of WC
By Baird Tipson, President
The Tipson administration calls for better environmental stewardship on campus, so that facilities management will be as "green" as the lawns.
Visitors to the campus will be shocked by the condition of Athey Field. The baseball diamond has been stripped away and replaced by heavy drilling equipment. Next summer we are planning to desecrate an even more sacred part of the campus, the College Green. Part of the Green will be turned to piles of dirt (and probably mud) as we begin deep drilling there.
Has the President lost his mind? Has oil been discovered on the campus? No, Washington College has begun what will be a long process of responding to the climate crisis of the twenty-first century. We are drilling wells, deep wells, to provide more efficient, and more environmentally friendly, ways of heating and cooling our buildings. By pumping fluid deep into the ground, a "geo-thermal" system works like a giant heat pump, bringing the liquid to the temperature around it, approximately 58° Fahrenheit. Bringing 58° fluid to the roughly 70° required for heating and cooling requires far less energy than cooling outside air in summer or heating outside air in winter.
Taking its obligation to the environment seriously is not new to Washington College. Our Environmental Studies major has been in existence since 1995, and in 1999 the College created the Center for Environment & Society to focus the resources of the entire College on the human side of environmental issues.
Local communities all across the Eastern Shore have worked with the Center on responsible land use and other sustainability challenges. Thanks largely to student initiatives (see "How George Went Green"), the campus culture is changing as more of us modify our behavior in any number of ways, including taking shorter showers, replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, and turning off computers when not in use. And the Center for the Environment and Society continues to reach out to the Chestertown community; student intern Sarah Gregg has assisted Mayor Margo Bailey as she participates in the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. Not to be outdone, the Board of Visitors and Governors has endorsed our efforts by resolving, through its Buildings and Grounds Committee, to design all new construction to environmentally strict (LEED silver) standards.
This past spring I was invited to sign "The American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment." To provide leadership in meeting the challenge of global warming, college presidents across the country were urged to model ways to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and to provide knowledge (and educated graduates) to address the challenges of achieving climate neutrality. Given our history, I signed readily. The College will complete an emissions inventory, set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral, take some immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (such as our geo-thermal fields), continue to integrate sustainability into our academic curriculum, and make our action plan available to the public.
The road to sustainability will be bumpy. One enormous challenge stares us in the face: for much of our campus heating and cooling, we presently burn no. 6 fuel oil. Compared to burning no. 2 oil, the oil most people use to heat their houses, burning no. 6. spews about three times the particulate matter into the atmosphere. But it also costs about a dollar less per gallon, and the College burns about 250,000 gallons every year. Part of the task of setting a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral will involve affording the conversion from no. 6 to no. 2.
By the way, don't be too concerned about the future of Athey Field and the Green. Once underway, the drilling goes fast. By this coming Thanksgiving the wells will be safely underground; we'll have resodded the field; and next spring's baseball season will go on as scheduled. On the Green we plan to move even faster, completing the drilling and resodding the Green between next May's Commencement and the start of classes. Keep your eye on our progress.
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