[E&E seminars] Student, faculty, and staff support for MIT climate commitment

[kate parrot]

Dear all,

I invite you to sign a letter to President 
Hockfield that outlines a vision for an MIT 
greenhouse gas reduction strategy.

We will be collecting signatures through Monday January 22 at 2 PM.

We are on a short timeline because we understand 
there is talk right now in the President's office 
about a GHG strategy and we want to get our 
voices into the conversation asap. We will also 
be engaging students, faculty, and staff more 
widely in the longer term.

If you are a student, to view and sign the 
letter, go to: 
http://www.petitiononline.com/ghgzero/petition.html

If you are faculty or staff, go to:
http://www.petitiononline.com/facstaff/petition.html

(It's not really a petition, but this just makes 
it easy on our end to manage the signature 
process)


Thanks!

Kate Parrot
PhD, Sloan


Text of letter:

January 22, 2007

Dear President Hockfield,

We are writing to ask you to implement an MIT 
greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitment and 
a community-wide Carbon Neutral Challenge.

We believe that it is time for MIT to publicly 
commit to a medium-term goal of greenhouse gas 
(GHG) emissions reduction and adopt a long-term 
vision of carbon neutrality. We belong to the 
next generation that will inherit the legacy of 
global warming, and we ask you to act now. We 
offer several justifications for our request, and 
we propose a strategy that we believe achieves 
significant GHG reductions, addresses financial 
risk and drives long-term energy cost savings, 
while empowering and mobilizing the MIT community.

Justifications for an MIT Climate Commitment

We are already seeing the effects of climate 
change. Abnormally warm weather,  evidence about 
rapidly melting glaciers,  and sea level rise 
suggest that global climate change is already 
happening. The MIT campus and City of Cambridge 
sit roughly 10 feet above sea level, well below 
predictions of sea level rise in the coming 
decades. This stark fact should inspire us to do 
our part to mitigate the effects of climate 
change.
Walking the Talk: The mission of the MIT Energy 
Initiative includes "enhancing campus operations" 
and incorporates a "Walking the Talk" component. 
Walking the talk on energy policy and practice 
for the 21st century is a powerful way to 
communicate MIT's energy leadership to students, 
faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public. 
Inaction invites disappointment, charges of 
hypocrisy, and missed opportunities for MIT to 
demonstrate our capacity for bold and timely 
action.
MIT's Culture: MIT's talented community harbors a 
tremendous passion for working to reduce our 
carbon footprint. We love to crack tough 
problems, and would relish the opportunity to 
tackle one of the biggest challenges our 
generation faces.  Establishing reduction goals 
will catalyze community action.
Global Leadership: A number of universities, 
including Yale, Cornell, University of 
California, and Tufts have already made 
greenhouse gas reduction commitments and embarked 
on aggressive reduction campaigns.  We want to be 
proud to say that our university is one of the 
leading institutions addressing the challenge of 
global warming.
Financial: Economic risks from high-carbon 
intensity already exist and will continue to 
grow. Energy prices are volatile and appear 
likely to increase as global demand for energy 
increases. Investing in GHG reductions now will 
pay large dividends in reduced risk exposure to 
rising fossil fuel prices. Most GHG reduction 
approaches focus on energy efficiency and 
conservation, thus offering MIT significant 
long-term energy cost savings opportunities.
Your own words inspire this letter:
The power of leading by example is important to 
MIT and for facilitating changeŠWhile the Energy 
Initiative itself and the Energy Research Council 
is envisioned primarily as research and education 
focused, I very much hope that we will also lead 
by example and develop programs, adopt 
technologies, and innovate approaches that model 
sustainable energy practices on our campus.
- President Susan Hockfield, November 14, 2005


MIT Strategy for Meeting the Global Climate Challenge
We ask you to consider a two-part strategy for 
addressing GHG emissions: a floor-level 
commitment to emissions reduction and a Carbon 
Neutral Challenge to the MIT community.

