President William Brody announced plans to significantly reform its environmental policies, but did not commit the University to reaching total net elimination of all carbon emissions.
In a letter released to students, faculty and staff on July 23, Brody vowed to "reduce, with the vision of carbon neutrality, the emissions of greenhouse gases derived from university operations." Brody also outlined broader goals of lessening carbon emissions in the Baltimore-Washington region, as well as using the University's strengths in science, technology, public health and public policy to contribute to combatting global warming on an international scale.
While the policy did not call for carbon neutrality, such a goal is still under consideration. "We will get to it, but it's a marathon, not a sprint," Davis Bookhart, manager of Energy Management and Environmental Stewardship, whose job entails the examination and reduction of the University's environmental impact, said. "You could take the philosophy that carbon neutrality is a steady sustainable state requiring a gradual timeline, and do it right, or that it's just a point in time. We are much more interested in the former."
Brody affirmed the importance of colleges in the fight against climate change, stating that such institutions must play a central role in meeting this challenge. We must forge new knowledge, use that knowledge to develop and implement solutions and pass along that knowledge so that our students will have the necessary tools to help solve our problems."
To execute the goals he outlined, Brody has called for the creation of a President's Task Force on Climate Change, whose first priority would be the development of a comprehensive plan of action, known as the Comprehensive Climate Strategic Plan, within one year.
Teryn Norris-Hale, president of the Hopkins Energy Action Team (HEAT) and currently the only undergraduate on the task force, said that while the task force has not yet been officially formed, an announcement by Brody detailing the members of the task force will be released within the next few weeks.
According to Norris-Hale, the list of potential members includes several national leaders, such as Mayo A. Shattuck III, the CEO of Constellation Energy, a Fortune 500 energy company headquartered in Baltimore, and Pamela Flaherty, the Director of Corporate Citizenship for Citibank Corp. Bookhart did not provide nor confirm any members, but did say that the University's senior vice president and deans are actively pursuing possibilities.
Norris-Hale also said members of HEAT were pleased with Brody's announcement. HEAT's general impression with Brody's decision is very positive. "It is a major success for HEAT and for Johns Hopkins University. I'm really happy overall," he said.
In 2006 HEAT was formed as a student-run organization committed to raising awareness of climate change. The group launched a campaign in an attempt to persuade the University, specifically Bookhart's Sustainability Committee and the Hopkins Student Council, to call for an elimination of the University's carbon footprint. While Brody did not mention HEAT by name in his letter, he did pledge "to incorporate student involvement as an essential element in all relevant greenhouse gas emissions reductions strategies."
Bookhart hopes that students will get involved on this issue as well. "This plan will open up a lot more opportunities for students to get involved in this field who want to be," he said. "There will be great avenues, whether research positions, internships or volunteering, on campus and in Baltimore."
Brody also said he wanted to develop a second "interdisciplinary working group, comprising University experts from different divisions, to focus on innovative and novel approaches to creating the appropriate incentives for individual, group and societal behavior changes as they relate to climate change." According to Bookhart, this group will be focusing exclusively on research.
Several well-known universities have similarly pledged their support in fighting global warming. Brody's letter states, "Johns Hopkins and a dozen other major universities - including the Ivy League institutions, Stanford, the University of Chicago and MIT - are exploring a strong, climate-focused collaborative."
But Bookhart wanted to make clear the reasoning behind the University's new policies. "We are doing this because of the critical needs for environmental stewardship around the global," he said. "This isn't about bragging rights."
HEAT will be organizing involvement in Powershift 2007, a November youth conference on climate change in College Park, Md. "Most important to me is establishing future educational projects for students interested in climate change," said Norris-Hale.
