AURORA — Another regional college signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment Friday.
Wells College's president, Lisa Marsh Ryerson, signed the agreement with members of the faculty, student body and Board of Trustees looking on.
Ann Rollo, vice president for communications and college relations, said, “It's important for colleges to be leaders in this matter. When we take steps to be more climate neutral, it's important to the community.”
Rollo said having a college's name on the commitment will help prospective students who consider sustainability a priority to make a decision about which school they attend.
“I think it will play a part in the sense that more students and more families want to make decisions to attend schools that further their own values,” she said.
Ryerson formed a research and steering committee last academic year that looked at whether Wells would be able to meet the standards required by the commitment, Rollo said.
That committee found the commitment is in keeping with the school's own value system, she said.
The next step for Wells is to develop a comprehensive a plan to reduce its carbon footprint. Signatories to the commitment promise to create structures to implement the development of the plan within two months and to take an inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions within a year.
Within two years, the commitment's participants promise to develop an action plan to become climate neutral, including a target date for neutrality and incorporating sustainability into the curriculum.
One of the things Wells is looking at doing is purchasing more energy from clean energy sources. Some of its energy already comes from these sources, Rollo said.
Wells is the 46th New York college or university to have signed the commitment, including Cornell under David Skorton and Ithaca College under former president Peggy Williams.
