Campus Sustainability and Resource Conservation as a College Core Value

Colby College is committed to nurturing environmental awareness through its academic program as well as through its activities on campus and beyond. As a local and global environmental citizen, the College adheres to the core values of respect for the environment and sustainable living. Colby seeks to lead by example and fosters morally responsible, environmental stewardship. Environmentally safe practices inform and guide campus strategic planning, decision making, and daily operations. We urge community members to recognize personal and institutional responsibilities for reducing impact on the local and global environment. Finally, we recognize that achieving environmental sustainability will be an ongoing challenge that evolves, as we become more aware and educated as a community

Colby Environmental Awards and Press Releases Colby College's work for the environment has been recognized by the State of Maine and regionally. We have also disseminated best practices that describe tangible actions Colby has taken to reduce the environmental impact of its campus operations.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory The Green House Gas Emissions Inventory was developed by Carolyn Hunt '05 and continued by other Colby students, most recently by Jamie O'Connell ('08) to give Colby an overall sense of its consumption and emissions trends. We are making these data available to the public and other institutions to assist others in reaching their emission targets and to continue efforts to reach the region's voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. The audit report can be viewed at http://www.colby.edu/environ/audit/ and Jamie O'Connell's honors thesis on Colby's emmissions and be downloaded from that site.
Environmental Advisory Group The Environmental Advisory Group was formed to address the environmental initiatives of the campus. The site was created to give the EAG an online presence for on- and off-campus audiences. The EAG hopes to use the site as an information resource to raise awareness about ongoing environmental initiatives, to promote environmental consciousness for the campus, to show prospective and external audiences that Colby is actively addressing environmental concerns, and to demonstrate that the EAG is a dynamic organization. Goals and Accomplishments	Featured EAG Projects Learn more about the newly established Environmental Studies Club Faculty and staff are working cooperatively to monitor the development of the Colby Green. For more details visit the Colby Green Site
Green Dining Part of doing business in today's world, includes being a good citizen to the communities in which you reside. Toward that end, Dining Services has joined forces with Colby's Physical Plant Department to reduce water usage and improve waste management which resulted in winning the 2002 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence. Dining Services also works with Colby's Environmental Advisory Group to seek out ways to do our business without adversely affecting the world around us and assists both Sodexho and Colby College in their efforts to relieve world hunger by working with local food banks and shelters. The links above will give you more detailed information about these programs.
The Environmental Studies Program The mission of the Program in Environmental Studies is to provide our students with an interdisciplinary, liberal arts education. We strive to present students with a positive learning environment that encourages creative, responsible, interdisciplinary independent thinking. We do this through lecture, seminar, laboratory, and fieldwork as well as through opportunities for collaborative research, off-campus internships, and study abroad. The Environmental Studies curriculum provides our students with both breadth and depth of training in the discipline and emphasizes the relationship between humans and the environment. Faculty and staff associated with the program are committed to excellence in teaching, student advising, scholarship, service to the college, and to community outreach. Sustainability Initiatives	ES Colloquium Events Calendar May 5th - The Role of Philanthropy in Changing Environmental Policies: A Look at Climate Change and Marine Conservation Kristian Parker '94, Oak Foundation Trustee 7:30 pm - Olin 01 For a complete list of the Spring 2008 colloquia events, click here. For a complete list of the Fall 2007 colloquia events, click here.
The Colby Green: Environmental Stewardship Colby's commitment to environmental stewardship will be evident in all phases of the campus expansion. State of the art run-off management and sedimentation ponds ensure that the quality of storm-water run-off--not just from the newly developed area but from the entire campus-- has been improved by completion of the remediation systems. In addition, buildings on Colby Green are being designed to apply for certification through the U.S. Green Building Council's "Leader in Energy and Environmental Design" (LEED) program, one of the buildings will use geothermal wells for heating and cooling. Take a look at a short video that shows some of Colby's initiatives for making the campus more "green".	Colby Green Links Colby Green Brochure (PDF) The Colby Green website "Reshaping the Hill", an article in the Colby Magazine