Whitman College
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Climate change is arguably the defining issue of our time, and will soon be addressed in past tense, making it a critical course of study. To pursue climate neutrality without utilizing the core purpose of the institution, education, would be severely lacking. The risks of a changed climate need to be understood by all to motivate adoption of best means for mitigating these risks by reducing our impact and adapting to changes.
Goal: Integrate climate action and learning together to create positive behavior change that reduces emissions among students, staff, and faculty alike, as well as campus visitors. In effect, evolve the campus into a “living laboratory” of sustainability.
Objectives:

The working group is not recommending specific objectives for Curriculum and Research at this time. The Working Group encourages the faculty to determine how best to integrate these issues into the academic program.

See Above

Human behavior change is critical to creating a campus culture aware of our climate impacts. As an institution of learning, teaching is our primary purpose, both in and out of the classroom, for students, staff, faculty, and visitors alike. By committing to become climate neutral, Whitman has demonstrated leadership, but we must also work to expand the reach of our efforts. The following recommendations are broken down by target audience. The following efforts rarely stand alone and instead are extensions of efforts in the previous categories.
Goal: Become a shining light of sustainability and climate action in the region.
Objectives:
● Retool the Green Leaders club into EcoReps run by the Campus Sustainability Coordinator to educate campus residents about their environmental impact and initiate behavior change. Implement a sustainability pledge or dorm certification process.
● Renew sustainability in new student orientation and campus welcome to establish culture of accountability.
● Continue to coordinate with student groups to cooperate on campus events and efforts.
● Initiate energy conservation competitions between residence halls after the installation of building sub-metering and dashboard technology. Compete each semester in alignment with Campus Sustainability Day and Earth Week.
● Connect students with parents and alumni working in the fields of sustainability, renewable energy, climate change, environmental protection, and more.
● Establish volunteer sustainability leaders in campus offices and departments to bring about peer-to-peer sustainability education.
● Offer sustainability-related workshops for campus employees.
● Leverage building sub-metering for conservation competitions between campus offices and departments.
● Expand education of parents, prospective students, and alumni or Whitman’s sustainability initiatives.
● Find direct, meaningful ways for donors to the College to contribute to emissions reductions measures
● Invite parents and alumni to sustainability programming or to be guest speakers, etc.
● Continue to collaborate and build relationships with neighbor institutions and organizations. Leverage these relationships for friendly competition, collective action, and cross-pollination of ideas.
● Invite community members and organizations to connect with students, demonstrate their work or research on campus as guests, and collaborate for mutual benefit.
● Expand outreach of campus initiatives into off-campus partnerships and education.

Human behavior change is critical to creating a campus culture aware of our climate impacts. As an institution of learning, teaching is our primary purpose, both in and out of the classroom, for students, staff, faculty, and visitors alike. By committing to become climate neutral, Whitman has demonstrated leadership, but we must also work to expand the reach of our efforts. The following recommendations are broken down by target audience. The following efforts rarely stand alone and instead are extensions of efforts in the previous categories.
Goal: Become a shining light of sustainability and climate action in the region.
Objectives:
● Retool the Green Leaders club into EcoReps run by the Campus Sustainability Coordinator to educate campus residents about their environmental impact and initiate behavior change. Implement a sustainability pledge or dorm certification process.
● Renew sustainability in new student orientation and campus welcome to establish culture of accountability.
● Continue to coordinate with student groups to cooperate on campus events and efforts.
● Initiate energy conservation competitions between residence halls after the installation of building sub-metering and dashboard technology. Compete each semester in alignment with Campus Sustainability Day and Earth Week.
● Connect students with parents and alumni working in the fields of sustainability, renewable energy, climate change, environmental protection, and more.
● Establish volunteer sustainability leaders in campus offices and departments to bring about peer-to-peer sustainability education.
● Offer sustainability-related workshops for campus employees.
● Leverage building sub-metering for conservation competitions between campus offices and departments.
● Expand education of parents, prospective students, and alumni or Whitman’s sustainability initiatives.
● Find direct, meaningful ways for donors to the College to contribute to emissions reductions measures
● Invite parents and alumni to sustainability programming or to be guest speakers, etc.
● Continue to collaborate and build relationships with neighbor institutions and organizations. Leverage these relationships for friendly competition, collective action, and cross-pollination of ideas.
● Invite community members and organizations to connect with students, demonstrate their work or research on campus as guests, and collaborate for mutual benefit.
● Expand outreach of campus initiatives into off-campus partnerships and education.

