Sunday, June 01, 2008
Editorial: Going green at Virginia Tech
The school promises to help Blacksburg reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
From the RoundTable blog
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Virginia Tech is the behemoth in Blacksburg. It creates jobs, attracts visitors and affects just about every aspect of living in town. It's not all positive, either. Traffic would be lighter without the school, drunks would not overrun downtown streets and the air would be cleaner. On that last point, at least, things might soon improve.
The town council in recent years set Blacksburg on a course to reduce its carbon emissions. Environmentally friendly policies include using biodiesel in some vehicles, planting more trees and reducing electricity use. By 2012, the town hopes to get its greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels.
That task could be a lot easier if Tech helps. The town cannot force a state institution to do anything, and despite student requests in recent years, the school has not signed on to a national college climate initiative.
Then, last week, Tech President Charles Steger announced that although he still would not sign a national initiative, the school will develop its own sustainability plan. Over the next year, a committee drawn from across the university will research the issue and make recommendations.
Tech previously had not ignored the issue completely. Officials from the school sit on the town's climate initiative task force, Tech researchers helped draft the town's emissions inventory, and the Experimental Theater going up next to Henderson Lawn will meet U.S. Green Building Council standards, including having an organic roof.
Those were baby steps toward real change, though. The proposed comprehensive approach will, we hope, go much further. The school's hesitancy regarding the national program was understandable. Perhaps now it can find a plan that fits its own specific situation better.
The university and surrounding communities will find out soon enough. Agreeing to develop a plan is easy. Implementing tough standards to help the environment is harder.
Tech, Blacksburg, even all of Virginia cannot end global warming, but every time one town or university joins the effort to reduce greenhouse gases, the world gets a little closer to a better future.
