Sustainability News

Etiquette and tips for using the ChargePoint electric vehicle charging station on Colgate's campus.

Environmental activists have recently taken to intertwining the issues of the environment with human rights abuses. The amalgamation of these two movements is more widely known today as environmental justice. The principle of environmental justice asserts that no people, based on their race or economic status, should be forced to bear a disproportionate burden of environmental risks. Innocent bystanders or communities that are not party to the activities generating burdens should not be subject to such burdens (Adeola, 688). Environmental injustices involve a systematic exclusion of minority groups in vital environmental policies and decisions. Environmental justice is the movement that links environmental degradation with social justice in a fight for sustainable human rights.

Compared to Colgate’s 2009 baseline inventory, the university decreased its emissions by 3,512 MTeCO2, or by 20.2 percent.

Compared to Colgate’s 2009 baseline inventory, the university decreased its emissions by 3,536 tons, or by 20.4 percent.

Colgate’s 2011 gross emissions were 5.63 tons per full-time student and 7.02 tons per 1,000 square-feet of building space.

In 2010, Colgate University reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent.

In the summer of 2009, Ben Taylor ’10 spearheaded an effort by the Sustainability Office to complete the university’s first comprehensive baseline carbon inventory.