Harold D. Craft Jr., vice president for administration and chief financial officer of Cornell University, today (April 11, 2001) released the text of a letter he has sent to Cornell students concerning the application of the Kyoto Protocol's environmental principles to the operation of the university. The letter follows:

Ms. Julie Baribeau 
President, Cornell Greens 
319 Anabel Taylor

Mr. Uzo Asonye 
President, Student Assembly 
165 Day Hall

Dear Julie and Uzo:

Over the last two weeks I have appreciated the opportunity I have had to engage in several useful and encouraging conversations with a number of interested students regarding the University's stance regarding the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases to a certain fraction of those emitted in 1990. The students and the other members of the Cornell student community with whom I have met have urged me to commit the University to abide by the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol in the operation of the University, and this position has been echoed by many additional students via e-mail messages.

Let me begin by commending you and all the students who have given such a major portion of your time in support of this important issue. The protection and indeed the improvement of our atmospheric environment is, in my view, an absolutely essential national policy, one which all of us have an obligation to support in every possible way. I wholeheartedly endorse your aspirations and those of your colleagues to reduce significantly the production of greenhouse gases so as to slow, as much as possible, any global warming attributed to this cause. In fact, for about twenty years, Cornell has been quietly engaged in this very pursuit via major changes in the University infrastructure and in routine operations. The importance of this issue is not new to the campus. We have been and remain deeply committed to making a major contribution to this objective, taking seriously the instruction to "think globally and act locally." Permit me to outline for you a few of the major changes that have taken place over the last several years: o Lake Source Cooling -- This extraordinary program, which I am convinced will serve as a model for many other communities throughout the world, has brought about an 87% reduction in the energy needed to cool the campus, and the elimination of the need to use Chlorofluorocarbons in our mechanical cooling machinery. This project entailed an investment of more than $58 million and had the protection of the environment as its principal objective. As you know, we are delighted that the preliminary data generated to date emphatically confirms our belief that this project will have absolutely no detrimental side effects on the quality of Cayuga Lake.

• Our campus relamping project has installed more energy efficient ballasts and lamps in fluorescent fixtures across the campus. Where feasible, incandescent lamps have been replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs. Energy use for lighting has been reduced by approximately 30%.
• The University's transportation demand management project that encourages car-pooling and the use of public transportation has won national awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the National Association of State Energy Officials, and a New York State award from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The program has reduced the number of commuter vehicles coming to campus by more than 2,400 daily.
• We have converted selected campus mail and maintenance vehicles to use compressed natural gas, thereby reducing emissions.
• We are vigorously pursuing a major and ongoing program to convert building mechanical systems and their controls to reduce energy requirements for heating and cooling.
• We have undertaken major renovations of the air handling systems and their controls for high-energy-use buildings such as Baker and S.T. Olin Laboratories, Bradfield Hall, the Veterinary Research Tower, Emerson Hall, and Corson-Mudd Hall, with the specific objective of reducing energy use by each building.
• The cogeneration of electricity at Cornell's heating plant has allowed us to produce approximately 15% of the University's total electrical consumption on campus, at an efficiency roughly twice that of traditional power plants.

The result of these major projects, and many others that I have not mentioned, has been a 9% reduction in energy use per square foot on campus since 1990, with corresponding reduction in greenhouse emissions. We are very pleased with this achievement and will continue to make substantial efforts to achieve further improvements in the years ahead.

We must keep in mind, however, that the campus continues to grow and that much of the new space has been and will be in high technology, energy-intensive research facilities. As you can well appreciate, it has often been in facilities of this type that many creative ideas for the reduction of energy on a broad scale have been developed. We have made dramatic progress in the reduction of emissions over the last decade, but accomplishing this objective in absolute terms when the physical space on the campus is increasing is a substantial challenge. In spite of my fundamental support of the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, and for the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in general, I cannot at this point guarantee that the University will be able to meet the detailed guidelines specific to the Kyoto Protocol within the timeframe that has been identified. To make such a commitment in a responsible manner, we must understand much better than we do now the practical implications of such a course of action, and the detailed programmatic consequences for many constituencies throughout the University. If major changes are indeed required, then the decision to pursue them will need to be made and supported by a broad consensus of the academic deans, senior administrators, and trustees, as well as by our faculty, staff and students. None of that can be accomplished in time for the press conference scheduled for today.

The staff in Cornell's utility and engineering groups are presently assessing the current sources of greenhouse emissions across the campus and are developing proposals on how those emissions might be reduced. We intend to work on this effort with faculty from Cornell's Center for the Environment, and with other interested faculty, staff and students across campus. I would hope that by the coming fall semester the scope and nature of the University's most pressing emissions challenges will have been described in detail. Some of these options might involve decisions on the part of the University administration, but the success of others, possibly most, will hinge on the participation of every individual in the Cornell community. There is no reason that that individual participation cannot begin today.

I give you my assurance that I will continue to support initiatives for increased environmental responsibility, and I look forward to working cooperatively with you and your supporters in the weeks ahead.