Gulls all over the globe proudly wear navy blue and green to represent their alma mater— now, Endicott College is truly earning that ‘green’ badge with a new Sustainability Plan.
While Endicott has long championed sustainability as a guiding principle, never before has the College released a comprehensive plan to drive all sustainable initiatives with one strategic focus. This new plan, which will steer the institution through 2030, outlines bold objectives to dramatically reduce the College’s carbon footprint and address environmental injustices to create a healthier and more equitable community. It will be a living document, changing to address new angles as Endicott meets goals and evaluates progress over many years.
The plan’s cornerstone goal is to achieve net zero emissions by the College’s 100th anniversary in 2039. Additional highlights include developing onsite renewable energy infrastructure to support 25% of campus power, developing educational forums to confront systemic and environmental racism, reaching a 75% diversion rate for all waste, and integrating sustainability-focused courses into the general education core curriculum.
“Endicott has always been clear that sustainability is a priority for the College, and now this new plan gives us an opportunity to make that dedication to the environment more public and more actionable,” said Endicott College President Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D. “Developing it was a major collaborative undertaking, and the energy put into creating these goals illustrates our commitment to doing our part to mitigate climate change.”
The Office of Sustainability will drive many of the details of this plan, with support from the entire Endicott community. Thanks to the broad scope of the team of faculty, staff, and students who made up the Campus Sustainability Committee—which first met in 2018 and created the plan over the past six years—there’s a role for everyone.
“Endicott has always been clear that sustainability is a priority for the College, and now this new plan gives us an opportunity to make that dedication to the environment more public and more actionable,” said Endicott College President Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D.
Four Pillars
The plan is organized into four pillars, established to ensure strategies are in place to address weaknesses and build upon strengths in all corners of the Endicott community:
Climate & Energy
More than most institutions, our coastal College understands the effects of mass climate change like rising sea levels and temperature changes. To help mitigate climate change effects, the plan addresses reducing campus energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Campus Operations
Supporting campus growth while reducing our environmental impact is a delicate balance. This pillar includes waste and water reduction, grounds management, and responsible purchases of furniture, appliances, and even light bulbs.
Health & Equity
Low-income and marginalized communities are affected disproportionately by environmental harm and the lack of resources, and tools to combat climate change can be expensive. This pillar seeks to support and educate our students and surrounding communities who may need help in the fight for environmental justice and overall health and well-being.
Experiential Learning
No mission of Endicott’s is complete without the signature tenet of experiential learning. These plan features will drive student engagement and encourage partnerships with local nonprofits, businesses, and organizations.
The importance of these pillars is to illustrate that sustainability must be an inclusive endeavor that engages people from all areas, said Gordon T. Ober, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Environmental Science.
Key Features
Reaching net zero emissions is a notable part of the Sustainability Plan, which means eliminating all greenhouse gasses—including carbon, methane, nitrous oxide, and others— being emitted into the atmosphere. A massive step towards that goal is to pledge carbon neutrality, which President DiSalvo recently did via the national climate action nonprofit Second Nature.
“We are especially excited about the ambitious steps we’ve outlined to achieve carbon neutrality by the College’s 100th anniversary in 2039,” he explained. “By joining the Second Nature President’s Climate Leadership Carbon Commitment, we’ve built in benchmarks to help us reach that goal. What a spectacular way that would be to celebrate our centennial.”
Achieving net zero on Endicott’s campus involves several considerations. The first step is to pursue energy efficiency by retrofitting older buildings with new energy-saving technology. The College will then look at expanding on-site solar installations to reduce emissions from purchased electricity, exploring other energy sources like wind, geothermal, or tidal, and reducing dependence on fossil fuels by electrifying buildings and vehicles.
An important word for many of the plan’s initiatives is resilience—giving Endicott the ability to withstand the byproducts of climate change. This means, for instance, making sure our campus buildings can withstand extreme heat and storms that are increasing in frequency, or exploring sourcing at local community farms to rely less on global food chains.
A driving force for change
With this new plan, long-standing sustainability goals and new ideas are combined in a document that’s more transparent, specific, and actionable than previous work has been. Where Endicott previously reported on waste output, for example, the College will now formally measure year-over-year to see if reduction measures are working. Offering occasional environmental justice programming now becomes measuring engagement and counting events. And thanks to searches for grant opportunities, federal funding, rebates, and incentives, Endicott will have new tools to measure success.
“This plan brings Endicott to the next level in terms of commitment by providing an excellent framework to help drive sustainability forward on campus,” said Rick Gagnon, Associate Vice President of Facilities Operations. “It’s great to see the community rally around these changes and share encouragement as we all do our part.”
Even though climate change and environmental destruction are global problems that require drastic shifts in thinking, Ober added, it’s important to remember that individual actions can shape each person’s role and make a difference. “We may often think that we are just along for the ride and don’t have any autonomy, but we forget that our choices can have actual consequences,” he explained. “Endicott has a real chance to be a leader and an important voice for our region. The commitments we make to sustainability and climate change will permeate into the surrounding community and our students’ communities.”
You heard it here: we all have a part to play.
Let’s go green, Gulls.