Plan. Act. Change.

• Colgate’s first Environmental Council (later renamed the Sustainability Council) forms.

• President Rebecca Chopp takes action on the recommendation of the Sustainability Council and commits Colgate to carbon neutrality by signing the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (since renamed Second Nature’s Carbon Commitment).
• The University hires its first director of sustainability, John Pumilio.

First campus carbon footprint: 17,353 tons

• The Colgate Community Garden breaks ground, helping to source more local food for Colgate’s dining halls. By supporting locally produced food, Colgate reduces emissions associated with transportation.

Campus carbon footprint: 15,463 tons

• First Sustainability and Climate Action Plan released
• First LEED Gold Certified building: Trudy Fitness Center

Campus carbon footprint: 16,194 tons

• Colgate enters into a carbon-offset and educational program with Patagonia Sur. In Chile’s Aysen Region of Patagonia, the University finances the planting of native trees that remove carbon from the atmosphere and help offset the University’s carbon footprint. Research trips to the area enable students and professors to study forest regeneration and conservation efforts.

Campus carbon footprint: 10,711 tons

• A solar thermal array is installed at 100 Broad Street residence hall.
• First forest carbon inventory is completed to determine how much carbon is sequestered.
  1,578 tons of CO2 annually
• Carbon sequestration = Carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and stored (in this case by trees)

Campus carbon footprint: 6,244 tons

• Colgate earns American Tree Farm System certification for long-term sustainable forest management.

Campus carbon footprint: 6,962 tons

• Green Building Standards are approved and incorporated into the campus’s overarching Building Design and Construction Standards.

Campus carbon footprint: 9,562 tons

• First geothermal heating and cooling project is installed in Chapel House

Campus carbon footprint: 10,358 tons

• Colgate harvests willow from a 7.5-acre plot planted in 2009. Over a 20-year period, this plot will yield approximately 900 dry tons of biomass for the University’s woodchip burning facility.
• Green Revolving Loan Fund is established (see story below)

Campus carbon footprint: 8,175 tons

• Upgrades to biomass boiler in the heating facility allow the University to rely less on fossil fuel and more on renewable and carbon neutral wood chips.

Campus carbon footprint: 4,290 tons

• Colgate has reduced its on-campus carbon footprint by more than 46 percent since 2009.

Campus carbon footprint: 0 tons; carbon neutrality reached

The Big Picture

Beyond carbon reduction, Colgate is advancing environmental and social sustainability in general. “Carbon is part of it, but we don’t ever want to lose sight of the larger goal of trying to create a more sustainable society,” Pumilio says.

Some of the University’s efforts last year included:

The community garden for campus and the community. Approximately 1,600 pounds were donated to the Hamilton Food Cupboard.

Water use

• 21,859 gallons of water per student
• 6.2% reduction since 2010

Total waste
More than 20 tons (the same weight as about 12 Priuses) has been reduced since 2017 through ramped-up recycling efforts and waste reduction in the dining facilities.

Electricity use

• 30k megawatt-hour
• 5% reduction since 2009 (enough to power approximately 150 homes for a year)

When talking about sustainability efforts, the work is never done. In addition to furthering these efforts, the focus for the near future is on Colgate’s energy use and buildings.

Pumilio has developed a strategic approach to measuring and managing the University’s power and energy use. All of the buildings are properly metered and provide continuous feedback. “We are getting to a place where we know in real time if there’s a problem in the building — if it’s underperforming or malfunctioning,” he explains. Then teams can go in, with precision, and fix the inefficiencies or malfunctions with the energy system. This not only saves energy and reduces carbon, but also makes the space healthier and more comfortable. The next phase, now that data has been collected, is setting energy goals.

Also, as Colgate builds new structures in the years ahead, they will meet LEED Silver certification or better, according to the University’s green building standards. “Benton Hall is a wonderful example,” Pumilio says. “We had to meet these core institutional needs, but we also designed and built that building with energy and sustainability in mind. We just got our measurement and verification data back, and the building is even outperforming what we thought it would do.”

Over the years, this endeavor has been educational for everyone, President Brian W. Casey said in a WAMC radio interview on Earth Day. “What I think we’ve all learned is that there’s not a single straight line toward achieving a goal,” he said. “Instead, it’s a lot of different efforts, lots of adjustments.

It’s easy to get frustrated [but] you just have to say to yourself, ‘This is a joyful thing for the University to accomplish, and we’re going to get there the best way we can.’”