“The way we approached our climate action plan is characteristic of Bates,” says Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “We don’t throw money at problems. We figure out a solution within our means.”

The magazine, a national publication for higher education decision makers, notes that Bates is working toward its “aggressive goal” of carbon neutrality by 2020 while also moving forward with a new phase of facilities planning and construction.

The story quotes Sustainability Coordinator Julie Rosenbach, who explains that Bates has integrated sustainability ideas and costs into its infrastructure planning, rather than proposing the projects separately, where they would compete for funding.

Integrated planning saves money, increases efficiencies and ensures sustainable growth, she says. “Often the goals of energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions and saving money are compatible overall; it’s the initial capital costs that make people associate sustainability with higher cost.” View story from University Business, June 2010.

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.

The plan proposes action steps to eliminate or offset Bates’ emissions of greenhouse gases. The proposed cogeneration plant would go to work in about a decade, as new buildings at Bates begin to exceed the capacity of the current, fossil fuel-fired central heating plant. The biomass boiler system would cut Bates’ net emissions by more than 70 percent.

The CAP also proposes that Bates continue to support electricity generated from carbon-neutral sources, such as hydropower and biomass, as it has done since 2005, offsetting what would otherwise be the college’s single largest source of greenhouse gases.

The plan envisions efficiency, conservation and educational measures to further reduce emissions; and the purchase of carbon offsets to account for emissions that can’t be eliminated.

“Nationally, Bates is recognized as a leader in sustainability, and our tradition of social responsibility and environmental stewardship is embedded in our history and campus culture,” said Bates President Elaine Hansen. “We know we are in a powerful position to lead the way in shaping solutions through education and sustainable planning.”

The plan is one culmination of Bates’ participation in the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Three years ago, as one of the chief executives in the coalition’s Leadership Circle, Hansen signed the ACUPCC pledge to achieve carbon neutrality.

Both the climate commitment and the way Bates developed the CAP really represent business as usual for a college that prides itself on sustainability, sound planning and getting the most out of a dollar, says Terry Beckmann, the college’s treasurer and vice president for finance and administration.

“We’ve been committed to sustainable actions for many years and simply see this commitment to climate neutrality as a logical milestone,” she says. “We’re not expecting the campus community to take drastically different actions, but rather to continue to support decisions that make sense both environmentally and economically.”

One distinctive quality of the CAP is that Bates developed it in conjunction with a major revision of the college’s Facilities Master Plan, a roadmap for building construction and other changes to the campus layout over the next 20 years. Harmonizing the two plans enabled the college to maximize cost-effectiveness and other efficiencies.

That process has made “the Climate Action Plan an integral part of growing and updating our campus infrastructure sustainably,” says Julie Rosenbach, sustainability coordinator.

Doug Ginevan, assistant vice president for financial planning and analysis, was involved in both initiatives. “It’s been exciting to participate in such a comprehensive planning process,” he says. “By integrating sustainability throughout our planning, we have created a Climate Action Plan that’s very likely to succeed.”

In fiscal year 2009, Bates produced net emissions of 10,466 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. The biomass plant would subtract about 8,100 metric tons from that total. By burning plant materials such as waste wood, such facilities recycle atmospheric carbon rather than pulling it out of the ground in the form of fossil fuel.

Meanwhile, Bates has taken such immediate actions as adopting LEED Silver-equivalent “green” building practices as a minimum for new construction. The college has also incorporated climate change and sustainability into its curriculum, outreach and other educational programs.

Click play to listen to audio:

The Fellows with the Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability have announced a $5,000 grant to Bates College Dining Services for its comprehensive approach to food service sustainability, and have named Director of Dining Services Christine Schwartz as an HCFS Fellow.

Bates was judged as having the best sustainability program from among 13 entrants nationwide, which included K-12 schools and higher educational institutions, health care and hospitality facilities.

“Every year the level of participation and interest in sharing sustainable practices continues to expand,” says Rick Cartwright, vice president, ITW Food Equipment Group, and HCFS Fellow. Cartwright said that “Bates College stood out as a best-practice example showing a broad level of impact across many aspects of sustainability.”

