Friday, August 14, 2009

Bill Clinton (SFS'68) encourages colleges to go green


Bill Clinton (SFS'68) spoke yesterday at the 2009 Climate Leadership Summit in Chicago, which was sponsored by the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment.

In front of a group of 250 college administrators, Clinton spoke about our need to ramp up action around climate change.

He said, "Every time somebody sees a project on one of your campuses, fixing a building, you are having an impact, even beyond the fight to produce climate change and lower your utility bills."

He also encouraged college students to call into their senators and representatives to advocate for reform.

Bill Clinton is always welcome to come to his alma mater to speak about college sustainability. I think that would be a powerful statement---one that would bear meaning to the campus on multiple levels. Maybe he can speak in the beginning of 2010---42nd for the 42nd, anyone?

I think we learned from his speech that, as is the case with all of us, renewable energy "turns him on," so to speak.

The photo comes from TreeHugger. I chose this over a fantastic but out-of-context photo of me with Clinton from a rally last year.

2 comments:

  1. i think a lot of things turn bill clinton on. just got back in the states and have been researching succesful green initiatives at other schools. The key variable seems to be the ineffective administrative bureaucracy and a conservative culture. 250 university presidents listened to the man... can georgetown please pay a bit of attention.

    Has eco action thought about meeting with the senior vp at the beginning of the year to get everyone on the same page?

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  2. I used to have a connection in the SVP's office, but she has now left (which really disheartened me). It's sad because it puts us back in the starting point with regard to working with administration (since the sustainability action committee is relatively stagnant).

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