1) Floor-level commitment to GHG emissions reductions
An MIT Greenhouse Gas Reduction Initiative White 
Paper, prepared by the Environmental Programs 
Office and the Department of Facilities, and 
submitted to the MIT Energy Research Council in 
2006, proposed a reasonable GHG commitment of 
1990 emissions by 2015 and 10% below 1990 
emissions by 2020. We support this target.

This level of commitment will place the Institute 
on a responsible path, one that is roughly on par 
with the Kyoto Protocol and the commitments of 
other major universities and corporations. 
Although this goal will require hard work, the 
Energy Research Council White Paper indicates 
that sufficient reductions can be made through 
energy conservation, cogeneration expansion, 
energy efficient new construction, and renewable 
power investments. Most of these efforts could be 
revenue-positive investments, according to the 
White Paper.

2) Carbon Neutral Challenge
We propose that you issue to the MIT community a 
Carbon Neutral Challenge, which would challenge 
institutional stakeholders to achieve carbon 
neutrality as quickly as possible. No binding 
dates would be set for a carbon neutral campus, 
but we would revisit the Challenge every five 
years to evaluate our progress and adjust our 
strategy to achieve a long-term vision of carbon 
neutrality.

A Carbon Neutral Challenge will help transform 
the MIT campus into a living laboratory for how 
to address one of the most important challenges 
of the 21st century. The Challenge would 
stimulate the MIT community to employ our talent, 
passion, and technical knowledge to far surpass 
the responsible floor-level commitment you have 
set out in the first phase of the MIT GHG 
strategy.

Our experience with the student-led MIT Generator 
(http://sustainability.mit.edu/Generator) 
demonstrates that students, faculty, and staff 
are eager to collaborate to realize energy 
savings on campus. The Carbon Neutral Challenge 
would catalyze even more exciting campus-based 
educational, research, and practice 
opportunities. Falling short of the high 
aspiration of carbon neutrality will be viewed as 
a noble effort, not as a failure. If and when we 
do achieve this high-level, long-term vision, it 
will be a momentous accomplishment setting 
international precedent and demonstrating MIT's 
brilliance, ingenuity, and global leadership.

Mechanisms for achieving GHG emissions reductions
A. Harness and Expand Existing Efforts
Both the floor goal and the challenge goal could 
be supported by and integrated into the Energy 
Initiative, the student-led MIT Generator, and a 
significant funding mechanism, such as an MIT 
Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund. A similar 
funding mechanism at Harvard, the $12 million 
dollar Harvard Green Campus Loan Fund has 
achieved a stunning 28% return on investment 
(ROI) for its collective projects.

B. Dialogue-to-Action
The floor goal and the carbon neutral challenge 
and the mechanisms supporting both could be 
developed in a Town Hall dialogue process this 
Spring with administrators, students, faculty, 
and staff, and be ready to announce by Earth Day 
this year, April 26th.


The Vision
The combination of a pragmatic floor-level 
commitment and an MIT Carbon Neutral Challenge 
would transform MIT into a living laboratory for 
energy policy and action in the 21st century-a 
community-wide adventure into learning at the 
frontier of teamwork and innovation. We would be 
proud to belong to an institution of higher 
education with such dedication to the global 
climate change problem, and such a bold and 
exciting vision for addressing it.


Sincerely,

Concerned MIT Students and Student Organizations


cc: L. Rafael Reif, MIT Provost
Phillip Clay, MIT Chancellor
Sherwin Greenblatt, Interim Executive Vice President
Terry Stone, Incoming Executive Vice President
Ernest Moniz, Chair, Energy Council
Robert Armstrong, Chair, Energy Council
Leon Glicksman, Chair, Energy Council Walk the Talk Task Force
Angela Belcher, Chair, Energy Council Education Task Force
Kirk Kolenbrander, VP for Institute Affairs and 
Secretary of the MIT Corporation

-- 

Kate W. Parrot
PhD Candidate
Organization Studies Group
MIT Sloan School of Management

Cell (main #): 857-523-8234
Home: 617-623-3267
Email: kparrot at mit.edu
Skype: kateparrot
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