Prompted by a generous gift from an anonymous donor, the opening of a new dining facility and the passion on the part of students to know more about the foods they were eating, Bates College undertook a yearlong initiative to explore connections between the dining program, food and the educational mission of the college itself. “Nourishing Body and Mind: Bates Contemplates Food” was launched in September 2008. Overall, Bates College decreased energy consumption and water use, reduced solid waste, and implemented a Farm-to-Fork program, expanding the purchasing of local, sustainable foods. From these initiatives, Bates College realized an annual saving totaling more than $80,000.

“Bates, like many colleges, believes that the environment must be taken into consideration when purchasing, creating, delivering and serving food products. And our dining program has integrated environmental stewardship into every decision regarding dining and food services,” says Schwartz, who will help select future operations for grant recognition while serving as an HCFS Fellow. “We are committed to continuing to develop the Bates Contemplates Food initiative and are grateful for the funds from the HCFS to assist us in doing so.”

Bates is the third recipient of the annual award. The winners in previous years were the University of California, Santa Cruz and Dickinson College.

Judges were particularly impressed with Bates initiatives in environmental sustainability, according to Melissa Ezarik, managing editor of University Business, a national business magazine for higher education based in Norwalk, Conn.

“With a full 82 percent of waste diverted from the waste stream through composting, recycling, or a program where waste is sent to a local pig farmer, the building doesn’t even have enough waste to fill a dumpster,” Ezarik said. “So there isn’t one. And nearly one-third of the food budget is spent locally.”

Although the College’s New Dining Commons is a new facility, by student request the seating area maintains the feel of the old Commons. The servery was designed for easy traffic flow, capable of handling 500 or more within 30 to 45 minutes.

“We’re very excited to be recognized for something that is central to the student experience here at Bates,” said Director or Dining Services Christine Schwartz. “We have a longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability at Bates, and our new facility has allowed us to enhance our sustainability mission.”

Higher education institutions from across the nation submitted their dining programs for consideration with 65 entries received. Entries were evaluated by three editors and the magazine’s art director (also a college parent) as well as by a recent college grad, a graduate student and Neal A. Raisman, a higher education consultant and former college president.

The Dining Halls of Distinction program reflects excellence in all aspects of dining operations, including atmosphere, service, variety of offerings, guest satisfaction, environmental sustainability and financial stability. Other schools receiving a top designation are Boston University (large private institution); Bucknell University (medium/small private institution); and Virginia Commonwealth University (public institution). View story from University Business, October 2009.

The Plan extends a vision that respects valued campus qualities and provides future guidance to enhance the unique living/learning environment of the College. Phase I of the original Facilities Master Plan has been largely completed.

The College will update the Facilities Master Plan through a process that began in March and will be completed in January, 2010. The update will:

• Revisit the original Plan and review key assumptions
• Consider changes to reflect emerging needs or changing circumstances
• Provide more detailed studies of the choices ahead
• Confirm or revise the future phasing of improvements
• Establish the framework for improvements for the next five to seven years

The Update will be guided by the College’s Master Planning Steering Committee,composed of members of the administration, faculty and trustees. The planning process has been organized to be informative and inclusive, providing many opportunities  for discussion.

The entire Bates community is invited to a Campus Forum 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, May 13 in Rooms 221-222 new Commons. Topics will include:

• Master Plan Update: Goals and Process
• Discussion of Key Issues
• Your Ideas: Opportunities for the Future

There also will be “open houses,” noon-1:30 p.m. May 13 and 3-5 p.m. May 20 in Rooms 221 new Commons

These sessions will provide an opportunity to:

• Meet the planning team
• Provide input on key issues
• Discuss your ideas

In an age when volatile fuel markets and fears of environmental Armageddon generate big headlines, it’s astonishing to hear John Rossi ’88 talk about what wasn’t being talked about in architecture school in the early 1990s. Green technology? Efficient homebuilding? “That stuff wasn’t even on the map,” he says.

Then again, Rossi wasn’t necessarily looking for it. “I was very typical of a lot of people who recognized that while the environment is important and it’s worth keeping, it also feels way too big to know what to do about it,” says Rossi, who finished Bates with a degree in psychology.

Which is to say, a lot has changed in the last 15 years — both for Rossi and the building industry. Solar seems to be back from its near-death experience of the 1970s, wind has made a believer out of Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, and geothermal heating systems are starting to find their way into American homes. And though not quite as sexy, there’s more-efficient drywall and cement, while a whole new generation of insulations and weatherstripping materials has hit the market.

