UPDATED 5/13/21 For the past year plus, staff and faculty across the college have been working on the innumerable pivots necessary to ensure that the college could still operate. The Zilkha Center has been working with our colleagues to support sustainable operations and has also been… Continue reading »
In 2015, President Falk and the Board of Trustees committed to reducing ghg emissions and achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2020. During our most recent emissions check-in – the 2019 fiscal year (FY19) emissions report –… Continue reading »
Last year, the Zilkha Center piloted the Green Office Program and asked for volunteers to be “Green Office Liaisons” for their department. These liaisons were asked to work to implement strategies to work towards more sustainable offices via energy conservation, waste minimization, purchasing and… Continue reading »
CambridgeSeven, the architecture firm behind the design of the new Williams Inn and the Williams Bookstore, has released a self-guided sustainability tour that features highlights of the buildings intended to increase efficiency and reduce energy costs. The firm kept stormwater design, local materials, and solar energy in mind while designing… Continue reading »
Wondering about the impressively deep hole being dug next to the Class of 1966 Environmental Center? Well, it turns out that this construction is necessary in order to install six (6) pole-mounted solar photovoltaic arrays! The new solar arrays are thanks to the Envi Center’s efforts to complete… Continue reading »
BY JAYA ALAGAR ’22, HEALTHY BUILDING MATERIALS INTERN– As the Zilkha Center’s Healthy Building Materials Intern, I spent the year working in conjunction with Integrated EcoStrategy (IES), a materials consulting firm founded by a Williams alum and based out of North Adams, MA. As an IES researcher, I helped… Continue reading »
Battery Recycling Locations on the sustainability layer of the online campus map WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., February 12, 2019—Following the lead of Middlebury, a newly created map of Williams’ campus highlights the college’s sustainability initiatives ranging from solar panels to rain gardens. It also provides a self-guided audio tour for visitors to learn… Continue reading »
October 2018 Update to Shane Beard’s blogpost below: the Lehman project has been put on hold. ———– Lehman Hall is one of the first dormitories at Williams to be renovated under new building standards. These new standards are in the pilot phase, and may manifest in one of two… Continue reading »
Do you have questions about how the college thinks about building? Like: How does it decide if and when to build? What makes one building project happen before another? And how does the college pay for it all? If so, please read the Report on Building, now available on… Continue reading »
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 22, 2017—The Class of 1966 Environmental Center has achieved Petal Certification, meeting six of the seven environmental performance criteria for the Living Building Challenge (LBC). Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives Director Amy Johns ’98 accepted the building’s Petal Certification at the Living Future Conference in Seattle,… Continue reading »
David Dethier shows visitors the kitchen table made from interior wallboards from the original building. On Friday April 21st, members of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association came to campus to learn more about the Class of 1966 Environmental Center. This visit was part of NESEA’s Pro Tour Series,… Continue reading »
How should we reduce greenhouse gas emissions? That seems like a pretty simple question on the surface, but dig down and things get complicated quickly. Williams has emissions reduction goals – 35% below 1990 levels by 2020, then carbon neutrality (through the purchase of carbon offsets) by the end of 2020. Continue reading »
The main downspot from the new side of the building that goes down into a WISY filter in a greenhouse which keeps icedams from forming at the base of the gutter. As you may have read in November, the Environmental Center met six of the seven “petal”… Continue reading »
A few bathrooms on campus are now listed on Refuge Restrooms. Refuge Restrooms collects information to locate ability-accessible and gender-inclusive restrooms. The two bathrooms in the Environmental Center are on the list are well as one in the Thompson Chemistry building. Read below for more info on each. And… Continue reading »
During my freshman year at Williams, I sometimes studied in the monkey carrels in old Sawyer basement. The carrels were grimy, but a thick layer of graffiti provided much of their appeal, a distraction from whatever assignment I didn’t want to work on at the moment. Monkey carrels in… Continue reading »
By Michael Blanding ’95 The helicopter swung low over the hills on a crisp November evening, veering over the top of Lasell Gymnasium on its way to trace a path across campus. Suspended beneath it, an infrared camera took images of each building as it passed. Looking at the rainbow-colored images later, facilities… Continue reading »
In 2013, in partnership with Massachusetts insulation contractors Energía and Cozy Home Performance, the Zilkha Center installed new insulation in the Oakley Center for the Humanities and some faculty rental properties to increase energy efficiency. Most of the new insulation is Cel-Pak cellulose, made from recycled newspaper that has been… Continue reading »