100% Renewable Campuses Panel Covers Environmental Action at Bryn Mawr

By Adrian Velonis, Co-Editor-in-Chief

The non-profit PennEnvironment hosted a Zoom webinar titled “100% Renewable Campuses Panel” on the evening of August 12 for students, alumni, and other community members seeking environmental action from colleges and universities. The group’s self-stated mission is to provide a platform for “people-powered environmental advocacy.” Bryn Mawr’s president, Kimberly Cassidy, was in attendance as a presenter. Other presenters included Dr. Aurora Sharrard, the director of sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh, and several environmental- and social justice-oriented student activists from Temple, Penn State, and UCLA.

After a round of introductions, Cassidy began the panel with a summary of how Bryn Mawr had addressed community concerns about sustainability and environmental impact over the past few years. The most significant of these was the decision of the administration to purchase 100% renewable energy, a plan which had input from all sectors of campus, including students, faculty, staff, and the board of trustees.

The college conducted a greenhouse gases inventory in 2007–08 in order to determine the extent of what needed to be changed in order to accommodate a goal of 100% renewable energy. A full climate action plan was subsequently developed, and the institution made the commitment to reduce 30% of overall carbon emissions by 2030. That goal was actually reached in 2015, a full 15 years before its anticipated date.

According to Cassidy, “a large piece of [our success] was our move to wind energy as our source for electricity.” In addition to renewable sourcing, the college also made use of LED lightbulbs and employed more efficient procedures for thermostat adjustment timing in campus buildings.

Cassidy also mentioned the student-led fossil fuel divestment movement that had gathered over 700 signatures earlier this year. The movement prompted the college’s board of trustees to meet and discuss the possibility of divestment, which would remove fossil fuel assets from the college’s endowment. However, the board ultimately decided that “[it] was not the greatest way the college could [make] a sustainable footprint.” Cassidy explained that the board agreed on the importance of making a commitment to environmental sustainability, but not through means of divesting from fossil fuel companies.

A consensus between the student body and administrators was reached, however, on the purchase of 100% wind energy. It was “very clear that [purchasing wind energy] was the priority and people could galvanize over it,” Cassidy said. “Our next frontier is carbon neutrality for the institution. We were engaged before COVID started in this very question: in what ways can we get there, [through] behavioral changes, carbon offsets, or other ways?” Although the college’s priorities have shifted since the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home early, she remarked that “we hope that this coming academic year we can engage in these conversations again.”

Other presenters in the meeting also discussed measures that their institutions and activism groups had taken to reduce their respective carbon footprints. The University of Pittsburgh’s Dr. Sharrard shared details about the university’s goal to reach 100% renewables by 2037, including public power purchase agreements. The university has already begun to source electricity from a low-impact hydro facility on the Allegheny River, as well as from a nearby 30,000 megawatt hour solar farm.

Student activists also shared their experiences in gathering student support for environmental causes, in addition to working with their schools’ administrations in order to see those sentiments manifest as substantive change. Nicolas Riani ‘21, the board chair for the California Student Public Interest Research Groups, emphasized the importance of student activists having both an “outside and inside game.” On the outside, circulating petitions and gathering student and faculty support for environmental causes is essential to convincing the administration to take action. On the inside, however, Riani stated that it was important to build up relationships with the “key decision-makers” in the administration to channel the energy of the student body in a productive way. Even after lackluster responses from admin, his organization was able to see progress by continuing to gather community support, and was eventually able to return to administration with a stronger following.

Many institutions have difficulty switching to completely renewable energy, particularly larger ones. Divya Jain ‘21, the Co-President for EcoAction at Penn State, touched on the university’s 2005 goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% compared to 1990 levels. Since then, emissions have been reduced by 32–35%, but it hasn’t always been easy. According to Jain, Penn State continued to burn coal until 2016, when it finally made the switch to natural gas. “One of the biggest obstacles is literally just inertia about not wanting to change the way that things are operating,” she remarked. “The biggest way to combat that is to make the administration aware of these problems and emphasise that there’s a need for change, and continue gathering community and make sure that the administration very clearly knows that there’s support across the board for it.”

Environmental activism isn’t just about clean energy, though; the fossil fuel industry is deeply intertwined with systems that marginalize underprivileged communities. Sheima Abbas ‘23 spoke for the Sunrise Movement at Temple University when she explained how environmental advocacy can also help address “systematic racism, classism, and colonialism.” In June 2019, a refinery owned by Philadelphia Energy Solutions exploded and was shut down after a fire. The facility, which was the largest oil refinery on the east coast, was located in a low-income Black neighborhood and has been sourced by the Environmental Integrity Project as the cause of major health concerns with members of the community, including higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and asthma, among other conditions.

The panel continued into a Q&A session where the panelists answered questions from attendees. A prominent question that arose was how to pressure an institution to move their renewability goals closer. Sharrard commented, “[For colleges,] if you’re at a 2025 or 2030 goal, you’re already doing well. If you’re out further than 2030, have a conversation about whether it’s a science-based target for your institution. Have someone run the numbers.” Oftentimes, long-term energy contracts prevent institutions from making major changes immediately. However, if a school isn’t pursuing renewability as aggressively as it could be, there’s a place for student activism. “You need to have a strategy that’s multi-pronged,” Cassidy said. “100% renewability is one thing, [but] carbon neutrality goals like that are going to require the institution to do a lot of different things. Having too narrow a focus doesn’t give the institutions enough latitude to actually get there. It’s going to take a lot, especially if you want to move fast.”

There were also a number of questions related to holding institutions accountable for climate goals. Sharrard suggested that having schools put up the numbers on an online dashboard would increase the visibility of their progression (or lack thereof). Cassidy also noted that climate goals are “quite labor-intensive” and “often put on staff who already have other jobs.” She emphasized the possibility of student initiative, stating that activist groups could push for paid student internships or similar positions to help out, or even collecting data as part of a class project. Jain stated how important it was to research the institution’s current goals and any past measures it’s taken to address climate change. “Especially talk to older students and staff. Then find a bunch of other people who are interested in the same thing, because there’s power in numbers!” she said. “Focus on the solutions that are financially feasible for the school, as that’s something that administrators are concerned about at many institutions.”

The voices of alumni are also a powerful tool in shaping institutional change. Jain remarked that alumni “have a stronger voice than they realize,” especially financially. Alumni can request that their donations be directed toward a particular area, such as renewability and sustainability efforts. Reaching out to their alma maters and saying, “‘I went here, I’m proud of this school, and I want this school to be better,’ goes a long way,” she continued. Abbas also noted that “having alumni tell you their experiences and advice after four years is very helpful to future leaders of student advocacy groups.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced additional challenges for student leaders in organizing environmental advocacy events. “One difficulty that’s explicit to COVID is getting a big group of students and being able to have effective outreach, having a big chunk of the student body mobilizing,” said Abbas. “We really have to get creative with how we’re doing outreach if not in person.”

Progress has already been made in turning Bryn Mawr into a greener campus. With continued attention from the student body, faculty, staff, and administration, the college can remain on track to go 100% renewable over the coming years.

Image credit: PennEnvironment