January 24, 2007


To the Williams Community,


Williams today commits to help lead the effort to reverse climate change induced by greenhouse gas emissions.

Last spring I formed a Climate Action Committee and asked its members to recommend to the College a goal for reducing its emissions and the strategies to attain it. The Committee has worked commendably hard on this important task and issued a thoughtful report, which can be seen at http://www.williams.edu/resources/sustainability/cac.

I am pleased to say that President's Staff enthusiastically endorsed the report and that the Board of Trustees, in what someday may be considered a historic vote, unanimously passed this resolution:

"WHEREAS, The President and Trustees of Williams College believe that the principles and practices of environmental sustainability in general, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions specifically, are institutional priorities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

As recommended by the President's Staff acting on the report of the Climate Action Committee, Williams College hereby adopts as a goal the reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions by ten percent below the College's 1990-91 emissions level by the year 2020."

This goal presents a considerable challenge but one that with strong, continuing effort we can make.

Williams has long worked on issues of sustainability-in fact our Center for Environmental Studies is the oldest in the country. Now we must make these considerations more central to how the college operates. Sustainability thus becomes for Williams a guiding principle, like those of accessibility and diversity.

We need to honor that principle in all that we do. Faculty in all divisions will want to think of how to incorporate issues of sustainability into their courses. As you can see in the report, we will have to alter as a college what we buy and how we build, along with how we heat, cool, and light our buildings.

The report points out the importance of energy conservation, an effort that must engage all of us on campus. We will need to limit our building growth. And we will have to adjust to working within budgets, for individual projects and for the College as a whole, that include significant investments in sustainability. Since resources are finite difficult decisions on tradeoffs lie ahead.

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