Earth Day 2019 marked the two year anniversary of the release of Dartmouth’s Our Green Future report and a commitment to playing a leadership role in improving global sustainability, overcoming the challenges of climate change, and reducing our impacts as a campus. The report outlines goals in Food, Waste, Transportation, Energy, Water, and Landscape. In the past two years, Dartmouth has focused on taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations, to transitioning the campus heating system from No. 6 fuel oil and establish a more efficient energy distribution system, to understanding our waste impacts and evaluating optimal ways to reduce and divert waste away from landfill, and to understanding and educating the community about the environmental impact of individual food choices.
Additionally, the Sustainability Office has established the Sustainability Corps program to engage student analysts in the measurement, assessment, and reporting of progress towards our sustainability goals in these areas. Throughout the past two years, the work of these students and others doing research and education among their peers across campus, as well as faculty, staff, and community partners has been essential to making progress in all of these areas.
In 2019, we celebrated Earth Day here on campus by hosting the Our Green Future Earth Week Forum. The community gathered to hear a progress report on where we are at today and what’s next. President Hanlon provided opening remarks for the event, followed by presentations on progress and next steps in each operational category covered in the report by Josh Keniston, Vice President for Institutional Projects, Rosi Kerr, Director of Sustainability, and Jenna Musco, Assistant Director of Sustainability. A significant portion of the event was spent sharing information on Dartmouth’s recently announced Green Energy Project, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the efficiency of energy distribution on campus.
You can read more about the progress made to date in this Dartmouth News article covering the event. You can also find reports on our progress and more information on the energy transition under the “Goals & Progress” section of the Sustainability Office website. Additional reports and progress will be continued to be shared here throughout the coming year.
There is still much work to be done and we look forward to future work with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the community to continue to lead on sustainability and demonstrate best practices on our campus.