{"id":142949,"date":"2021-11-19T09:13:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T14:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=142949"},"modified":"2021-11-22T14:52:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T19:52:06","slug":"hows-bates-doing-in-sustainability-the-answer-is-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/19\/hows-bates-doing-in-sustainability-the-answer-is-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"How’s Bates doing in sustainability? The answer is Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Bates has earned its second Gold rating for sustainability.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was the famous catchphrase of the late New York City mayor Ed Koch: \u201cHow am I doing?” Bates recently asked the question about its sustainability efforts, and the answer is gold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Gold sustainability rating, that is, which Bates earned from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, an international benchmarking organization that measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college\u2019s Gold rating is based on an institution-wide self-assessment submitted in June 2020 to AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System. Bates first participated in STAR in 2017, earning its initial Gold rating that year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gold was propelled by an exceptionally strong performance in two sustainability \u201cimpact areas\u201d: Energy, in which Bates earned the top rating among the 79 U.S. undergraduate institutions participating in the benchmarking program, and Air & Climate, in which Bates was fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Bates is one of 10 \u201cTop Performers\u201d among U.S. undergraduate colleges<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"George
In October 2016, George Fiske \u201919, Brent Feldman \u201917, and Katharine Gaillard \u201919 install solar panels on the roof of the Bates Coastal Center, also known as Shortridge, in Phippsburg. (Tom Twist\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause of the hard work of our entire community, Bates has enjoyed a rather meteoric rise to the top of the sustainability field,\u201d said Sustainability Manager Tom Twist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her letter accompanying the college\u2019s STARS submission, President Clayton Spencer said, \u201cSustainability is a natural priority of our campus culture, and plays an important role here at Bates. We see civic engagement and environmental stewardship as integral and intertwined components for creating and sustaining a just world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cBates will continue to lead by example and offer students working models of new ways to interact with their world. We will continue to work on creating a campus that is a living laboratory of sustainable solutions \u2014 examples that are not just theoretical, but solutions that can be touched, observed, molded, and transferred out into the world \u2014 and preparing students to shape the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Josie
Executive Chef Owen Keene of Bates Dining Services looks over a delivery of vegetables from the campus organic garden, the Plot, on July 24, 2018. The student-run garden instills lessons about the value of local, organic, no-till food while creating a space to try out more environmentally benign food-production methods. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As sustainability manager, Twist works with the college\u2019s standing Committee on Environmental Responsibility. Chaired by Associate Professor of Physics Travis Gould, CER pulls in members and partners from all over campus, including student EcoReps, who support and often take the lead in driving initiatives on clean energy, sustainable food sources, and reducing waste on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent example of EcoRep work is the expansion of the college\u2019s support for electric-vehicle use. Students first conducted a college-wide survey that found burgeoning support for EVs. Then they secured competitive grants to fund additional EV chargers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ecorep
EcoRep Tamsin Stringer \u201922 of Bloomington, Ind., poses at the new electric vehicle charging stations behind Underhill Arena. Stringer and fellow EcoReps did extensive work, including a campus survey, that led to grant funding for the new EV stations. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Broadly speaking, Bates has worked on three sustainability fronts: reducing energy consumption through efficiency measures; strengthening the culture of recycling and sustainability on campus; and switching to renewable energy sources. In 2019, those efforts culminated in Bates achieving climate neutrality a year ahead of its goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some sustainability efforts are the chip-away variety. For example, Bates contracts with a Maine-based cleaning company for environmentally friendly cleaning products. The college diverts liquids from its waste stream, reducing the weight and thus the cost of tipping fees at the local landfill. Bates has also instituted a campus-wide composting option for all organic waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college has installed building sensors and controls in all major buildings, allowing for campus wide HVAC control while providing data on energy use from each building. And, LED lighting is now the norm throughout campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Four
In March 2017, student EcoReps (from left) Isa Moise ’19 of Mount Vernon, N.Y., Beanie O’Shea ’18 of Somers, Conn., Hannah Slattery ’18 of Gilford, N.H., and George Fiske ’19 of West Hartford, Conn., show off one of the college’s new waste-sorting stations, in Pettengill Hall. (Josh Kuckens\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Others represent ongoing stewardship. Since 2006, Bates has pursued green building practices, specifically that construction and renovation projects should achieve, at minimum, equivalency to Silver certification under the green-building certification program known as LEED. The construction of Bonney Science Center, opened this past summer, followed those guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And others are innovative. Since the last Gold rating in 2017, Bates has created a Green Innovations Grants Program<\/a> that empowers students, staff, and faculty to develop sustainability projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still other projects underscore the importance of institutional flexibility. Modified in recent years, the college\u2019s three-boiler steam plant, which provides heating for 80 percent of the college\u2019s buildings, is capable of using three different fuel sources: natural gas; a renewable heating oil substitute made from waste wood products<\/a>; and a second renewable fuel, LR100, a recycled vegetable oil<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting a delivery of LR100 this week,\u201d Twist said, during a recent walking tour of the green hallmarks of the Bates campus. Recycled vegetable oil technology has come a long way since Twist used to pick up containers of former fry-o-later vegetable oil to help fuel Chewonki, the coastal educational center where he worked before coming to Bates. No french-fry smell with this stuff, he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The campus steam plant’s Boiler No. 3 is equipped to burn a waste vegetable oil product called LR-100. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the college\u2019s vice president for finance and administration and treasurer, Geoff Swift oversees many of the efforts and projects, large and small, that helped move the sustainability needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very conscious of and grateful for the initiatives that are happening in every corner of the campus that keep pushing us forward,\u201d he says. \u201cWhether it\u2019s keeping food waste in Commons to a remarkable minimum \u2014 our food scraps go to a local pig farm \u2014 or students who take action when they see paper towels that could be replaced with electric hand dryers<\/a> or the opportunity to expand our EV stations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability accolades like Gold rating from AASHE \u201care a big deal,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we know we\u2019re not done. The technology that helped us get so green is always changing and improving, so we expect to continue to evolve with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cWe\u2019re
Environmental studies major Hermione Zhou ’21 of Shenzhen, China, and Sustainability Manager Tom Twist tend to the Plot, the Bates organic garden, in summer 2020. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of 10 “Top Performer”s in the country, Bates earned a Gold rating for excellence in sustainability performance from an international benchmarking organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":142984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[232,224],"tags":[1965,3125,11177],"class_list":["post-142949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-sustainability","category-society-culture","tag-carbon-neutrality","tag-ecoreps","tag-tom-twist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142949"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143027,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142949\/revisions\/143027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}