Mount Holyoke College's Environment: History
Picture courtesy of MHC Archives.
Since there was a general inability to commit time to such organizations, some students voiced interest in CECP, or Colleagues for Environmental and Consumer Protection. CECP was an initiative that sought to provide academic courses which would "deal directly with local and environmental and consumer concerns." This way students could earn "valuable credits" while learning about "critical political issues" (MHC Archives).
Activism on Campus
Picture courtesy of MHC Archives.
This letter from the MHC Conservation Committee is a call to make recycling pickup a paid campus job. As noted earlier, the committee believed that the recycling of paper and glass should be made "an integral part of campus life." There was some difficulty retaining volunteer drivers for the recycling program, and so the committee thought that installing recycling as a campus job would more strongly establish it for years to come.
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Mount Holyoke students working in the MHC Student Garden. Picture courtesy of MHC Student Garden Project.
This is the food waste disposal at the dishroom window. There is a set of these disposal bins in every dining hall dishroom. Picture courtesy of MHC ECO-Reps.
To the left is the seal of the LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, which Creighton Hall recieved in 2008. Pictured to the right is Creighton Hall. Both images are courtesy of MHC News & Events.
The 2010 reusable mug which was used to reduce paper cup usage in dining halls. Photo courtesy of the MHC ECO-Reps.
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Photo courtesy of the MHC Alumnae Association
Mount Holyoke has a vibrant history of environmental activism. With the help of Mount Holyoke's Archives and of course a plethora of other accessible campus resources, we have been able to compile a timeline of environmentally relevant events.
In our research, one of the earliest signs of activism was Mount Holyoke’s MassPIRG membership starting in 1972. MassPIRG or Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, was a “statewide student directed organization that [did] research, advocacy, and public education on environmental and consumer issues.”(MHC Archives) MassPIRG chapters were funded by student activity fees. During the 1983-1984 academic school year for example, the fee for members was $2 per semester. In 1983, Mount Holyoke contributed $3,252.00 to MassPIRG. This sum was raised by 764 students who paid $4, and 98 students who paid $2. Though Mount Holyoke’s MassPIRG chapter had many members, students complained that participation outside of paying dues was greatly lacking because students were so heavily committed to academics, and so they didn’t have a lot of time to allocate to the organization.
In May 1974, the Mount Holyoke College Conservation Committee was founded. The organization sought to make the recycling of paper and glass an “integral part of campus life.” In the 1975-1976 academic year, the committee had created their own recycling program. It consisted of a 5-member group that made 2-weekly collections from all the dorms and some office buildings. They used the geology van (free of charge) and a private car. They stored the papers in a garage owned by the maintenance facility until several tons had been collected. For this project, they spent $46.50 on bundling twine and $10 for mailing costs and gas for one semester. The committee also organized an annual clean-up of upper and lower lake.
In 1976, the Energy Foundation was created. This organization sought to “Make students aware of the growing energy crisis. Through student oriented projects and events, the foundation aimed to educate members and the community about the energy problem."(MHC Archives) The foundation hosted several syposiums where they would dialouge about the energy problem.
In 1983, the Environmental Awareness project was created.
Facilities management implemented a recycling program in 1991, which is still in place today.
In 1998, the Miller Worley Center for the Environment was established. The center is “dedicated to engaging MHC students more actively in the scientific, social/human, and global dimensions of environmental study."
In the same year (1998), Mount Holyoke re-implemented the Campus Conservation Coalition's “Kill-a-Watt” contest. The Kill-A-Watt competition is "a contest between the dorms to conserve electricity. Each month, the dorm that has decreased its energy use the most from the same month the year before is the winning dorm" (MHC Environmental Action Coalition). After the program was reinstated, dorm energy consumption went down an average of 7%.