The College must periodically report on GHG reduction progress to verify that methods are indeed working as expected and to determine whether efforts must be expedited. The Sustainability Coordinator will write annual progress reports detailing updates on the objectives in this Plan. GHG inventorying should be done every few years to quantify progress. This should become simpler, as many objectives include data collection; a prime example is the building sub-metering proposal. Each new inventory should use the most current Clean Air - Cool Planet (CACP) Carbon Calculator, although this is likely to create some drift in results. Version 6.9 was used for the baseline 2013 GHG inventory. Should the calculator become defunct, its successor or the alternative recommended by AASHE and peers shall be used instead.
Not all of the mitigation strategies recommended can be tracked by the CACP calculator currently, which is no doubt problematic, but the calculator is periodically updated. Additionally, some metrics can be difficult to establish, but will become easier with time and effort. A best attempt is necessary to determine these GHG reductions as an external calculation to the CACP calculator. Should some of the strategies still be difficult or impossible to calculate mitigation from, this should be noted in the GHG inventory updates.

Approved for FY2017 is the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits to offset 100% of forecasted electricity.

1. Offset natural gas and electricity GHG emissions by 2020, cutting net emissions in half;
2. Continuously improve campus facilities via efficiency upgrades and maximizing solar collection to minimize gross emissions;
3. Develop better means for measuring and tracking Scope III emissions from sources such as commutes and paid travel;
4. Minimize Scope III emissions;
5. Offset Scope III emissions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
6. Continue to refine and re-evaluate carbon mitigation and offset goals and strategies via CAP updates

Campus operations makes up the single largest source of Whitman’s emissions, totaling 54.5% of gross emissions based on the 2013 GHG inventory. Contributing sources include purchased electricity, on-campus stationary sources (the steam plant), electricity transmission and distribution losses, wastewater, and refrigerant fugitive emissions. Operations contributed 6,788.5 metric tons CO2e to the College’s GHG footprint in total. The task force recommends the College prioritizes emissions reductions over the purchase of offsets as a more genuine and confirmable means of GHG mitigation. The primary recommendations are improving energy efficiency and greatly expanding College-owned renewable energy generation. The biggest challenge to reducing operational emissions is any potential growth to campus.
Goal: Minimize energy consumption of campus buildings

Standardize building efficiency measures for new construction and retrofits, including the adoption of resource conservation technologies such as LED lighting, daylight harvesting, low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, etc. As recommended by PAE, this proposal would cost an estimated $43 million by 2050.
● Set universal heating and cooling set points for campus buildings, with some exceptions - Penrose Library, Baker Ferguson Fitness Center, etc. The Department of Energy recommends a heating setpoint of 68F and a cooling set point of 78F. Pair with an energy conservation campaign to build building occupant buy-in.
Install utility sub-metering and building dashboard systems into residence halls, and then roll out to all other campus buildings. Piloted by Olin Hall, residence halls will follow. Standard Plumbing Heating Control’s proposal for the residence halls and library cost an estimated $150,563.
Sub-meter all utilities on all major campus buildings and tie into publicly-accessible building dashboard interfaces both onsite and online to provide better operational data and means for decision-making, as well as leverage for occupant behavior change.
Increase purchase of renewable energy credits to 100% of our electricity consumption and then purchase GHG offsets related to natural gas emissions mitigation for campus natural gas usage
Pursue engineering studies for campus solar productivity no later than 2020. PAE’s proposed solar power plan for campus would cost $9 million prior to incentives.
● Install solar thermal collectors on campus buildings to augment heat and hot water
Continue to explore wind and solar power production on campus agricultural holdings in partnership with power companies
● Develop strategies for continuously funding renewable energy projects on campus
● Based on engineering studies of campus solar productivity, establish a goal for percentage of power from solar or total solar nameplate capacity.

