A group of college presidents from across the country met at Agnes Scott College on Monday pledging an expansion of efforts to fight climate change.
The leaders are part of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, an alliance of 650 colleges and universities that has for years worked on environmental sustainability initiatives on its campuses. Through the new Climate Commitment, 45 of the presidents have agreed to a expand the work to include climate resilience.
Working with the Boston-based nonprofit Second Nature, the new commitment updates the approach to climate action and combines the colleges’ efforts to reduce their carbon footprints with the new resilience component. Each of the commitments requires institutions to implement research and student learning components.
“We have worked closely with our presidential leadership to ensure this expansion would empower the network to continue to push what is possible in climate leadership,” said Tim Carter, Second Nature’s president. “College and university leaders hold a special place in our society, and they are in a unique position to lead on climate issues.”
On Agnes Scott’s campus, the new resilience commitment will mean strengthening existing partnerships and building new ones with the cities of Decatur and Atlanta on climate-change issues, said Elizabeth Kiss, Agnes Scott’s president. Agnes Scott, which joined with coalition in 2007, is working toward sharing an energy planner with Decatur. Classes involving sustainability curriculum will be expanded to address the region’s response to climate change and the impact of changing weather patterns.
“Our mission statement includes living honorably, and sustainability is a natural part of that,” said Elizabeth Rice, a recent Agnes Scott graduate now completing a two-year sustainability fellowship. “We want to produce students who view sustainability as a lifelong commitment. We want to make it part of our student ethic.”
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