It’s an exciting time for environmental sustainability at Dartmouth! Green buildings,sustainability in courses, a campus sustainability coordinator, and lots of student and faculty mterest in sustainability … all this represents a new era of increased interest and activity in many environmental aspects of life at Dartmouth. This in turn presages a profound increase in awareness of the integrated nature of human activity and the environment of which we are a part. This creates an opportunity for Dartmouth to transform practices in its region, and more broadly to influence the thinking of its graduates in ways that can transform the world.

I have had the opportunity to be on campus three times in the past year, and during those times have heard a good deal about movement in the Dartmouth community towards sustainable practices on a variety of fronts. There are new buildings going up that will be certified as “green” under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDTM) Green Building Rating System program. These will implement a variety of energy efficiency and green building measures that will make the buildings perform better and have less impact on the environment. At the same time, the LEED ratings will raise awareness in the Dartmouth community of the steps taken to achieve this higher performance, and of the leadership role that Dartmouth is taking to incorporate sustainable design into its facilities.

The Thayer School is working to integrate sustainability concepts into all of their courses, so that it becomes a natural part of the way of thinking of Dartmouth engineers. This has the double effect of getting the faculty to think more closely about these issues and to raise the awareness of future generations of students who take engineering courses. Ultimately, the goal is that thinking about sustainability and the environmental impacts of all human activities becomes a natural integral part of the approach taken to any engineering problem - as opposed to an “add on” activity that is done after the fact. This fundamental change in thinking will lead to whole new ways of characterizing problems and to entirely new solutions that will be more environmentally sustainable.
The recent job posting for the position of Sustainability Coordinator at Dartmouth is also an exciting development as the college endeavors to “become a leader in sustainability thought, practice, and education, and to be a sustainable institution through sound environmental, social, and economic practices.” [quoted from job posting]. This makes clear the college’s intent to accelerate the integration of sustainability into all of the college’s activities.

Given Dartmouth’s role in the isolated Hanover area, these initiatives have the potential to make a significant impact on the practices and knowledge of sustainability in the entire region. This will manifest itself in terms of construction practices such as diversion of construction waste from landfills, procurement of environmentally preferable materials, and control of indoor air quality in buildings during construction. It will also affect the supply of products and services for maintaining and operating the buildings.

Taken together, Dartmouth’s moves in these areas are more significant than those I have seen at other colleges and universities. Many institutions of higher education are making efforts to improve the performance of their facilities, including using the LEED rating system. But the integrated approach that Dartmouth is taking beyond buildings to every aspect of its program is broader than what I have observed anywhere else, and has the potential to accomplish something profound. Sustainability can indeed become a standard practice in our economy, but only if places like Dartmouth lead the way … , and I am proud to see that Dartmouth seems to be doing its part I urge you to press forward with this agenda even when challenges and difficulties arise in doing so.