This in an open letter to praise and acknowledge the leadership of President McDavis as it concerns his signing of the Presidents Climate Commitment on behalf of Ohio University (www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org). At a time when the university administration is being scrutinized under a haze of negativity, it is critical that we not lose sight of this shining example of McDavis’ leadership.

The Presidents Climate Commitment (PCC) is an agreement, signed by 225 colleges and universities as of May 24, that the participating institutions will commit to moving toward carbon neutrality, track their emissions of greenhouse gases and devise and implement a plan for reducing the carbon footprint of their school. The plan is to do this by energy conservation, building LEED-certified (energy-conserving) buildings, buying electricity from renewable resources, and so forth. Another key element of this agreement is that the assessment, planning and implementation processes should also involve faculty, staff and students. Finally, participants are required to integrate elements of sustainability across the curriculum. Many large institutions such as the University of Cincinnati, University of Florida, University of Colorado-Boulder and all of the University of California system have agreed to participate in the PCC. If they can do this, surely we can too.

It should be acknowledged that many faculty and staff at OU have been working toward the goal of reducing OU’s environmental footprint for many years — and yet our footprint has grown substantially. Why is the landscape for energy conservation different now? As a simple example, the cost of gas ($3.50/gallon) reminds us as individuals that our energy choices have real ramifications to our pocketbooks. Hence OU’s pocketbook will ultimately be enhanced through resource conservation at a time when we are very concerned about finances.

Another shift is that energy and conservation issues are no longer an “eco-hippie” issue — they are central to good business. For example, in early May, Citigroup announced their intention of investing more than $50 billion (yes, billion) in greenhouse gas reduction technologies. The Citigroup CEO announced that he sees this as a good investment opportunity. When we see large corporate buy-in, encouragement from the Ohio governor and from the Ohio House of Representatives, clearly we are operating in a new world. Hence it is the responsibility of Ohio University to lead the way in reducing our energy footprint, as well as to educate our students to be savvy participants in this new citizen and corporate landscape. President McDavis’ signing of the Presidents Climate Commitment provides the critical top-down leadership in environmental and energy issues that we have been missing at OU for years.

As chair of the Ecology and Energy Conservation committee, member of the Environmental Studies advisory board, Voinovich Fellow, member of the Consortium for Energy Economics and the Environment, and as a forest ecosystem ecologist, I am deeply grateful for President McDavis’ leadership in steering OU in a timely and positive direction with his commitment of OU as a participant in the Presidents Climate Commitment.

If any readers are interested in participating in this process at Ohio University, please e-mail myself (kim.brown@ohio.edu) or Sonia Marcus, the Ohio University Resource Conservation Coordinator (marcuss@ohio.edu).

— Kim J. Brown is an assistant professor in the department of environmental and plant biology.