Develop a food waste compost system

Establish sustainable purchasing criteria and a universal process

Goal: Minimize vehicle-miles travelled to campus during commutes. These emissions are excluded from the neutrality definition.
Objectives:

Immediate:
● Continue to support the revitalized Bike Share program run by the Sustainability Coordinator in cooperation with Penrose Library and the Outdoor Program Bike Shop.
Short-term:
● Increase bicycle parking and bike safety on campus. Offer bike registration with Walla Walla Police Department on campus. Increase secure parking for staff and faculty bike commuters.
● Align support for active commuting with campus wellness programming.
● Utilize a more efficient rideshare social network, such as ZimRide, to assist carpooling both for daily commutes and for longer distance travel.
● Provide an EV charging station in a visible location on campus to incentivize use of EVs. Seek partnerships with the City of Walla Walla and PacificPower to accomplish this.
● Continue to explore a car-share program for students, staff, and faculty to reduce car ownership and support active commuting. ZipCar is one such example.
Goal: Minimize emissions of vehicles on campus
Objectives:
Immediate:
● Institute a no idling policy on campus, excepting warming up vehicles in winter for snow, ice, and condensation removal.
Long-term:
● Switch campus vehicles to less carbon-intensive fuels as appropriate by vehicle task - biodiesel blends for diesel mowers, tractors, etc., hybrid or EV drivetrains for light duty sedans, EVs for campus golf carts and side-by-sides, compressed natural gas (CNG) for maintenance trucks, etc. Select vehicles based on replacement needs.
● Consider producing biodiesel onsite through an academic pursuit, providing hands-on experience with the technology to students.
Goal: Minimize emissions from paid campus travel
Immediate:
● By July 1, be capable of tracking air travel via dollars and ground travel via miles with the intent of of reducing unnecessary flights and eventually offsetting remaining flights.
● Encourage departments and offices to thoroughly consider the necessity and utility of all travel, and support efforts to teleconference instead
● Strongly discourage flights to Portland and Seattle and instead encourage driving, especially carpooling or renting a hybrid from Enterprise. A single-occupancy vehicle getting 25mpg matches the GHG emissions of flying to Seattle from Walla Walla and greatly reduces the emissions of flights to Portland from Walla Walla via Seattle. To carpool or increase fuel efficiency of the car would reduce GHG emissions even further.
Short-term:
● Create an educational program for staff and faculty about direct flights to reduce the number of layovers, and improve data collection of flights. Takeoff is the most intensive part of flight, making direct flights much more efficient choices. Third party software solutions exist.

Goal: Minimize landfill-bound waste from the College
Objectives:
Immediate:
● Reduce printing across campus by continuing to transition to digital distribution
● Communicate clearly to students what they do and do not need before move-in
● Continue to strengthen the campus recycling program
● Create an independent solid waste management plan to guide waste reduction efforts even further
Short-term:
● Organize a campus rummage sale in alignment with spring move-out and coordinate with Physical Plant surplus sale
● Create a sustainable events guide in cooperation with Conferences and Events
● Establish sustainable purchasing criteria and a universal process
● Develop a food waste compost system
● Expand programmatic support of reusable containers on campus in coordination with Bon Appetit, such as rolling out a reusable to-go box system
● Continue to work with Bon Appetit to increase the presence of locally-produced food in the dining halls and campus catering.
● Participate in the Real Food Challenge to publicly commit to increasing local food consumption
● Continue to increase recycled content, especially from post-consumer waste (PCW), in purchased products such as paper towels, toilet paper, printer paper, recycling bins, bin liner bags, etc.
● Create a preferred office supplies list
● Require all wood and paper products are FSC-certified

