Global Electric Motorcars on the Oswego campus reduce polluting emissions and save on fuel, when they are used to augment the college’s maintenance vehicles.

SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley has pledged to take a leadership role in tackling global warming and helping society re-stabilize the earth’s climate.

She signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a pledge to develop a long-range plan to reduce and ultimately neutralize greenhouse gas emissions on the campus.

“This pledge is a demonstration of our dedication to a sustainable future,” Stanley said.

She noted that she is proud that SUNY Oswego is joining colleges and universities across the country in providing leadership to protect the environment by becoming a charter signatory to the Presidents Climate Commitment. A major public summit of the signatory institutions will take place June 11 and 12 in Washington, D.C.

“As a campus, we will sharply reduce our carbon emissions and work toward becoming ‘climate neutral,’” Stanley said. “As educators, we will wield our influence to help restore a global atmosphere that is healthy for life as we know it.”

The pledge commits SUNY Oswego to an array of actions in pursuit of climate neutrality, including the use of U.S. Green Building Council silver standards in all new campus construction.

Jerry DeSantis, SUNY Oswego’s associate vice president for facilities, said the college has already been using the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards in current campus construction projects, including the new 111,492-square-foot Campus Center.

SUNY Oswego will create a comprehensive action plan to move toward climate neutrality, beginning with an inventory of campus carbon emissions in the next year and including sustainability as part of the educational experience.

“Without educating the leaders of tomorrow about the immense ecological challenges before us, we will never succeed in conquering the global, long-term problem,” Stanley said.

The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment is supported and implemented by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Second Nature and ecoAmerica. More information is available at www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.

Are You Going Green?

The Fall-Winter 2007 issue of Oswego alumni magazine will focus on efforts by alumni to “go green.” Please let us know about your efforts to sustain the environment: finding alternative energy sources, recycling, building fuel-efficient cars or houses, producing eco-friendly products. Whether it’s your business, volunteer work or personal philosophy put into practice, share your story by writing to alumni@oswego.edu (put Going Green in the subject line) or mail to Oswego alumni magazine, 300 Washington Blvd., Oswego, NY 13126.