Going green is a grassroots movement. Just as our nation’s leaders have been reluctant to change, universities have other priorities, like raising money and attracting top professors. So it falls on students all around the country to lead the way in pushing towards a greener future on campuses. A group of students rallying behind an initiative called “Renewable Georgetown” wants to make renewable energy a reality at Georgetown. The University should make this happen. But the more student and faculty support the movement receives, the more likely the University will respond.
Renewable Georgetown is an initiative led by Georgetown organizations such as Eco Action and the Student Association’s Sustainability Committee. The group is asking students to sign a petition saying they would support Georgetown obtaining 30 percent of its electricity from clean sources if it required a $30-per-year increase in tuition. The petition has about 2,500 names already—with thousands more it can become a call to action that would be difficult to ignore.
We can do more than sign the petition. Student clubs can become co-sponsors of the Renewable Georgetown initiative by e-mailing the Chair of the Sustainability Committee, Alexander Johnston, at jayalexanderjohnston@gmail.com. Faculty and staff can contact the group or lobby the University directly.
This isn’t a pipe dream. With a variety of projects, students all across America—at American University, University of Pennsylvania and Connecticut College—are making their campuses greener. A.U. is supposed to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2012, thanks to a push by the student group Eco-Sense. Over 70 percent of students voted on a referendum that would make A.U. 50 percent renewable, even if it meant a yearly fee of $10. There are many ways for a university to increase its use of renewable energy. The most direct way is to purchase electricity from a wind farm, as the University of Pennsylvania does. A college could also buy renewable energy credits—meaning the college would match its purchase of dirty electricity with an investment in clean energy—by giving the funds to a solar energy company, for example.
In light of a recently announced six percent hike in the 2007-2008 undergraduate tuition, we hope the University can pay for the clean energy without further increasing tuition. Though Renewable Georgetown’s proposal of adding $1 per week to tuition—about $30 per academic year—is not unreasonable, there are other ways to offset the costs of going green. UPenn did so by upping conservation. Money can also be saved by constructing energy-friendly buildings such as the Bunn Intercultural Building. Georgetown’s electric bills have been lower because of the building, which is powered partly by the solar panels on its roof.
Nonetheless, these pages applaud the students behind Renewable Georgetown and hope that they work closely with the University in achieving their goal. For the rest of us, the next time you see some Eco-friendly Hoyas in the Leavey Center or at Lauinger Library, rather than dismissing them as tree-huggers, sign the petition for a Renewable Georgetown.
