Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.90
Liaison Jack Byrne
Submission Date Jan. 31, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

Middlebury College
PAE-5: Climate Plan

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Jack Byrne
Director of Sustainability Integration
Environmental Affair
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a plan to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

A brief summary of the climate plan’s long-term goals:

Middlebury College has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2016. Long term goals of the plan include: Using renewable energy when possible, building efficiency upgrades, reduction of vehicle fuel consumption, and waste minimization. We are also in the midst of a study on how we can best manage the College's 6000 acres of land to sequester more carbon. After all other feasible options have been implemented, carbon offsets will be claimed from land management practices and/or purchased to account for the remaining carbon footprint of the College.


A brief summary of the climate plan’s short-term goals:

About 89% of our carbon footprint comes from fuels for heating, cooling, and cooking, so we are working to incrementally convert those fuel sources to renewables. One of the first steps implemented towards carbon neutrality by 2016 was the biomass gasification facility completed in 2008, which reduced the College's carbon footprint by about 40%. Other short-term goals in the plan include: adoption of new green building standards, making the Snow Bowl ski area carbon neutral, collaboration with peer institutions with similar goals, and informing the campus community about the goal of carbon neutrality and why it is important as well as ways in which their actions and habits can help the College become carbon neutral. We also have an ongoing schedule of energy efficiency improvements in a number of existing buildings on campus.


Year the climate plan was formally adopted or approved:
2,008

The website URL where information about the climate plan is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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