These are developments Rossi follows closely as principal of the Barendsen Rossi Collaborative, named for Rossi and his wife, writer and editor Lynn Dolberg Barendsen ’88. From the firm’s cozy third-floor office in downtown Newburyport, Mass., shared with a fellow architect, a landscape designer, and a Web designer, Rossi generates work that attempts to blow apart the notion that high efficiency and attractive design are somehow mutually exclusive.

“A lot of green architecture looks like a science project,” says Rossi, who exudes an infectious energy whenever the discussion turns to architecture and art. “It looks like an engineering experiment — a bunch of tubes and pipes. Who wants it? You don’t want it to look like a freak show. The aesthetics have to work.”

So do the economics. That’s why Rossi cringes at the argument that “green” architecture is a feel-good euphemism for “it’s gonna cost more.” The way he sees it, mainstream construction methods and the bigger-is-better mentality that has infiltrated the homeownership dream are plagued with inefficiencies and rife with hidden costs. Consider: Nearly 90 percent of all U.S. homes draw their energy from fossil fuels, and since 1950 the average size of a home has more than doubled. Add the fact that the U.S. building industry generates 40 percent of all landfill waste, and, well, you get the picture.

For Rossi, that picture came into focus first-hand. A Connecticut native who come from a long line of stonemasons, he studied in Rome during his Bates years and once worked in a sculptor’s studio. He recalls watching his dad carve out a living as a residential developer. Right after Bates, he embarked on a homebuilding business himself.

He watched as usable “waste” material was thrown out, inexpensive but inefficient appliances were installed, and the idea that a house should harmonize with its environment was stripped out of the building equation.

However inefficient, home construction, measured by square foot or by unit, “has never been less expensive than right now,” says Rossi, as anyone who’s seen a row of McMansions lining a golf course can attest. “It’s cheaper because it’s more generic. In many ways we’ve worked hard to idiot-proof the building process. Buy one of those, add two of that, and you’ve got a building.”

Point being, it is more expensive to hire an architect like Rossi and actually make decisions. “But I’ve found that when a homeowner discovers that they do have choices, the doors start to open for them.”

Rossi’s former company, PowerHouse, was started in 2003 as a reaction to this inefficient, one-size-fits-all process. The idea was to harness the model of the modular home construction business to create smartly designed “green” houses. “[Modular factories] already offer a more eco-friendly process,” says Rossi. “The site impact is less. The waste is less. And they come to your property in a few trucks, as opposed to making 55 trips a week to the lumberyard.”

In total, PowerHouse constructed four houses and eight small buildings called “PowerPods” whose green features include:

• proprietary thermal break system (to prevent heat loss) in the wall construction;
• Forest Stewardship Council-certified woods;
• innovative solar technology;
• and a special remote home-monitoring system that allows owners to check the home’s temperature and humidity levels from any computer with an Internet connection.

The press and the industry raved about the PowerHouse approach to style and efficiency, but a rush of venture capital or a big deal with a developer never materialized. Coupled with what Rossi describes as the company’s own lack of a strong business foundation, the venture seemed destined to fail.

In early 2008, Rossi walked away from it. “We kept being told that what we were doing made a lot of sense and that we clearly knew what we were doing,” says Rossi. “But nobody wants to be the guinea pig. It’s a building, not a little widget, and when you’re having a half-million dollar home built, you don’t really want to experiment.”

As he tries to carry forward concepts from PowerHouse, including modular construction, Rossi compares the current entrepreneurial landscape for green builders to “the Wild West, or like the Internet in its infancy. There are many startups out there, some like mine with cool ideas, proven success, and even lots of free media attention. Most are not making much headway yet — especially with this economy — but some are going to be moneymakers.”

The economy’s impact on the sustainability movement is something David Braslau ’84 faces each day as a vice president of the Projects and Services Group at Constellation Energy, a Fortune 500 company that specializes in energy exploration and delivery as well as infrastructure improvements. Based in Boston, Braslau oversees the design and execution of large-scale energy-related renovation projects for clients like hospitals, universities, and the federal government.

When he completed his master’s in environmental planning in the mid-1980s, Braslau — a veteran of Bates’ first efforts around energy awareness — figured he was at the dawn of an era when energy efficiency would be all the rage. “But then I started knocking on doors and found that people weren’t all that interested in energy conservation,” he says. “It was all about the bottom line — nobody wanted to add new features to a project if that meant raising the cost. And that’s really the same today.”

