This past week an ambitious group of Hopkins students have been promoting awareness about global climate change and the proposal of a new policy for sustainable energy on campus. Hopkins Energy Action Team (HEAT) is a coalition of student groups interested in addressing the issue of climate change and it solutions. One of HEAT's goals is to implement a Responsible Energy Policy on the Homewood campus, ideally making it carbon-neutral by 2015. They hope to have their policy approved by the end of this semester. "Hopkins has a big opportunity right now to take leadership on this issue and to develop solutions to this great challenge that can be scaled up to state and national levels," Teryn Norris, a freshman involved in HEAT, said.
On Monday HEAT presented an information table on the breezeway and an opportunity for students to get involved. Interested students were able to get their pictures taken with signs directed at both the Hopkins administration and national legislators.
The signs addressed the problems of climate change and sustainable energy solutions; the pictures will be collected and sent to Congress as part of a congressional photo petition. "Students really recognize that climate change is really one of the greatest issues of our generation. They need something to translate their feelings into something the administration can see, and while petitions also do this well, photos can really send the message home," Norris said. HEAT obtained about 150 signatures and about 30 photographs for their petition.
The photo petition was part of a larger project, called Week of Action, promoted by the Campus Climate Challenge, a project spearheaded by youth groups throughout the United States and Canada urging students to support Clean Energy policies at their schools.
For this week, HEAT has planned several events on and around campus to promote awareness. Tuesday night HEAT sponsored a screening of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth at Shriver and plans to have another screening Friday at the medical campus. Friday evening HEAT is co-sponsoring a dessert reception with the Jewish Student Association at the Hopkins Hillel. The reception, titled "Less Deserts, More Desserts: JSA and HEAT Tu'gether" will celebrate environmental awareness and the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish Arbor Day.
HEAT encourages other groups to join its coalition. "One of the reasons that we want to branch out to other groups on campus is because we feel like climate change is not just an environmental issue. It is an issue which everyone can find a reason to support, whether for political, economic, social, and even moral reasons," Norris said.
Last spring Hopkins took a big step toward becoming more environmentally friendly by hiring Davis Bookhart for the newly created position of manager of Energy Management and Environmental Stewardship. Members of HEAT have been working with Bookhart to develop a sustainable building policy. This policy would ensure that all new buildings receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and have high energy efficiency. HEAT has also been working with Bookhart to develop creative ways for sustainability.
"A methane digester is what we are working with Bookhart on right now. Basically it's a form of renewable energy generation that is going to provide about 10% of Hopkins electricity," Blake Hough, a senior HEAT member, said.
HEAT believes that as a top university with a large endowment, Hopkins should be at the forefront. "Hopkins is a world leading research and scientific institution that should be on the cutting edge of sustainability and climate issues," Norris said.
