Sal Gentile, The Examiner
2007-06-07 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Johns Hopkins University will announce plans in the coming weeks to form a Climate Change Task Force, which may include some high-profile business executives and sustainability officers from across the country, in response to months of pressure from student activists.

Hopkins President William Brody has approved a draft of a formal statement endorsing the recommendations of the university’s Sustainability Committee, which has been studying ways to conserve energy resources and reduce the university’s carbon emissions. According to Davis Bookhart, head of Energy Management and Environmental Stewardship at Hopkins, the draft has been internally circulated as administrators settle the final details.

The Climate Change Task Force, a centerpiece of the university’s initiative, may include a commission filled by leaders from the business and sustainability communities, according to a source close to the discussions. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the details had not yet been finalized.

Hopkins may court officials from such companies as Citibank and Constellation Energy, according to the source. The university hopes such a commission will provide financial support and momentum for its climate change initiative.

James McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration at Hopkins, would not directly comment on the makeup of the committee or its funding.

“We’ll be reaching out to experts wherever they are,” he said. “We are going to tap as much expertise as we can.”

He said that one of the committee’s most important goals would be “to reach out broadly into the Baltimore community.”

The Hopkins Energy Action Team, an extensive coalition of student activists, has for months called on the university to commit to carbon neutrality, which would limit the university’s total carbon emissions to zero. More than 70 U.S. colleges have adopted similar policies.

“I think that the Sustainability Committee’s recommendations were relatively clear about carbon neutrality,” said HEAT Chair Teryn Norris, a freshman.

But McGill said the university was not ready to fully commit to carbon neutrality and would opt instead to wait for the results of the task force’s study, which will be completed in one year.

“We simply do not know what technically and financially will be feasible, now and in the future, to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

sgentile@baltimoreexaminer.com