Signs of sustainability, reinforcing the essence of Earth Day and Earth Week, can be found everywhere at CCBC. You can park your car under a solar panel and plug into a charging station. Recycling cans are everywhere reminding us to be good stewards of our environment and planet Earth. CCBC restrooms include signage about composting paper towels! Sustainability is everybody’s business and Earth Week should probably be renamed Earth Year.
Fifteen years ago, I signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment making CCBC the 521st academic institution to sign. This committed me and this college to develop a plan to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible. CCBC continues to work toward this goal with energy saving conservation days, adopting sustainability practices for offices and revitalizing green initiatives. While CCBC’s enthusiasm for, and practice of, sustainability has waxed and waned in the past, sustainability has become a source of energy and pride for the college.
Today I reaffirm CCBC’s dedication to living the precepts of the Climate Commitment and recommit our extensive resources and energy to actively caring for the earth. Sustainability is, after all, the habit of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. I have committed those of us at CCBC to care about the stewardship of the earth and its people, to making our little part of the planet as resilient in its sustainability as possible.