Focus the Campus

Pledge Update

Working Together to Reduce Mount Holyoke’s Environmental Footprint

Focus the Nation on January 31, 2008 was a nationwide teach-in to raise awareness of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change and encourage everyone to step up to the challenge and take action to reduce global warming.

While the College has been working steadily to reduce our environmental footprint, including our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, much remains to be done. We are asking each office, department, and organization (referred to throughout as groups) to make a commitment to reducing the footprint of their activities by establishing at least 3 environmental stewardship goals for this semester and beyond.

Several group actions, primarily geared to office operations, are listed in the Group Action Suggestions section and on the pledge form. You can decide to adopt one or more of the suggestions or you can develop and submit other goals specific to your activities. Along with each action is information on why it matters and how you can measure your success. If your group is already doing the suggested items, please let us know and establish goals for new actions.

If your department/organization is a large group, you should establish goals by subgroup to make them more relevant to their activities. If your group controls operations or equipment across campus, please look for opportunities to affect change in multiple areas. Take this opportunity to brainstorm within your group. If you would like assistance in developing your group goals, please email Environmental Stewardship and we will contact you to set up a meeting.

We will be sharing each group’s goals on the Environmental Stewardship web site and will be asking for a progress report at the end of the semester, so remember to measure your accomplishments.

Remember these are meant to be group goals that everyone in your office, department, or organization will adopt and embrace.

Together, our actions can make a difference!

Group Action Suggestions

• Energy We Use
• What We Buy and Throw Away
• Spreading the Word