Sustainability director and council will focus College efforts

Sustainability is getting some muscle at Kenyon.

An administrative structure, with a formal role for the Sustainability Council and the new position of sustainability director, will take shape this academic year. A student intern will be in place for the 2010-11 school year.

The College has selected Ed Neal, superintendent of buildings and grounds, as the sustainability director. A new superintendent will be hired, but Neal will continue to offer his expertise to the maintenance staff through technical support and with oversight on government compliance issues.

"This is a pretty exciting job, and it will enable us to focus our sustainability efforts," Neal said. "There are a lot of ideas floating out there. We'll be taking recommendations from the Sustainability Council, and we'll try to bring all the resources we have to one place, let everybody know what we're doing, and keep us moving in a forward direction."

Channeling resources to sustainability has been a priority for President S. Georgia Nugent, said Chief Business Officer Mark Kohlman. The conversion of used cooking oil from Peirce Hall into biodiesel fuel and the use of dining-hall compost are examples of sustainability efforts that will benefit from improved coordination and efficiency, Kohlman said.

The plan builds on the work of the Sustainability Council by giving it a more authoritative voice. The council has fourteen members, including faculty, staff, and students. Its roots extend to the Food for Thought program developed several years ago by Howard Sacks, professor of sociology.

"That group has a wide range of interests, and we'll be using that group to set priorities and identify projects," Kohlman said. "They have great ideas, but there's been no process or director to move them forward."

The council recently asked Nugent to emphasize "proper environmental stewardship" as the College considers a master plan for the campus landscape. The protection of woodland ecosystems was a point of emphasis in the council's letter to Nugent.

Protecting the surrounding woodlands will provide major ecological benefits "critical to the health of the campus," said council member Ray Heithaus, Jordan Professor of Environmental Science and Biology and co-director of the Brown Family Environmental Center.

The initiative to formalize sustainability efforts is both encouraging and overdue, Heithaus said. "We haven't been fast in adopting sustainability practices, compared to other institutions, but we're making progress," he said. "I think we need a lot of buy-in and support from the trustees, especially to make decisions with this as a primary concern instead of something we do when we get around to it." He added that efficient use of energy and resources is a boost to the budget.

Heithaus defined sustainability as "the set of decisions and actions that allows us to have a high quality of life that can also be enjoyed by our descendants."

Heithaus and fellow council member Scott Cummings, associate professor of chemistry, said attention to sustainability increased as the College embarked on construction projects in recent years. The use of geothermal wells for heating and cooling in the new art history and gallery building is evidence the College is "doing much better," Heithaus said.

"We are heading in the right direction," Cummings said. "The College needs to catch up with the students. They are coming into Kenyon now with so much more awareness. They are expecting more from us than we are delivering." The council hopes to develop ideas that will better link sustainability and the curriculum.

The sustainability student intern will spend the school year helping with administrative and communication duties and will identify a project to be done on campus during the summer in the same vein as Summer Science Scholars and Summer Legal Scholars. Neal will work closely with the intern.

"It's great to see Kenyon making the sustainability director a paid employee, someone keeping an eye on the big picture," Cummings said.

Neal has worked for the College for thirteen years, joining the staff as mechanical trades supervisor. His thorough knowledge of the mechanical systems and infrastructure here will be especially valuable in improving energy efficiency. A financial reallocation allows the College to replace Neal as superintendent without adding to the budget, Kohlman said. The new superintendent of buildings and grounds could be in place sometime in the spring, and Neal will help smooth the transition.