Dear Salem State Community,
Last evening, Salem State’s Board of Trustees took an important vote concerning the university’s role in addressing one of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change.
The Board voted to establish the goal of full divestment from fossil fuels. To monitor advancement toward this goal, the Board committed to revisiting this issue through bi-annual meetings between the Finance and Facilities Committee and the university’s investment advisors.
Through this vote, the Board adopted all of the recommendations, with one modification, that were made by a Special Committee on Sustainability formed last year as a result of conversations across campus about enhancing our sustainability efforts.
The only variance between what was proposed by divestment advocates and what was ultimately approved by our Board is the timeframe. Following a robust discussion at last night’s meeting, the Board came to the conclusion that while the five-year timeline proposed by the Sustainability Special Committee competed with the Board’s fiduciary responsibilities, moving toward full divestment was possible and preferred. Thus, the goal of full divestment was approved without the five-year timeline, and with a process in place for monitoring its progress.
The package of sustainability commitments passed by our Board of Trustees last evening includes the following:
1) Finance and Socially Responsible Investing: Salem State University established the goal to fully divest from the Carbon Underground 200 list, to the extent that the advisors believe it is financially prudent. Advancement toward this goal will be monitored through bi-annual meetings between the Finance and Facilities Committee and Salem State’s investment advisors.
Further, Salem State University will revise its investment policy to add to the list of prohibited investments: equity and/or fixed income securities in companies that extract coal and/or tar sands. The university currently does not hold such investments, but this action will prohibit any future investments.
The advisors are further instructed to invest in alternative and/or renewable energy companies, consistent with the parameters of the investment policy, as they deem financially prudent.
2) Greenhouse gas emissions and reduction targets: Salem State University has made a commitment through the Presidents’ Climate Commitment of Second Nature to be carbon neutral by 2050 – we are reaffirming this commitment. In addition, we need to set interim goals and these goals will be determined as we prepare the report due to Second Nature in January of 2017. The expectation is that we will have goals set to reduce our carbon footprint by 50 percent and 75 percent at dates certain.
3) Transportation: A significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions are tied to transportation and the goals above will be directly related to our ability to reduce the use of private vehicles by our community. To support this effort, Salem State will focus on increased use of alternative transportation such as public transportation (including advocacy for a South Salem train stop) and creating a bike friendly environment with bike racks and lanes. Further increasing on-campus housing will reduce the number of students commuting to campus and our goal is to increase on-campus housing to 50% of full-time undergraduates within 8 – 10 years.
4) LEED building: We will strive to achieve LEED Gold for all new construction on campus and LEED Silver where possible with renovations. Further we will dedicate a portion of capital improvement funds for energy reduction and/or other sustainable goals each year and add a criterion to our rating system for project prioritization to include benefits to sustainability.
5) Waste disposal and purchasing: We will continue to expand our recycling efforts through actions such as single stream recycling. Data will be collected to baseline our current efforts and to set goals by January 2017. For Purchasing, we did not address this element and will incorporate it into our work due to Second Nature in January 2017.
6) Education, research and community outreach: We will support the development of certificate and degree programs that prepare our graduates to work in the fields of sustainability. The plan for such programming will be incorporated into our university strategic plan which will be developed during AY16-17. We will also establish programs on campus to educate our community (campus and beyond) regarding the importance of sustainability and the social and economic consequences of climate change. This work will be incorporated into our Talent Development Programming and special programs offered by our academic and student life programming.
7) We will create metrics for and assess the climate resiliency of our campus.
Last evening’s vote came after about two years of conversations across campus about sustainability, sparked by a group of Salem State students, faculty, and alumni advocating for the university to divest from all companies on the Carbon Underground 200 list.
As a result of these conversations, we confirmed that Salem State has a lot to be proud of: our newest buildings have achieved either LEED Gold or LEED Silver status, we’ve encouraged biking to and living on campus, and we’ve taken a number of steps to make our energy systems more efficient. As the square footage of our campus has grown, our carbon footprint and energy usage has decreased. Since 2004, we’ve reduced our Energy Use Intensity by 19 percent and our Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 29 percent.
Despite these successes, there is always room for improvement. I’m incredibly proud of the actions our Board has taken, and I’m grateful to the members of the campus community who prompted us to have these conversations and make these commitments to enhanced sustainability. We welcome such discussions and calls to action at Salem State. If our students and the rest of the campus community weren’t pushing the envelope on the issues of the day, we’d be extremely disappointed.
Thank you to all of those who have been involved in this process thus far. I look forward to continuing to work together to discuss and address issues affecting those here on campus and across the world.
Sincerely,
Pat Maguire Meservey President