Wellesley承诺终止化石燃料投资，实现碳中和2040，解决气候变化的紧迫挑战
“学院自豪地宣布了一项大胆而全面的应对气候变化的方法，其中包括一项惠尔斯利应对气候变化的全面计划用2040实现碳中和; endowment action to prohibit new investment in fossil fuel funds; and adoption of a set of carbon-reducing community actions approved by students, faculty, and staff,” Wellesley President Paula A. Johnson and Debora de Hoyos ’75, chair of the board of trustees, wrote in an公告4月30日去学院社区。
由E2040工作组一个方面，碳中和计划，将需要超过5亿美元的投资将取代高压蒸汽加热系统在未来十年的低温热水系统。“用于产生加热和冷却能源的化石燃料占校园排放的温室气体总量的四分之三以上，”设施管理和规划助理副总裁、该组织成员戴夫·查克拉博蒂说可持续发展委员会E2040。“只有通过消除化石燃料在这个地区的使用，我们才能达到碳中和。”到2040年，该学院还计划从可再生能源中获取所有校园用电。
为了响应学生、教师和员工的倡导和参与，并降低学院捐赠资金财务回报的不当风险，董事会批准了以下措施：禁止与主要投资重点为化石燃料行业公司的经理进行投资；不会对专注于化石燃料投资的私募股权基金进行新的投资；学院将以符合信托责任的方式逐步取消私募股权油气基金中的现有合伙权益。
“As students and faculty worked toward tangible climate-oriented goals, we watched as a lot of hierarchies seemed to dissolve."
Katie Christoph ’21
这个community actionsstudents, faculty, and staff have developed, which include changes to dining and catering, transportation, faculty travel, mini-fridges, and heating and cooling, could result in a reduction of more than 2,000 metric tons of CO2 each year. This collective commitment was integral to the board’s decision to approve endowment action.
就在2019冠状病毒疾病流行之前，董事会审议并推迟了审议a petition from the student group Renew Wellesley that asked for the elimination of fossil fuel investments from the endowment. Previous student activism by Fossil Free Wellesley in 2013 and 2014 helped pave the way for Renew, and studentspresented recommendations to the Subcommittee on Investment Responsibility(SIR) in early 2020. While the board was favorably disposed to consider endowment action at that time, its members wanted to see shared dedication on the part of the entire College community and a comprehensive plan with a broader approach to addressing sustainability and climate change at Wellesley.
Via numerous Zoom meetings throughout this pandemic year, a mix of on-campus and remote students, faculty, and staff took up this charge. Students in the interdisciplinary class Econ/ES 199: Fossil Fuel Divestment: Student Action at Wellesley, working alongside Norma Wilentz Hess Professor of Economics凯西·罗斯柴尔德，进行了成本效益分析，以制定一套减少碳排放和节约资金的建议，其中包括限制餐厅里的红肉，对迷你冰箱收费，以及减少大学校车的数量。这些建议成为每年大学政府选举的一部分，成为了一项投票倡议。学生会于3月23日批准了这些措施。
“There needs to be a broader recognition of just how much our 21st-century lifestyles are going to have to change if we want to mitigate our carbon emissions and have a more23岁的尼拉贾·德什潘德（Neeraja Deshpande）说，他是经济学/ES 199专业的学生。“我很高兴能从上到下做集体决定，我也反对这样做。”她补充说，要求学生和教师共同找出解决方案，强调了这些问题“与我们作为一个社区共同采取的行动有着内在的联系”。
与不同的小组合作以实现一个共同的目标是学生们体验的一个高潮。凯蒂·克里斯托夫（Katie Christoph’21）是Renew Wellesley，Econ/ES 199的一名成员，也是学生任命的可持续发展委员会代表。她说：“当学生和教职员工朝着具体的气候导向目标努力时，我们看到许多等级制度似乎正在瓦解。”。“它更多地是关于你能给谈判桌和对话带来什么。”对于今年在马萨诸塞州阿灵顿远程学习的德什潘德来说。，该项目将她与韦尔斯利联系在一起，提醒她自己是更大社区的一部分。她说：“我希望在韦尔斯利看到更多的合作，因为如果说过去一年半教会了我们什么，那就是我们比以往任何时候都更需要彼此。”。
教育对他们的findin同学gs and proposal, and getting their support, was not without challenges. Concerns about equity and social justice rose to the forefront when they talked to students, and the College has committed to addressing equity issues that may arise as the recommendations are implemented. “After the [ballot initiative] passed, I felt really humbled. The vote started a lot of hard conversations on campus,” said Kelsey Dunn ‘21, an Econ/ES 199 student and member of Renew Wellesley. “I know it was not an easy choice for the community, and I know many people made their vote in good faith that we will continue to move forward with community participation and equity in mind.”
“The work our entire community has done to come together around addressing climate change at Wellesley is a living demonstration of our mission at work."
保拉·A·约翰逊总统
Starting in March 2020, members of the Sustainability Committee, chaired byDan Brabander弗罗斯特是环境科学教授和地球科学教授，他开始为教师和员工的行动制定自己的建议。他们与Econ/ES 199学生一起工作，包括改变餐饮方式，比如专注于植物性餐饮；教师会议旅行的变化；调整学术和行政大楼的供暖和制冷标准；以及迷你冰箱的使用减少。布拉班德和委员会成员皮纳尔·凯斯金, associate professor of economics, andOlivia Shehan，可持续发展协调员，通过一系列网络研讨会和学术和行政委员会会议与社区进行了接触，教员在4月21日的学术委员会上投票批准了这些措施。
Institutions like Middlebury and Smith colleges have demonstrated that achieving sustainability goals is possible at institutions like ours, Rothschild said, and the SIR system provided a formal channel at Wellesley for setting a constructive process in motion in early 2020. “Those of us who had been organizing at the grassroots level had a clear road map for how we could make change occur, allowing us to focus on the key steps and the obstacles that would be in the way in a very concrete way,” he said. “Above all, I have a deep and overwhelming sense of pride in my students, and their many on-campus partners, who accomplished something meaningful that makes Wellesley a genuinely better place.”
Some of the community actions students, faculty, and staff have developed could be implemented as early as this fall, and earlier investments in sustainability are helping the College make early progress on its carbon neutrality goals—Wellesley is on track to meet its goal of decreasing emissions by 37 percent by 2022, four years ahead of schedule.
约翰逊说：“我们整个社区为在韦尔斯利共同应对气候变化所做的工作，是我们工作使命的生动体现。”。“我为这些努力感到自豪，因为它们表明，无论是作为个人还是作为一个机构，我们都能创造出有益于学院和世界的重要变革。”