As recently as mid-2008, Braslau saw a resurgence of interest in sustainability among institutional clients. But with the souring economy and a major drop in energy prices, some Constellation clients who had expressed interest in progressive long-term energy solutions — solar photovoltaic rooftop systems, solar-electric hybrid lighting, or vegetated roofs that help reduce heat loss, for example — are now dialing back their green plans.

“It all drops back to the economic equation,” says Braslau. “We can show them the environmental impact if they don’t do something, or what their carbon footprint is, but if you’re a hospital or university CFO, how do you justify doing something if you can’t show it’s cost-effective?”

At the consumer level, Halsey Platt ’88, a high-end remodeler and cabinetmaker based in Groton, Mass., argues that the greenest way to meet the human need for shelter is through home renovation rather than building new. “It’s the ultimate recycling. You don’t use up undeveloped land for a new home.

Platt has been in the building business almost as long as he’s been away from Bates, but it wasn’t until 2000 that clients even started asking about environmentally friendly and energy-efficient construction. Nearly nine years later, with more than half of his customers demanding “greener” building in the form of better windows, sustainable products, native woods, or higher-end heating systems, Platt still sees an alarming lack of proven green options for the regular consumer.

Take the electrical box. A typical home has about 300 of them, says Platt. And yet, pay a visit to your regular big-box hardware store and what you’re shown is a unit made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a controversial plastic that can’t be recycled. Want one made out of steel? Sorry. Your electrician will tell you he only installs those on commercial jobs — though he could get them at extra material and labor cost. “Your clients have to be able to spend more, plan further ahead, and look harder,” says Platt.

But what constitutes “green” and what doesn’t isn’t always so clear. “You have to be careful because there is a lot of greenwashing out there,” he says. In one recent renovation of a space for an organic food company in Arlington, Mass., Platt explored the use of a newer insulation material made from recycled denim. “Part of my concern about this product was whether or not we could stand behind it,” he says. “We have to guarantee to our client that this insulation isn’t a perfect home for mice or mold.”

And if it fails, it’s Platt Builders that takes the hit. “Having to come back three or five years down the road and rip it out is certainly antithetical to the entire green movement,” says Platt.

John Rossi is convinced that green building has moved beyond amateur hour. “The more [people] see that it really works and it isn’t funky or hard to live with, and the more we are able to deliver and deliver well, the easier this will all become,” he says.

Rossi compares green building to the personal computer. “Who had one of those 25 years ago? Now we can’t think of living without them — they do more, they’re cooler, more fun, and cheaper. Same deal.”

By Ian Aldrich

Ian Aldrich, a freelancer living in Boston, wrote about energy trader Dan Rice ’73 in the Fall issue.

Blind from birth, Steve Hoad was raised by a mother who “understood that children were children,” he says. “It was expected that I would do things children do.” His outdoors experiences as a child and a desire to conserve land solidified Hoad’s dream to one day live with his family on a farm. [More...]

Early in the 1900s, two manufacturing plants in Arlington, Mass., dumped their chemical waste out back, which polluted a town-owned pond, later filled to create the high school football field.

The town became aware of the contamination in the 1990s but didn’t get money to clean up the site until the 2000s.

That’s when environmental consultant Matt Grove ’94 and his team from the firm Brown and Caldwell went to work.

First, the contamination was excavated and consolidated. “We installed a cap of plastic and soil layers,” explains Grove. “And we treated the groundwater with a chemical designed to stimulate bioactivity.” As microbes grow and prosper, they create soil conditions that immobilize the contamination. New playing fields were installed over the capped portions of the property. (See aerial images during the project and after completion.)

The Arlington project illustrates the changing approach to environmental cleanups. “The idea is that it’s not feasible to clean up a site to pristine conditions,” Grove explains. “Instead, you reduce contamination to a point where the site can be deemed safe for certain uses.”

Grove, a biology and geology major at Bates who earned a Ph.D. in geology at Duke, believes that “there’s a broader acceptance of changing the way things are done to get people to be more environmentally conscious. It takes a bit of force sometimes, but I think we’re moving toward a better place in terms of the environment and the care we’re taking of it.”