“It was the right thing to do — both educationally and in service to our future,” said Sweet Briar President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld when asked why she signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

The College is a charter signatory to the commitment — a pledge to become climate neutral. According to the ACUPCC Web site, this means “having no net greenhouse gas emissions.” Colleges are supposed to get there “by minimizing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and using carbon offsets or other measures to mitigate the remaining emissions.”

Organizers of the initiative say they seek the commitment of 200 college and university presidents by June 2007. They are more than half way there, but the debate about global warming remains heated.

In a recent sermon, the founder and chancellor of the area’s largest private college, Liberty University, called the focus on global warming “endless hysteria and alarmism.”

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change disagrees. In a report released in February, the panel of international scientists concluded that there is more than a 90-percent certainty that humans contribute to global warming.

And then there is former Vice President Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Supporters laud Gore for raising public awareness of climate change. Detractors say there are scientific inaccuracies in the film and that Gore’s analysis of the impacts of global warming are exaggerated and alarmist.

The verbal sparring between supporters and skeptics is enough to make the average person dizzy. At Sweet Briar however, the debate is over.

“One wonders why we [the United States] are still debating when scientists world-wide have stopped debating,” Muhlenfeld said.

The Commitment calls for signatories to take a leadership role in addressing global warming. Environmental studies professor Rob Alexander said it is fitting that the nation’s colleges and universities take on this role.

“There is no one else who can make a statement with the authority of the nation's colleges and universities. We are the ones who really understand what is going on. We are the ones who are supposed to be intellectually honest enough to face reality even when it's not comfortable.”

And participating in the Climate Commitment may not be comfortable for Sweet Briar. The College could have difficulty meeting some of the requirements due to its size and the age of the campus buildings, many of which were built in the early part of the 20th century. Participation may also require significant capital investment over the next decade — funds that are not currently part of the College’s operating budget. Muhlenfeld said she expects any required funds to come from donations and grants.

Despite the challenges, she was encouraged to sign the Commitment.

“I would love for Sweet Briar to participate in this initiative because it shows leadership and forward-thinking in what is probably the most significant environmental issue of this century,” Rebecca Ambers, assistant professor of environmental science wrote in an e-mail.

Alexander was equally supportive of Sweet Briar’s participation and said the real value of the Presidents Climate Commitment may not be in achieving the agreement’s targets.

“The most important impact of this commitment isn't in the actual reduction of greenhouse gases used by the College, but is in communicating to our students and the community at large that we must all address this issue,” he said. “If colleges start doing this, then businesses may follow. Then individuals may follow as well. Someone has to be first.”

A steering committee has met once, and will again in April, to flesh out a long-range action plan to implement the Commitment. So far, it has identified five areas that will underpin the plan. These include land use, student and community engagement, an emissions inventory, and a mechanism to make the action plan, inventory and any progress reports publicly available.

“We will have to take small steps and then some big ones,” Muhlenfeld said. “As we build new buildings, this Commitment will keep us focused on energy efficiency. And we will explore ways to further reduce our energy consumption.”

Within two years of signing the Commitment, the College is expected to set a target date for “achieving climate neutrality as soon as possible” and to develop a plan to make climate change and sustainability not only a part of the curriculum, but a part of students’ other educational experiences as well.

The College has been working on improving its energy efficiency since 2000. The physical plant department has insulated attics and pipes, retrofitted lighting, and added new heating and cooling systems, SBC’s director of physical plant, Steve Bailey, told the student newspaper. These changes have reduced total energy consumption on campus by 22 percent.

Achieving climate neutrality will require bolder steps and the biggest challenge may be in changing perceptions.

“This [reducing greenhouse emissions] is going to require a change in mindset by many people,” said Tim Kasper, steering committee member and director of the Institute for Sustainability and Environmental Education. “It will be a long and slow process, but if approached from enough angles and in the proper way — it can be done.”

Four other colleges in Virginia have signed the Commitment. The University of Virginia recently opted not to sign it.

For more information on the Presidents Climate Commitment visit the ACUPCC Web site.

– By Michelle Lurch-Shaw, SBC staff writer