For decades, 乐播传媒 has worked towards a host of sustainability goals including, as part of its 2010 Climate Action Plan, carbon neutrality.

But how far has the college come?

In the past year, the 乐播传媒 College EcoReps, students who promote environmental responsibility on campus, created a graph that illuminates one aspect of 乐播传媒鈥� sustainability work: Net total carbon emissions on campus have dropped from 11,651 metric tons in 2001 to 3,645 in 2016 鈥� about a 70 percent reduction.

鈥淗aving the data in front of you to show how we’ve been progressing is really powerful,鈥� said Sustainability Manager Tom Twist.

For 乐播传媒, the rating shows how students, faculty, and staff 鈥� with strong support from college leadership 鈥� collaborate to incorporate sustainability into the fabric of college life.

Reducing its carbon footprint is one of many efforts, big and small, that 乐播传媒 is making to become more sustainable.

More validation of the college鈥檚 progress came over the summer when from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Through AASHE鈥檚 Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS)聽鈥� a widely recognized framework for publicly assessing sustainability 鈥� schools earn points by fulfilling criteria that range from the environmental friendliness of operations and facilities to the incorporation of sustainability into academics and student life.

Among NESCAC colleges that participate in the STARS program, only 乐播传媒, Colby, and Middlebury have earned Gold ratings. Bowdoin, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams have Silver. (Only two institutions, Colorado College and Stanford, have earned the highest rating, Platinum.)

For 乐播传媒, the STARS rating shows how students, faculty, and staff 鈥� with strong support from college leadership 鈥� collaborate to incorporate sustainability into the fabric of college life.

鈥淪ustainability is a natural priority of our campus culture and plays an important role here at 乐播传媒,鈥� President Clayton Spencer wrote in a letter to AASHE. 鈥淲e see civic engagement and environmental stewardship as integral and intertwined components for creating and sustaining a just world.鈥�

This graph, using information gathered and organized by student EcoReps, shows 乐播传媒’ net total carbon emissions since 2001 鈥� figures that represent on-campus emissions such as those created by electricity, heating, and campus vehicles.

Emissions reduction is a point of strength on 乐播传媒鈥� scorecard. The purchase of renewable energy certificates in 2005 contributed to a drop in campus emissions鈥� but emissions were slashed further this year under Energy Manager John Rasmussen, when 乐播传媒 switched its primary heating fuel from natural gas to Renewable Fuel Oil, a wood-based fuel that does not release fossil carbon into the atmosphere.

Efficiency has also improved. All new buildings and renovations are constructed to LEED Silver standards and building insulation has been improved.

Campus heating is now mostly centralized under a system that provides better data on energy usage and allows staff to remotely control the heat (and therefore emissions). And in Commons, optical and temperature sensors control 11 of the kitchen鈥檚 14 exhaust hoods.

The tank that holds Renewable Fuel Oil, a sustainable fuel which curtailed much of the 乐播传媒’ fossil fuel use, is installed in January. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Dining Services has, along with Facility Services, been a driver and partner in 乐播传媒鈥� sustainability efforts 鈥� it composts or recycles 80 percent of its waste, or, through initiatives such as eliminating disposable cups in Commons, avoids creating waste altogether.

The EcoReps, about 25 students who work under Twist, represent yet another strength in the college鈥檚 AASHE assessment: community engagement. According to the AASHE assessment, 90 percent of 乐播传媒 students have been affected by the EcoReps鈥� programs. 听听

Working in small groups, they鈥檙e responsible for everything from EcoService Day, to the Trashion Show, to communicating to the wider campus community the work that dining and custodial services have done, to collecting data from myriad sources for the graph representing 乐播传媒鈥� emissions over time.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing not just college-level work, but professional work,鈥� Twist said.

In another project to help engage the community, they created a 鈥�,鈥� noting measures the college has taken to increase efficiency in campus buildings.

鈥淵ou can click through, building by building, what updates have been made,鈥� said Hannah Slattery 鈥�18 of Gilford, N.H., who worked on the project. Big or small, the changes are 鈥渋mportant to bringing down the overall carbon footprint of those individual buildings.鈥�

Some of those students serve on the Committee on Environmental Responsibility (CER), a group of faculty, staff, and students who work to raise awareness; research, assess, and report on environmental practices; and recommend policies.

Sustainability manager Tom Twist and聽EcoReps Isa Moise 鈥�19, Beanie O鈥橲hea 鈥�18, Hannah Slattery 鈥�18, and George Fiske 鈥�19 show off the college鈥檚 color-coded waste receptacles in March, part of a project to encourage recycling on campus. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

The CER鈥檚 work over the past decade primed 乐播传媒 for all the emissions-reducing, solar-installing, EcoRepping strides it鈥檚 made in the past few years, said CER chair and Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson.

