Tamar Warburg, Director of Sustainability at Sasaki, Discusses Sustainability, Futures, and the Campus Plan

Pictured, left to right: Keenan Chenail, member of the Williams Strategic Planning group; Tamar Warburg, guest presenter and Director of Sustainability at Sasaki; Dorothy MacAusland ’12, Sasaki-Williams campus planning team member; Sarah Gardner, Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Studies.

The first Log Lunch of the spring semester took place on February 11. A group of students, faculty, and staff welcomed Tamar Warburg, Director of Sustainability at Sasaki, an international design firm based out of Boston hired by Williams to conduct a campus plan. Her talk, entitled “Sustainability in a Built Environment: Campus Planning Strategies for a Resilience Future,” discussed Sasaki’s work thus far for Williams and elaborated on how campuses could improve their sustainability initiatives in the face of climate change and equity issues. It was followed by an interactive discussion to identify what students think the campus plan should address.

The Sasaki team began their campus plan for Williams in April 2021, and have since focused on carrying out campus outreach to gather student opinions and reviewing previous campus plans and reports. They have also conducted extensive research to understand local hydrology, topography, and renewable energy options for Williams. Warburg expressed that parking lot distribution, vehicular access, walking paths, open spaces, dorm energy and accessibility, classroom utilization, and community engagement can all be viewed as sustainability issues capable of lowering carbon emissions, improving accessibility and safety, and encouraging a vibrant and equitable campus and community if addressed effectively. 

Pictured: Tamar Warburg, Log Lunch guest speaker, explains the various tenets of sustainability that the Sasaki team will address.

“Can Route 2 and Main Street be some kind of connector for the North and South? […] What role does topography play in the landscape…?” offered Warburg, listing a few questions that the Sasaki team was evaluating. “Where do people walk? Where do people bicycle? […] Can we distribute cars in a different way, where do we need vehicular access, can we concentrate parking…? What are open spaces like in the College? What is the Town Green and what can it become? […] How can we make sure that stormwater drains and returns to that aquifer?”

Predicting concerns from students about carbon emissions in the face of climate change, Warburg emphasized that carbon neutrality is within reach of the College if adequate measures are taken in a timely fashion, which the Sasaki team will recommend in the final campus plan. Warburg discussed some options, including turning to renewable energy sources, protecting and creating natural areas that sequester carbon, sourcing construction materials with low carbon footprints, and maximizing building efficiency and density. Currently, Williams gets almost all of its energy from a natural gas-fired steam plant on-site, an energy-intensive and fossil fuel-generated source.

Warburg also discussed Sasaki’s work for Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, MA. Like Williams, the two schools hired Sasaki to carry out a campus plan that would inform future planning efforts to cut their emissions drastically and reach carbon neutrality by a designated date. Among other things, the team at Sasaki prioritized the most efficient spaces on campus to install geothermal and solar energy forms, evaluated which buildings weren’t being used to their full potential, conducted extensive interviews and focus groups to gather affiliate input, and ran energy models to predict what it would take to hit those desired targets. The holistic approach aimed to benefit current students while improving conditions for the future.

Pictured: The Log Lunch offerings are displayed on flip pad paper.

“There are many aspects to sustainability. It’s not only energy and carbon… which are super important for climate change,” Warburg said. “In a master plan, we also look at health and wellness issues, water systems, ecosystems… resilience planning… sustainability mobility, equity and accessibility issues, and operations.”

Her presentation ended with an open discussion, in which Warburg asked attendees to suggest ideas and voice concerns about sustainability on campus. Students brought up the heating and cooling inefficiency of older dorms on campus, the residential and financial disconnect between Williams and neighboring towns, the uneven distribution of waste options across campus, and the potential to establish carbon-sequestering meadows, and community gardens to combat local food insecurity.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, lunch was not served. Attendees were sent home with a bag of freshly baked Earl Grey lavender, cinnamon chocolate chip, and caramel delite cookies.

BY SABRINE BRISMEUR ‘22.5

Log Lunch is a CES program hosted every Friday at noon. During Log Lunch, a vegetarian meal prepared by Williams students is served, followed by a talk on an environmental topic. Speakers are drawn from both the student body and faculty of Williams, as well as from local, national, and international organizations. Learn more here.