Stories about "carbon neutrality"
“We’re at the Bates Garden and we’re doing something different this year, which is just cultivating a third of the garden with butternut squash and cherry tomatoes. The rest we’re just leaving to cover crop so we’ve planted oats and peas, and that will keep the weeds down amd also put a lot of organic material back into the soil.What we’ve also done differently is we’ve let a lot of stuff become wildflowers, and it’s really neat. It’s the most insect life I think I’ve ever seen in the garden. So we’re thinking about doing that going forward.The butternut squash we’re growing because it basically takes care of itself. Aaprt from Hermione, whose been volunteering every weekin the garden, we don’t have any paid student gardeners this year.This year we’ll probably send the cherry tomatoes to dining. A lot of the squash we’re going to send to St. Mary’s Food Bank.”Tom Twist, Sustainability ManagerFacility Servicesν “It’s just cool spending time with Tom and gardening. Quarantining can be kind of isolating so it’s nice to be out here and do some physical work, something that’s physical in the garden. And it’s nice to see them grow that fast. And we’ve got berries down there as well: strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. And apple trees.”Environmental studies major Hermione Zhou '21 of Shenzhen, ChinaTom says: “The blackberries are wild. Everything else we put in.” And they’ll be picking them too!
How’s Bates doing in sustainability? The answer is Gold

Friday, November 19, 2021 9:13 am

One of 10 "Top Performer"s in the country, Bates earned a Gold rating for excellence in sustainability performance from an international benchmarking organization.

Campus Construction Update: Jan. 18, 2019

Thursday, January 17, 2019 1:52 pm

A second Renewable Fuel Oil burner in the campus heating plant has helped Bates cut its greenhouse gas emissions to a mere 5 percent of 2001 levels.

Bates announces Climate Action Plan; biomass is key to zero emissions by 2020

Friday, February 26, 2010 10:17 am

Burning biomass to provide the Bates College campus with heat and some electricity is key to the college's new Climate Action Plan, which anticipates carbon neutrality across the Bates enterprise by 2020.