EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Converging crises of climate destabilization, environmental deterioration, rising inequity, and economic turmoil call for extraordinary responses by organizations and institutions at all levels. For its part, Oberlin College has launched a project that joins the many strands of sustainability including urban revitalization, green development, advanced energy technology, sustainable agriculture and forestry, green jobs, and education, into an integrated response.
We have three goals:
1. Development of a 13-acre block as a platinum-rated
arts district and regional economic and educational catalyst;
2. Transition rapidly to a carbon-free energy system
including both college and city; and
3. Establish a 20,000 acre greenbelt for agriculture, forestry,
biofuels, and carbon sequestration.
We expect four outcomes:
1. Creation of a prosperous post-fossil fuel economy in the heart of the U.S. rust-belt;
2. Establishment of an educational consortium including a two-year college, a vocational school, the local school system, and Oberlin College that prepares all of its young people for good work in a green economy;
3. A long-term ‘conversation’ between a vibrant arts community and the sciences around the many issues of sustainability; and
4. A successful model of sustainable development widely emulated throughout the U.S. and beyond.
The heart of the project is the redevelopment of a 13-acre block designed to catalyze the renewal of its downtown and initiate a process leading to a prosperous post-fossil fuel powered economy, while improving its facilities and continuing one of the most important educational experiments in the United States. The investment in construction, renovation, and energy technology is intended to stimulate the expansion of existing businesses and create new enterprises that meet emerging demands for energy services, solar technologies, green products, and locally grown foods and forest products. The collaboration, now underway between the college and city, can be a model for politics and planning in other communities. We intend to use this project to (a) shift electrical use from coal to efficiency and renewable sources; (b) minimize auto-dependence; (c) catalyze sustainable land-use patterns in the surrounding area; (d) equip high school, vocational, and college students with the analytical skills, technical know-how, and vision necessary to become leaders in the transition to a prosperous and sustainable future; and (e) contribute to a deeper national dialogue about the challenges and opportunities of actually creating a sustainable world, one city and region at a time.
BACKGROUND
Oberlin College is widely known for its academic and artistic excellence and for its historic leadership in educational access. In the nineteenth century, Oberlin was America’s first coeducational college (1833) and the first U.S. college to make the education of African American and white students together central to its mission (1835). In the twentieth century, it similarly led on a variety of progressive causes and emerged as one of America’s most distinctive and distinguished liberal arts colleges. In the late 1990s, it constructed the first substantially green, entirely solar powered, zero-discharge building on a U.S. college campus (the Adam Joseph Lewis Center). Other LEED projects are currently underway, including the highest LEED-rated Jazz studies and performance center in the world. In 2004, the Trustees adopted what is still the most comprehensive environmental policy in higher education. In the same year the college also initiated development of a campus resource monitoring system (the first of its kind technology) that provides students with real-time feedback on their electricity and water use in dormitories to engage, educate, and empower them to conserve resources. In 2006, the college became a charter signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Oberlin now seeks to launch the most ambitious green development and education project yet proposed by any comparable institution of higher education—one that coincides with major economic and environmental initiatives at federal and state levels. In brief, we propose a five- to seven-year effort to improve college and city facilities in a way that revitalizes the downtown economy and catalyzes the emergence of a prosperous post-fossil fuel based economy in the Northeast Ohio region. The college will work at multiple levels and in various ways with city and county governments, the municipal utility, the Oberlin public schools, the county vocational school, Lorain County Community College, civic organizations, and other educational and arts organizations to rebuild substantial parts of the downtown beginning with the redevelopment of thirteen acres in the city center. Our goals are to build a prosperous and sustainable economy based on efficiency and renewable energy while creating a practical educational experience for high school, vocational, and college students.
TO READ MORE, see email attachment of February 10, 2011
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