http://earthfirst.com/green-college-spotlight-williams-college/ A Sharp Eye -- With a Green Edge Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:35:39 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://earthfirst.com/green-college-spotlight-williams-college/comment-page-1/#comment-7597 E. Flynn Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:49:29 +0000 http://earthfirst.com/?p=3682#comment-7597 Williams has ran a student-led initiative called "Do It In The Dark", where dorms on campus compete to use the least amount of electricity, which greatly predates the shut down project you mentioned. Also, transportation should be lauded at Williams, as Larry points out. Nearly every student walks, bikes, skates to class. People don't drive to parties on the weekend because the all the dorms are basically on campus. This has been the Williams way since the late 1700s when the school first began- Do we get no credit for living the sustainable lifestyle before it was in vogue? That's AT LEAST an A-, at worst. Williams has ran a student-led initiative called “Do It In The Dark”, where dorms on campus compete to use the least amount of electricity, which greatly predates the shut down project you mentioned.
Also, transportation should be lauded at Williams, as Larry points out. Nearly every student walks, bikes, skates to class. People don’t drive to parties on the weekend because the all the dorms are basically on campus. This has been the Williams way since the late 1700s when the school first began- Do we get no credit for living the sustainable lifestyle before it was in vogue? That’s AT LEAST an A-, at worst.

]]> http://earthfirst.com/green-college-spotlight-williams-college/comment-page-1/#comment-6421 larry Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:57:57 +0000 http://earthfirst.com/?p=3682#comment-6421 Lowering the Williams score because the school purportedly doesn't have sustainable transportation makes no sense. It is a small residential college. Everyone walks to classes. In colder weather, they sometimes cross-country ski to class. Lots of students have bikes that they use in the fall, spring, and summer, and there is a free student bike repair club and facility and free use of the skis and snow shoes from the Outing Club. The school runs a bus to nearby towns for shopping and errands on the weekends. Grease from the dining halls helps fuel dining hall suppliers' vehicles. Students don't tend to go away for the weekend. Teams use vans and buses to get to games and the crew's and cross-country runners' off-campus areas. Students get to and leave the campus at the beginning and end of term by riding in high-occupancy chartered buses to the cities and the airport. Many of the faculty members live within walking distance of the campus. The college helps set up carpooling for faculty and staff members who live beyond walking distance. The college has purchased offsets for the transportation used in major events like graduation. Williams students, faculty, and staff probably have one of the lowest per person daily conventional car mileage of any campus in the country (except for places like Columbia and NYU that have the subway system and are in a low-car city). Lowering the Williams score because the school purportedly doesn’t have sustainable transportation makes no sense. It is a small residential college. Everyone walks to classes. In colder weather, they sometimes cross-country ski to class. Lots of students have bikes that they use in the fall, spring, and summer, and there is a free student bike repair club and facility and free use of the skis and snow shoes from the Outing Club. The school runs a bus to nearby towns for shopping and errands on the weekends. Grease from the dining halls helps fuel dining hall suppliers’ vehicles. Students don’t tend to go away for the weekend. Teams use vans and buses to get to games and the crew’s and cross-country runners’ off-campus areas. Students get to and leave the campus at the beginning and end of term by riding in high-occupancy chartered buses to the cities and the airport. Many of the faculty members live within walking distance of the campus. The college helps set up carpooling for faculty and staff members who live beyond walking distance. The college has purchased offsets for the transportation used in major events like graduation. Williams students, faculty, and staff probably have one of the lowest per person daily conventional car mileage of any campus in the country (except for places like Columbia and NYU that have the subway system and are in a low-car city).

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