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 Read about our current partners’ leadership efforts: Profiles in progress: College of the Atlantic Eastern CT State University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Roger Williams University Saint Joseph College
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Mount Holyoke College Profile As the first of the Seven Sisters—the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League—Mount Holyoke College established higher education for women as a serious endeavor and continues to lead the way in women’s education. Mount Holyoke is located in the intellectually and culturally vibrant Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. The College's 2100 undergraduate students, from all over the United States and nearly 70 countries, study 49 departmental and interdisciplinary majors, including Environmental Studies. They have the option to expand their academic options by attending classes at any of the Five Colleges: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, or UMass Amherst. Mount Holyoke has a long history of environmental commitment. Energy conservation and recycling programs date back to the 1970’s. The Center for the Environment supports both the research and learning of faculty and students, as well as the College's goal of environmental sustainability. Environmental Stewardship at Mount Holyoke develops policies and processes to integrate environmental stewardship into daily campus life.
Past Initiatives The Mount Holyoke Plan for 2010 calls upon the College to "accelerate our progress toward systematic practice of environmental stewardship, providing an excellent example of synergy between curricular and administrative efforts and a clear focus on cost-effective applications of environmentally responsible principles." They have acted to fulfill these expectations in numerous ways, decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions while saving money simultaneously. Over the past three decades, the College has undertaken many energy conservation projects. The student Kill-a-Watt program is a contest between dorms to conserve electricity; each month, the winning dorm has decreased its energy use most compared to the same month the year before. Additional measures include conversion to more efficient fluorescent lighting, purchase of energy efficient appliances and equipment, reduction of hot water temperatures, and management of energy use through a centralized computer control system. Additionally, the College generates 6-8% of its electricity with a cogeneration steam turbine at the central heating plant. The Mount Holyoke Science Center and the renovated Blanchard Campus Center, both completed in fall 2003, were among the first projects to receive LEED Certification. The College has developed "Mount Holyoke College Environmentally Responsible Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines" to be used for small campus construction projects (while LEED standards may be preferred for large projects), has established Storm Water Best Management Practices and has delineated local wetland and riverfront areas. In 2004, the College completed an expanded chilled water loop. This project reduces annual energy and maintenance costs by about $75,000. The loop connects a new 1000-ton chiller in the Science Center to several key academic and administrative buildings on the central campus, all of which are currently air conditioned. A central chilled water plant that uses evaporative cooling technology operates at about half the cost of smaller distributed air-cooled systems. Current Initiatives The Plan for 2010 calls for an environmental stewardship program utilizing an environmental management system strategy to reduce the footprint of the campus. The effort is organized into five focus areas:
Working Groups with faculty, staff and student membership established for each focus area evaluate the impact of college operations and develop programs to improve environmental performance. In November of 2007, President Creighton launched The Big Turn Off, "for reasons both global and local, we want Mount Holyoke to minimize its energy consumption," The Big Turn Off serves as the framework for concerted energy conservation efforts on campus that range from simple "turn it off when you leave" campaigns to more comprehensive audits and makeovers. One of the main focuses of the campaign to-date has been Green Computing. In 2005, the College joined the Energy Star Million Monitor Drive with the Library, Information and Technology Services Department pledging to enable power saving features on 1500 college-owned computers. The student Environmental Action Coalition (EAC) through a spirited campaign met the challenge to get power management enabled on over 75% of student computers. Enabling power management features on 2800 computers saved 574,000 kWh and 411 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006-2007, EAC renewed the student commitment through a fall campaign and faculty and staff were asked to expand their green computing beyond power management. Fifty percent of faculty and staff took the Green Computing pledge. The College has joined with Smith and Amherst Colleges in hiring an energy manager to promote energy conservation. Recent projects include installation of occupancy sensors in the athletic field house to reduce energy use 17%, and relighting of one of the gymnasiums to reduce power use 50% while more than doubling the existing light levels. A variable speed control system has been added to the kitchen hoods in Blanchard Campus Center, using temperature and smoke sensors to reduce airflow and energy loss during periods of reduced cooking activity. These projects, along with vending machine controls and compact fluorescent lamp trade-ups are projects that have been implemented at all three colleges. In early 2007, an energy recovery loop was installed in the science complex to reclaim heating and cooling energy from the building exhaust. Year round, the system is expected to save $53,000 in heating and cooling costs. The peak loads are approximately equal to those that will be added by the new residence hall, meaning that Mount Holyoke College can construct an entire new building with no net increase on the central campus heating and cooling systems. On the waste management side, the College has an active and effective recycling and waste reduction program, and composts food waste from all dining facilities. The College participated in EPA’s Recyclemania in 2005 through 2007, using that opportunity to focus on both recycling and waste reduction on campus.
Future Initiatives On the energy front, The Big Turn Off continues with the next campaign being a Kill-a-Watt competition for Academic and Administrative buildings. Each building will measure their electricity use compared to usage for the same month of the previous year. Other major projects are in the study or design phase including increasing cogeneration capacity, heat recovery for bathroom exhaust, and ever ongoing lighting and control retrofits. Also, a new residence hall to be completed in 2008 is on track to achieve LEED Silver certification. The building will be 45% more efficient that traditional building standards resulting in building energy savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of 196 tons/year - the equivalent of planting 53 acres of trees or removing 34 cars from the road. The building includes a solar-heated water system that will provide a portion of the domestic hot water for sinks and showers. Other features include heat recovery wheels on building exhaust and real-time monitoring and display of electrical energy consumption for each residential cluster. The College will also purchase renewable energy to serve the building for two years, with carbon emission offsets equivalent to 404 tons per year, equivalent to planting 110 acres of trees or taking 70 cars off the road.
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