Letter From the Director

Changing habitat and habits and other news

We have lots of news to report since last year. First, CES has moved! This past February the Center for Environmental Studies and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives moved into the new Class of 1966 Environmental Center, and already it is becoming the place for students to study, to meet, to collaborate, to prepare a meal together, and to relax. Our new “habitat” is centrally situated on the campus just north of Stetson-Sawyer Library, and was designed to be eligible to meet the Living Building Challenge (LBC). LBC is an extremely demanding certification process: it involves everything from the choice of materials, to the construction process, to the quality of the indoor environment, to on-site food production, to net zero energy and water use, and more. LBC is a performance standard rather than a design standard like LEED, and so we don’t know when, or in fact, if, our building will achieve LBC certification. To date, fewer than 10 structures in the world have been LBC certified, and for the Class of ’66 Center to be LBC certified, we are going to have to develop new habits of energy and water use.This will of course be a challenge, but like many challenges, it will also be a great opportunity. Already, Williams faculty and students and staff are at work developing ways to monitor our water and energy use in real time, and interdisciplinary projects are in the works to display the information we gather so as to reinforce sustainable living in the building. We expect our new home building to be an educational facility in the very broadest sense.
The other big news to share is that Elizabeth Kolbert, who will be joining CES for the next three years as the Class of 1946 Environmental Fellow-in-Residence, has been named the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for her latest book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Next year, Betsy will be offering a course, Writing and Science and Nature, and will, we are sure, add greatly to the intellectual vitality of the CES.
Please come by for a visit—we’d love to show you around.
-Ralph Bradburd, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy and Chair, Environmental Studies