Green Team Takes the Lead with Sustainability on Campus
by Katherine Thompson ('07)

When students returned to campus this fall, campus looked a little ‘greener;’ a new environmental activism group, the Green Team, came into being over the summer. Team members welcomed students back to campus at Central Check-In with a display on recycling and energy conservation. They also arranged to have a vendor sell compact florescent (CF) light bulbs for $1. By the end of 2 days 1,700 CF bulbs were sold. Gary Hartwell, Project Manager at Physical Plant, and Todd Holland, Energy Manager for Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges, are the founding members of the Green Team, the informal ‘action branch’ of the College Sustainability Committee. The Green Team’s concerns span many areas of Smith's operations, including construction, transportation, purchasing, materials use, energy use, and waste management.

Green Team membership is open to all students, faculty, and staff. Current members include Crisi Clementi (‘06) EarthRep Coordinator; Lindsey French (‘08) Clean Energy for Smith Chair; Maria Karakitsos (‘06); Mai Kobayashi (‘06) Environmental Coalition leader; Katherine Thompson (‘07) Gaia Co-Chair; Joanne Benkley, Coordinator of the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ES&P); Ann Finley, Dining Services Area Manager; Carole Fuller, Director, Strategic Marketing; Leslie King, Assistant Professor of Sociology and ES&P; and David Smith, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program.

This year has started with a bang as Clean Energy for Smith jumpstarted a Million Monitor Drive conservation campaign with support from the GT, Physical Plant, and ITS. (See article p.1)

The Green Team has also been exploring composting options in response to student interest in re-starting such a program. (Smith had to give up its program two years ago when the local composting site refused to accept anymore food waste.) One option Dining Services is exploring is the possible installation of a trial “Scrap Collector” in one dining hall which would make composting easier. The Collector extracts water from food waste, making it lighter and easier to handle, thus alleviating one of the many hurdles to composting. Other composting options are also being considered.

On the transportation front, the Green Team is exploring replacing gas guzzling vehicles with hybrid, or, at the least, high MPG vehicles. Green Team students are discussing the possibility of leasing hybrids for use by student orgs with SGA president Ka’Neda Ellison and Rae-Ann Butera, Associate Dean of Students. Work on procuring biodiesel as an alternative fuel for Physical Plant vehicles is also afoot.

Besides coordinating action for change on campus, regular Team meetings and the formation of a Green Team website have also helped improve communication across campus about the many projects related to sustainability already being undertaken by Physical Plant and others. For example, compact florescent bulbs have been installed in many buildings across campus and older buildings without attic insulation have had it added in order to cut back on heating expenses. Many other projects– both underway and completed– can be found at the website. Simply go to the site listed below and click on “What Smith is doing.”