DC Youth Environmental Alliance

In the fall of 2006, it started with a plan to convince Georgetown University to invest in wind renewable energy credits (RECs) to offset 30% of its emissions from electricity emissions. Working under the assumption that the administration would accept any proposal supported by a majority of the student body, we spent the next few months accosting any and all students to sign a petition support a slight tuition raise to support the purchase of RECs. By March, we had a majority of the students signed onto the proposal (the pages of signatures and student IDs probably filled a small crate). We confidently approached the administration, and were flatly told that it didn’t matter how many people had signed something, our proposal would only become policy if the University thought it was ‘a good idea, after careful review’. Not a blanket refusal, but definitely a damper on our plans. The truth of the matter was, for better or worse, the administration of a university is not a purely democratic institution, and we had to adapt.

Its now early in 2009, and this is what has so far resulted from our efforts. A special ‘sustainability committee’ was convened in early 2007 to discuss the proposal. The proposal on RECs was sidelined in favor of other proposals, like increasing energy efficiency, and plans for new LEED certified buildings on campus. The committee is now a permanent fixture on campus, and consists of faculty, representatives from facilities and other administrative departments, and students from environmental organizations on campus. Having been involved in this process since the start (apart from a brief hiatus to go abroad this semester), I can share some lessons we’ve learned that will hopefully be of use to students trying to demand environmental action from their administrations.

1. Come to the table with concrete demands, but be aware that they may be radically changed.

Being specific and concrete is a way to immediately give the impression you know what you’re talking about, and have done your homework. We kind of overdid our first few presentations (formal attire, and power point presentations), but it meant we were taken seriously. However, those initial proposals ended up falling by the wayside. This may have been our fault for not pushing hard enough, but I think it has to do with group dynamics: like any group trying to accomplish anything through consensus-based decisions, an administrative working group has to negotiate its goals based on the objectives of all members, no one member can get exactly what they want to the exclusion of others. It helps to be firm, which we may not have done enough, but it also helps to be open to new suggestions and new proposals. By listening and adapting to administrative priorities, we have made significant strides to improving the recycling system and done some very interesting student awareness campaigns, like installing energy monitors in residence halls, and, fingers crossed, setting up a fund for environmentally friendly projects on campus.

2. Build relationships with administrators

At first, negotiating Georgetown’s myriad departments and administrative positions was a little like being thrust into a Kafka novel. Fortunately, over time we came to know key people in the administration, like the people in charge of sustainability initiatives, recycling, facilities, and our power plant. Working with them on a consistent basis meant that eventually we could often just ask them for data or information about their projects. As a result, we identified entirely new environmental issues requiring our attention, like the certification of new buildings, the disposal of food waste, and the inefficiency of our recycling system. Having this source of information was a great new asset, and taught us to keep in touch with anyone in charge of anything environmentally related on campus, regardless of whether our goals initially matched (often they didn’t). This working relationship hopefully also means that administrators will have a more sympathetic ear for any of our future projects.

3. Sitting in a conference room may not seem as hardcore as a protest, but its just as important

I don’t know if this is universal, but in my head the idea of an activist is that of a heroic figure, demanding justice with very heroic gestures and active protest. The reality is (obviously) very different, at least at Georgetown. Sitting around a conference table is sometimes more effective way of gaining the ear of the campus decision-makers than rallies in the quad (though the latter are great for raising student awareness). For us, both approaches complement each other, one giving us the ability to change infrastructure, the other the way students use that infrastructure. The process has been really slow, but we actually achieve small successes each semester. The most important thing is to start a permanent channel of communication between students and administrators, and hopefully, eventually we’ll find some common, earth-friendly ground.

Tripti Bhattacharya is a junior in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, studying environmental science and ecology. She has been a board member of Georgetown’s EcoAction for the past two years, and serves on the University’s Sustainability Committee. She is currently studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh.