Traveling from as far away as Tennessee, over 65 college students and three corporate representatives assembled at Middlebury College for the 2006 Climate Neutrality Summit last weekend to discuss sustainability and lay plans for neutralizing carbon emissions on college campuses. The concept of climate neutrality aims to canceling out carbon emissions by purchasing trees to absorb carbon and investing in renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind farms.
Four Dartmouth students -- Ruth Hupart '08, Buddy Simis '08, Ritchie King '06 Th '07 and Gillian Jackson, an exchange student from McGill university -- participated in the conference. The weekend summit included panel discussions, keynote speeches, social activities and organic food.
Hupart advocated the use of "carbon offsets" -- such as renewable energy alternatives and forested land -- as a step towards compensating for greenhouse gas emissions.
"Neutrality refers to having net zero emissions," she said. "This can be achieved by reducing emissions and by buying carbon offsets. Buying these offsets doesn't mean that you are personally consuming the energy produced by the wind farm but that you are subsidizing its construction and operation."
Participants in the conference also discussed the relationship between the economic and the environmental, and the importance of ensuring that environmentally prudent behavior not result in economic loss.
Representatives from the companies Bright Planet, Clean Air-Cool Planet and Native Energy, companies that all work in conjunction with carbon offset businesses to invest in renewable energy, also attended the conference.
Simis stressed the importance of practical solutions that create benefits beyond the scope of the environment, as he lauded Bright Planet's development of the "Bright Card," a rapid rewards credit card program in which a bank allots a certain small percentage of a customer's spending to invest in carbon offsets. With it, participants can track their own neutrality through affinity credit.
"We're taking realistic steps; no one will [take action] unless it's mutually beneficial," Simis said.
The conference also suggested that colleges begin to establish "green endowments," which would allow alumni to donate money specifically earmarked for sustainability efforts.
"Money made from [the endowment] can be siphoned off to fund energy-efficient light bulbs, for example," Simis said.
In addition, smaller schools that lack large endowments can borrow money from green endowments of larger schools, forming a sort of green endowment network between colleges and universities.
Hupart was optomistic in talking about the likelihood of an improved environmental consciousness in our society in the near future.
"2007 is going to be the year of action," Hupart said. "The crux of the matter is [that] we're putting too much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, but no one is doing enough."
Simis noted that the process can be difficult, but reducing carbon emissions on college campuses is still necessary. "Carbon offsets are like rehab; you don't want to be there but if you have a problem you better be there," she said, quoting a speaker from the conference.
In addition to sustainability discussion, planning and activism, conference participants celebrated environmentalism with music and food, a part of the weekend Hupart recalled with fondness.
"On Saturday everyone gathered there for dinner with their mugs and their Tupperware," she said. "We listened to bluegrass and it was just another night at a college campus."
