Bowdoin College
PA-1: Sustainability Coordination

Bowdoin has both a Sustainability Implementation Committee and a Sustainability Office. The Sustainability Office within Facilities Management, leaders in Faciliites Mangment, the Treasurer's Office, and members of Bowdoin's Sustainability Implementation Committee focus on projects and efforts aimed at resource conservation, resource efficiency and waste reduction. The past three years the groups have focused a considerable amount of attention on the College's goal to become carbon neutral by 2020 and changing our recycling efforts toward a goal of zero-waste. The Sustainability Office also spends time on outreach and raising awareness about the college's sustainability efforts including how the Bowdoin community can play a part in these efforts. The college has implemented numerous sustainability accomplishments during the previous three years, many of which can be found at http://www.bowdoin.edu/sustainability/ A few examples include: 1) The installation of a 1.2 MW solar PV power purchase agreement on college owned land, which now provides roughly 8% of Bowdoin's electricity use. 2) The establishment of a relationship with Goodwill of Northern New England to handle all of the items left on campus during the student move-out at the end of the academic year. In 2014 this eliminated 56 tons of material from the waste stream. 3) The implementation of 20 lighting efficiency projects over the three year period, saving over 750,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. 4) Managing the implementation of an Energy Dashboard for the campus that provides realtime metering for electricity and steam use at 58 campus buildings and is utilized to promote energy conservation competitions among student residence halls.

The Sustainability Implementation Committee is responsible for identifying, funding, and tracking greenhouse gas-reducing initiatives, reporting annually on the College’s greenhouse gas emissions, and updating the Carbon Neutrality Implementation Plan every two years.

Sustainability Implementation Committee * S. Catherine Longley, Chair, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration & Treasurer * Donald Borkowski, Director of Capital Projects * Grace Butler, Student, Class 2016 * Kevin Hernandez, Student, Class of 2018 - Bowdoin Student Government Sustainability Representative * Guillermo Herrera, Associate Professor, Economics * Bruce Kohorn, Professor, Biology and Biochemistry * John Lichter, Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences, Environmental Studies * Keisha Payson, Sustainability Coordinator * Theodore Stam, Director of Facilities Operations and Maintenance * Del Wilson, Director of Finance and Campus Services * William Kai Wise, Student, Class of 2018

Bowdoin's sustainability office, which is housed in Faciltites Managment and reports to the VP of Finance, employs the Coordinator for a Sustainable Bowdoin and the Sustainability Communications and Outreach Corodinator. It also houses the student Eco-Rep program. It has an office and work space for coordinating many of the sustainability related events and programs on campus.

The Coordinator for a Sustainable Bowdoin, a .8 time position, focuses on both engaging faculty, staff and students in Bowdoin’s sustainability efforts as well as ensuring that Bowdoin integrates sustainable practices and policies in operations across campus. Initiatives overseen include significant waste reduction efforts during student move out, food waste diversion programs, Bowdoin’s transition to single stream recycling, alternative transportation programming, and focusing on efforts to reduce the college’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Sustainability Coordinator helped with the development of Bowdoin's climate action plan for the ACUPCC and works with Sustainability Implementation Committee to ensure that the College is continually advancing on its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020. The Sustainability Outreach Coordinator manages the Student Eco-Reps and student Office Staff, and also supports student groups on campus including Green Athletics and Green Bowdoin Alliance.