The investment and Finance objectives are not published within the Climate Action Plan of the institution. This policy is a trustee level policy. The institution employs sustainability objectives within the investment process. This objectives are held at the CFO and Trustee level. At this time the institution has substantially decreased holdings in certain asset classes that are considered unsustainable. This has resulted in a decrease in which the endowment contains roughly a 1% investment in fossil fuels. There is continued dedication to mitigate asset holdings that are consider outside of institutional values. While the Board has implemented internal actions they have also provide a process for community members to challenge certain investments. That is governed by the following divestment policy:
The purpose of Whitman College Endowment is to support the funding of the College in
perpetuity. Over time it is possible for the Endowment to hold an investment whose
business activities present a serious threat to basic values considered non-negotiable bythe Whitman community. Instances so extreme that they shock the conscience, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, unjustified disregard of profound environmental
degradation and other wide-scale acts of injustice, may call for an extraordinary
response. It is in this context that the Board of Whitman College sets forth the basis on
which it will consider divestment from endowment portfolio investments that associate
it with such above-described heinous activities.
The Board will consider proposals for divesting the Endowment portfolio of an
investment if all of the following conditions are met:
1. Such investment supports activities that materially contribute to conditions that
shock the conscience.
2. The proposed divestment is likely to have significant financial, reputational, or other
adverse impacts on the target of the divestment that may influence its behavior or the
behavior of other similarly situated entities. In this regard, Whitman will take into
account the actions of other like-minded institutions.
3. The proposed divestment (or decision not to divest) will be generally understood by
and acceptable to the greater Whitman community, based on the Board’s best
understanding of the community’s opinion.
In taking such action the Board shall first refer requests for divestment to its Executive
Committee, and consider information provided by the Investment Committee regarding
the potential impact of the proposed divestment on the College’s Endowment. It shall
carefully balance the reasons advanced to divest against its moral, legal, and fiduciary
responsibilities, keeping in mind that:
a. The purpose of the Endowment is to support the College’s mission through prudent
investments and judicious expenditures for the benefit of current and future
generations of Whitman students; and
b. The Endowment is carefully invested to produce the maximum long-term returns to
the College, consistent with the risks that the Board deems appropriate; and that
c. The College’s investment in the offending company may be bundled in an investment
vehicle that cannot be divided. In such a case, the value of the investment vehicle to the endowment must be analyzed and balanced against the advantages of divesting.

A decision to divest is committed exclusively to the discretion of the Board. In making
such a determination, the Board shall consider its full range of moral, legal, and fiduciary,responsibilities to the College and to current and future generations of students. Because the decision to divest is an extraordinary one, a divestment decision shall require a two-thirds vote of approval by the full Board.

Climate Action Plan was approved by the Board of Trustees

Whitman College Environmental Principles

Recognizing the impact Whitman College has on the environment and the leadership role Whitman College plays as an institution of higher learning, the college affirms the following environmental principles and standards, which shall be consulted to explore the practical ways Whitman College can promote an environmentally conscious campus.

To reduce the amount of non-recyclable materials, to reuse materials when possible, and utilize recycled materials.
To consider the eco-friendliest science and technology available to decrease our environmental impact.
To continue to build an energy-efficient campus in the 21st century.
To patronize companies that are active in their defense of the environment from further degradation.
To encourage individuals’ environmental accountability through programs of environmental education.
To consider environmentally friendly options when they exist and are practical in decisions regarding developmental projects.
To further the use of reused materials, recyclable materials, and the Internet for campus communications.
To encourage and request food service to make environmentally friendly decisions in purchasing food and supplies, reducing waste, and reusing materials.
To maintain campus grounds through the employment of bio-friendly substances and services.
To strive to improve upon current practices so we may harmonize the trends of the industrial world with the natural environment.