Task force assembled to assess Ripon's sustainability, make goals for future

A recent proposal sent to President David Joyce has been causing some on campus to see green. The American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment has been sent to Ripon College in hopes that it will make the necessary steps in the coming years to become more sustainable and carbon neutral.

"We had a reputation in the marketplace, due to the bike initiative, frankly that we're one of the green colleges," says Joyce. "That's nice, but if we're going to sign the statement on sustainability I want to be serious and make sure we can do it."

To ensure that the school can make the necessary changes to become more sustainable, Joyce initiated the creation of a task force to take the necessary steps to see if the campus could, in fact, sign on the pledge and meet future goals.

Student members of the task force junior Andy Bean and senior Christine Anhalt have been pivotal in the process.

"I've been deeply interested in making the Ripon College campus a more environmentally-friendly place since I arrived here freshman year,"says Bean. "I jumped at the chance to be part of the college administration's decision to look at how to do that."

Bean says he is excited to help the college and has been outspoken on campus about environmental issues affecting students, campus and the community as a whole.

Anhalt spent the past summer reseraching and working to determine the campus' current carbon footprint.

"If we want to be carbon neutral, or move towards neutrality, we have to set up our baseline," says Joyce about Anhalt's project.

Without figuring out how much carbon the institution emits, there is no way for the college to understand the changes it needs to make in the next few years to become more carbon neutral.

Joyce explains that the necessary beginning steps have been made by setting up the task force and finding the carbon footprint, but more must be done in the future by the task force as well as the college.

"If we're going to sign on, I want to take it very seriously and do the commitment," says Joyce.

The students, faculty, and staff who have been working together on the task force will be creating reachable goals to ensure that the college will be making the necessary steps to become more sustainable.

"I think that first and foremost we need to realize how much ground we have to make up, how much we can, and should, be doing better," says Bean.

Bean also expresses how other members of campus through EGOR have been helpful as well.

"With the welcome new involvement of the administration, we're looking to dramatically expand the good [EGOR] can do," says Bean.

While small changes have been made in thought and action, soon the entire campus must make a paradigm shift to become more sustainable for the college to meet the goals of the initiative.

"Almost everything you can do to become more sustainable will require some sacrifice and change of behavior," says Joyce.

Those changes of behavior have the potential to change the outlook for our campus and its students, but Joyce has been adamant about keeping the voices of students heard throughout the changes.

"I believe the more you empower people to make decisions and make recommendations, the more buy in they have," says Joyce.

The ultimate hope of signing the document is that the campus will receive the changes well.