Visiting Spelman College: An exceptional and green campus community

After an intensive trip to Savannah, we headed back to Atlanta Monday night. Early Tuesday morning, our schedule continued directly with a visit of Spelman College. Spelman’s green leaders, Facility Manager Arthur Frazier and Environmental Science and Studies Instructor Na'Taki Osbourne Jelks, along with some of her students, welcomed us at their campus. In a very interesting presentation given by Mr. Frazier, we learned about Sustainable Spelman, a program driving not only energy efficiency on campus, but also ecological awareness amongst its students. The project has already been so successful that Spelman College was ranked the greenest HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) campus in the private institutions category. Spelman College has a variety of initiatives and projects aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge and action concerning sustainability. Moving towards sustainability, reconstruction measures have been going on in the course of the program. Redoing the campus saved Spelman College about 200 000 US$ on utility bills. Money, the college was able to invest in further sustainability projects. They demonstrated
that going green does not require additional spending as such but rather can be cost-saving.

Spelman College has proven to be an incredible example of how sustainability is not only financially efficient, but also profitable. Due to the greenhouse gas emissions the college saved with the remodeling of some of the campus facilities and thanks to Chevrolets campus energy efficiency campaign to reduce carbon emissions Spelman College was able to sell so called carbon credits to Chevrolet for about 100 000 US$.


We found Spelman College's focus on the impact individuals have on both the community they live in and the world at large particularly impressive. This became evident a quote by former President Tatum, who once said to an incoming freshman class “We have a choice to change the world”- A quote that still serves as a guiding principle for students at Spelman. A selected group of sustainable “Interns” and “Ambassadors” help to spread the word within the school’s student community. This shows once more how Spelman practices what it preaches-that sustainability is an individual lifestyle choice and not just a top-down approach.

The fact that Spelman College encourages its students to become advocates of social justice became evident when a student in the class pointed out how the importance of the interplay of social and environmental justice often is neglected- a statement we can only agree on. Apart from its sustainability efforts, Spelman College has shown to be an impressive college community, in which the college supports and empowers young women to develop leadership and to commit to positive social change. Spelman’s sustainability efforts extent beyond its campus and are aimed at reaching communities. #NC #RCU