Commitment & Progress

Climate Neutrality Timeline

2007

Presidents’ Climate Commitment Signed; Presidential Transition Upheld Commitment

2008

Created Sustainability Coordinator Position

2010

Adopted Climate Action Plan and 2020 Neutrality Goal

December2011

Allegheny College Participates in Better Buildings Challenge — New Program Announced by President Obama

Allegheny College is among only seven colleges and universities nationwide to join the Better Buildings Challenge announced today by President Barack Obama. Allegheny College joined other leaders in higher education, as well as more than 50 CEOs, mayors and labor leaders, in committing to invest nearly $2 billion of private capital into energy efficiency projects and to upgrade energy performance by a minimum of 20 percent by 2020.
Read more about Allegheny College Participates in Better Buildings Challenge — New Program Announced Friday by President Obama

December2011

Energy Challenge Nets New Solar Panels for Another Campus Building

A new array of six solar panels has been installed on the roof of the Steffee Hall of Life Sciences on the Allegheny College campus. The panels were purchased and installed from the savings that students and staff helped the college achieve with an energy challenge during the past two Octobers.
Read more about Energy Challenge Nets New Solar Panels for Another Campus Building

2012

Bike Share Awarded the So Practical It’s Radical Honor from the Rainforest Alliance

October2012

Richard J. Cook Center for Environmental Science Is Dedicated in Ceremony at Allegheny College

Maria Vargas, director of the Better Buildings Challenge at the U.S. Department of Energy, spoke at Carr Hall at Allegheny College today at a ceremony to dedicate the Richard J. Cook Center for Environmental Science. Vargas also serves as a senior program advisor in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy. Following the dedication, Sir Peter Crane was the guest speaker at a dinner – featuring locally grown foods — to honor Richard Cook, president emeritus of Allegheny College and a national leader in sustainability efforts at colleges and universities. Crane, former director of the Field Museum in Chicago and of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, has been Carl W. Knobloch Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale since 2009. Read more about Richard J. Cook Center for Environmental Science Is Dedicated in Ceremony at Allegheny College

May2013

Innovation Grows Out of Junior Seminars

Two Junior Seminar classes taught by Liz Olson, assistant professor of global health & development and environmental studies, each presented their community-focused projects to the campus community on April 26 in Carr Hall. First, students in the Environmental Science/Studies Junior Seminar presented their project, designed to inform community members in northwestern Pennsylvania about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. They presented their informational booklet, which has been distributed to local township and county offices. Read more about Innovation Grows Out of Junior Seminars

October2015

Wildlife Federation Guide to Green Landscapes

Allegheny College is among 85 colleges showcased in the National Wildlife Federation’s new guide “The Campus Wild: How College and University Green Landscapes Provide Havens for Wildlife and ‘Lands-on’ Experiences for Students.”
Read more about Wildlife Federation Guide to Green Landscapes

April2016

EPA Recognizes Allegheny College for Largest Green Power Use Among NCAC Schools

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Allegheny College as a 2015-16 Individual Conference Champion of the College & University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any other school in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Allegheny has taken top honors for the past five years.
Read more about EPA Recognizes Allegheny College for Largest Green Power Use Among NCAC Schools

January2017

Allegheny College Awarded $37,500 Grant to Heat, Power Greenhouse

Allegheny College has been awarded a $37,500 grant to power and heat a small-scale greenhouse using energy that would otherwise be wasted.

The E 2 Energy to Educate grant from Constellation, an Exelon company, is part of $380,000 the company awarded to 17 projects reaching more than 35,000 students, grade six through college, in 10 states. Grant funds support projects “designed to enhance students’ understanding of science and technology, and inspire them to think differently about energy.”
Read more about Allegheny College Awarded $37,500 Grant to Heat, Power Greenhouse

October2017

Allegheny’s Game Changing Greenhouse Takes Root

The building is in some ways like any other of its kind, a cozy box of protection against the elements, a source of warmth and light for the leafy green things that will soon grow within.

But the newly built greenhouse in Allegheny College’s Carr Hall garden is different, too, in one fundamental, game-changing way: It produces more energy than it consumes.

“When you have a greenhouse, you expect to pay a lot in electricity and heating costs,” said Kelly Boulton, Allegheny’s sustainability coordinator. “This is flipping that narrative. It shows how possible it is to have a greenhouse without a large energy budget and with a small carbon footprint.”
Read more about Allegheny's Game Changing Greenhouse Takes Root

October2018

Allegheny Professor Receives Grant to Help With Sustainable Community-Based Forestry Project in Africa

Dr. Nicole Gross-Camp, a visiting assistant professor of environmental science and sustainability at Allegheny College, has received a grant from the United Kingdom’s Darwin Initiative in conjunction with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in Scotland to make forest management sustainable in Tanzania.
Read more about Allegheny Professor Receives Grant to Help With Sustainable Community-Based Forestry Project in Africa

June2019

Allegheny’s Carrden Earns Certified Naturally Grown Status

A national organization has certified that produce coming from Allegheny College’s Carrden is grown without pesticides and herbicides and meets all organic agriculture standards. The Carrden and all its tasty produce sprouting near Carr Hall is now Certified Naturally Grown, and was certified as such in early June. A Saegertown-area certified organic farmer inspected the garden and its surroundings and confirmed its conformity to the national guidelines, said Kerstin Ams, Allegheny’s garden manager.
Read more about Allegheny’s Carrden Earns Certified Naturally Grown Status

August2019

Goats Come to the Rescue, Thanks to Allegheny Class Research Project

The goats were brought in for the summer of 2019 to help the wildlife refuge manage an infestation of an invasive shrub species known as multiflora rose, which was brought from Asia to western Pennsylvania and other areas of the northeastern and midwestern United States more than a century ago. The flowering shrubs are eye-catching and were initially used as wildlife habitat. However, they crowd out native plants and are spreading uncontrolled into private and public lands. In many states, they are classified as a noxious weed.
Read more about Goats Come to the Rescue, Thanks to Allegheny Class Research Project

April2020

Allegheny Becomes 1st College in Pennsylvania, 8th in Nation to Achieve Carbon Neutrality

The milestone represents another moment of progress in continued efforts to be a sustainable and resilient campus and community member.
Read more about our climate neutrality achievement