鈥淲e鈥檙e successors of a long line of people who have been pushing for better sustainability practices on campus,鈥� Johnson said, noting early work by former 乐播传媒 environmental coordinator Julie Rosenbach and by John Smedley, a professor of physics who led an initial environmental task force.

Part of CER鈥檚 work involves assessing how sustainability is incorporated into academics. In 2015鈥�16, 35 courses in departments such as environmental science, physics, and politics were sustainability-focused, according to the college鈥檚 AASHE submission. Another 33 were related to sustainability.

鈥淚 was surprised by the number of courses from many departments that we could include as sustainability-focused or -related,鈥� said Camille Parrish, a lecturer and learning associate in environmental studies who assessed 乐播传媒鈥� course offerings. 鈥淧art of that is because we at 乐播传媒 and in the Environmental Studies Program are very interdisciplinary.鈥�

Johnson said CER is looking into developing a sustainability-related General Education Concentration, a cluster of courses that help students develop expertise outside their major.

鈥淭he big thing I鈥檓 going to be working on with my subcommittee is bringing sustainability into the curriculum more intentionally,鈥� she said.

Twist said he hopes to build on the strides recognized by AASHE by doing more with solar energy in the coming years, as well as engaging more students who are not specifically interested in environmental efforts.

In October 2016, George Fiske ’19, Brent Feldman ’17, and Katharine Gaillard ’19 install solar panels on the roof of the 乐播传媒 Coastal Center, also known as Shortridge, in Phippsburg. (Tom Twist/乐播传媒 College)

Doing so, like every other sustainability effort, takes collaboration from a myriad of groups on campus.

鈥淲e’re just running with it,鈥� Twist said. 鈥淚 feel like a window has opened, and it allows us to do a lot of great sustainability work in a really short amount of time.鈥�

Novelist Carolyn Chute and the owners of an organic Maine farm are among the specialists working with students in two innovative programs that are engaging the campus with the world outside.

One in the humanities, one in environmental studies, these “learning associates” programs enrich the curriculum with the real-world experience and perspectives of top practitioners in an occupation related to some aspect of the curriculum. “The students’ minds are opened to something beyond the immediate classroom,” says Judith Robbins, the Mellon learning associate in the humanities.

Many of these practitioners are from Maine. Terry and Mark Silber, who run Hedgehog Hill Farm in Sumner, are teaching a seminar on organic farming in the environmental studies program. A well-known Maine novelist, Carolyn Chute worked with students in creative writing and storytelling courses this semester as part of the senior thesis program.

Students found the interaction with Chute eye-opening, says Robbins. Chute, author of the acclaimed The Beans of Egypt, Maine (Ticknor & Fields, 1985), is an outspoken champion of Maine’s rural poor. Robbins says that several students, in evaluating the sessions with Chute, explained how she made them newly aware of Maine’s economic divisions.

One student, self-described as someone from a “middle-class family who had never had the chance to meet real, true working-class people,” realized the “similarities of all types and classes of people.” Another wrote simply that that Chute “opened my eyes to a new way of viewing literature.”

The environmental studies program involves the humanities, the natural sciences and the social sciences. The Silbers’ upper-level seminar explores the practical and ethical aspects of environmentally sustainable farming. The Silbers are the authors of Growing Herbs and Vegetables From Seed to Harvest (Knopf, 1999).

Camille Parrish is the environmental studies learning associate. Through setting up internships and engaging guest faculty like the Silbers, Parrish helps environmental studies majors connect their classroom work with real-world environmental issues as near as the campus and as far away as Thailand. By involving students with such local organizations as the 乐播传媒 Mill Redevelopment Corporation and the Maine Rural Workers Coalition, Parrish also furthers another primary 乐播传媒 goal: strengthening ties with the community.

In fact, the learning-associate initiative evolved in 1999 from President Donald Harward’s drive to engage the college with the world outside campus in more concrete and meaningful ways. (Harward retires at the end of June 2002.)

The New York-based Andrew Mellon Foundation awarded two grants last year to support the initiative. A $300,000 grant is supporting the learning-associate component of the environmental studies program, as well as the purchase of equipment. A $450,000 grant is funding the Mellon Learning Associates Program in the Humanities, now in its second semester.

In addition to Chute, the humanities program this semester is funding Denis Ledoux, a Francophone Maine memoirist, Lake Affect, a Buffalo-based sound performance quartet, a writing specialist in the Spanish language, poets, pianists and a dance critic.