In 2003, Mount Holyoke added 2 Toyota Hybrid Sedans to its fleet. These hybrids, which were driven an estimated 20,000 miles per year, could save up to 1,200 gallons of gasoline compared to the Ford Taurus Sedans they replaced. Paul Ominsky, the College's director of public safety at the time, stated that purchase of the hybrid vehicles was "perfectly in line with the goal of the institution to be a good environmental steward" (MHC News & Events).
The ECO-Reps were founded in 2004. The Eco-Reps are "enthusiastic student sustainability educators that focus on campus sustainability issues" (MHC ECO-Reps).
In the same year (2004), with the help of the Center for the Environment, Mount Holyoke’s Student Garden was created. The mission statement of the garden is "To foster an increased awareness of local, sustainable food production systems and to provide an on-campus field site for the study of agro-ecological principles." (MHC Student Garden Project)
In 2005, composting was implemented in the dining halls. Dining services staff compost pre-consumer food prep waste, "including items such as potato peels, lettuce trimmings, and the like." (MHC Dining Services) Guests and students compost food waste disposal at the dishroom window.
After an Environmental Studies senior seminar proposed an idea to Facilities Management 2006, water-saving faucets were installed in residential halls. This student-initiated project that would reduce water flow from faucets was expected to reduce water use by 77%. To learn more about this, please see the "water" section of this website.
In 2007, the Enviornmental Studies Department was officially founded.
In 2008, Creighton Hall was built and received a LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The construction of Creighton Hall was "overseen by the U.S. Green Building Council, [and they] recognize environmentally conscious building projects by using a specified list of qualifications." (MHC Environmental Sustainability)
Some of Creighton's conservation features include: high-tech envelope insulation, high-performance windows, solar hot water system, and daylight level sensors that adjust lighting levels, among many others. Additionally, Creighton's water-use efficiency is quite impressive as it uses 35 percent less water than what the Massachusetts code allows.
As John Bryant concluded, the creation of Creighton with environmental awarness in mind, was in line with Mount Holyoke's duty: “Energy conservation is a win-win. It’s the right thing to do for the environment because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and it reduces the College’s operating costs year after year.”(MHC News & Events)
In 2010, Mount Holyoke met and exceeded its 2010 goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. MHC emitted 15,405 tons of carbon dioxide in 1990. By 2010, emission levels were nearly 10% lower at 13,867 tons of carbon dioxide. These numbers were acheived in spite of a 9.5% increase in building footage, as well as a substantial increase in equipment such as computers. This laudable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, along with helping the environment, was also very beneficial to the operating budget. In fact it is estimated that 23 conservation projects from 2004-2010, has saved Mount Holyoke College $420,000. The success of this goal resulted in another college goal: to cut 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by an additional 10% by 2020.
Also in 2010, the Mount Holyoke ECO-Reps teamed up with dining services to implement a reusable mug system in order to reduce the use of paper to-go cups. With the reusable mug system in place, dining services was able to remove to-go cups during dinner meals. Dining services noted that the change reduced paper cup usage by 81,650 or about $5,000. This also affected the production side, as "The reduction in cup usage also reduced the amount of water to 23,201 gallons and paper to 3.3 tons that would be needed to make those cups." (MHC Environmental and Sustainable Practices)
According to John Bryant, who was the College’s Director of Facilities Planning and Management in 2008: "The new building [Creighton] is 45 percent more energy efficient than the Massachusetts building code requires for new construction, and MA's code is one of the more stringent in the country." (MHC News & Events)
Mount Holyoke's long history of environmental awarness and activism has laid the expectation to maintain ever-increasing eco-friendly advances for years to come. With hope and ambition leading the way, MHC students, faculty, and staff will continue on the path to more sustainable practices. As Nancy Apple, the director of environmental health and safety for MHC and Hampshire College stated when reflecting on the college reaching its 2010 greenhouse gas emissions goal, "It takes both projects and behavioral change programs to make this happen. I give credit to the entire MHC campus."(MHC News & Events) And with that the entire MHC campus will forge ahead!