Sustainability at Plymouth State

Greetings campus community member,

We wanted to take a moment to update you on PSU’s many efforts to reduce the University’s environmental impacts. In May of 2007 President Steen signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment for carbon neutrality along with 578 other colleges and universities from around the country. The commitment requires various actions and reports by the institution, ultimately leading to long range plan to achieve carbon neutrality. If you are interested in reading the details of this commitment please click here (www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org ). In order to gather the necessary data and take steps to reduce our environmental footprint, President Steen formed the Presidents Commission for Environmental Sustainability (PCES).

Over the last year the PCES worked to create a database of PSU’s major carbon contributors (heat, electricity and solid waste), the database includes academic years 2001 through 2007. The commission also prepared a formal report summarizing the data, highlighting PSU’s efforts to date, as well as providing background and direction. This report was written by Danielle Ross, a PSU student who graduated last year. We are very pleased and excited to present this report and our initial findings. The report shows that the campus, particularly Physical Plant, has been working very hard to reduce PSU’s energy consumption despite the growth in facilities and the student body. pces-final-2007-report

The PCES activities for the upcoming year include updating the database for the academic year 2008 and expanding the data collection for commuter information and University related air travel.  In addition, we are committed to report by the end of this year on how the institution plans to meet our commitment for carbon neutrality. This report is due no later than September 2009. One of our goals is to develop a more active web presence for the campus community, there currently is a blog available were we post our meeting minutes and other announcements http://greenup.blogs.plymouth.edu/ .This can be a good place to follow our progress and provide input.

Though we have been encouraged not make comparisons with other institutions, we are pleased with the comparative information we have so far. If you are interested in seeing how PSU stacks up with the other 578 colleges and universities you can find this information at the American College and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment web site http://www.aashe.org/pcc/reports/

We have been very please by the support we have received from President Steen and the Cabinet and we particularly want to thank everyone who has participated, provided information or simply asked questions. PSU Green is more than a school color. Go green!

Brian Eisenhauer – co chair

Bill Crangle – co chair

PCES