Student Projects

While Williams College sometimes feels secluded, there’s a constant stream of people and things being moved to and from the campus. Students travel here in the fall and leave in the spring, and they drive around campus and the local community during the academic year. Athletic teams take buses and vans to practices, games and meets. Faculty and staff commute daily to campus, and often travel further afield for professional work and conferences. Many college departments have vehicles that are used around campus and nearby.

While Williams fairly closely tracks the amount of energy it uses in campus buildings, there are many kinds of transportation that are not closely tracked. Determining the environmental impact of these activities, and how to work on reducing those impacts has proved challenging and may remain so.

College Owned Vehicles

Williams owns and operates 80 vehicles, of which four are plug in electric and 6 are gasoline-electric hybrids. Some vehicles are dedicated to individual departments, while others are available for rental by any member of the campus community. Some of these vehicles are used primarily on campus, while others are driven much further afield.

In fiscal year 2010, over 37,000 gallons of gasoline were used in college owned vehicles.

Non-College Owned Vehicles

In addition to personal vehicles that faculty, staff and students use to travel to and from (and around) campus, members of the college community also frequently rent vehicles for college business. Fuel use from personal and rental vehicles is difficult to track or estimate.