Student Petition to Launch JHU Initiative on Sustainability, Energy & Climate

Dear President Daniels,

We, the undersigned members of the Johns Hopkins community, are very pleased to welcome you to the Johns Hopkins University. We are excited to have you as our new president, and we look forward to your leadership in the years ahead.

We are writing to urge you to drastically accelerate Johns Hopkins movement toward sustainability and expand our efforts to mitigate global climate change and build a clean energy economy. We urge you to promptly implement the attached recommendations from the Presidents Task Force on Climate Change by launching a new university-wide institute for sustainability education and research, cutting JHUs greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, and fostering sustainability in the greater Baltimore community.

These recommendations represent the outcome of widespread calls from the Johns Hopkins communityincluding a 2007 university-wide campaign representing over 2,500 studentsto reposition our university at the forefront of sustainability, climate, and energy solutions. An immense and ever-growing body of scientific evidence indicates that our society must rapidly transition to a low-carbon economy to avoid the risk of catastrophic global climate change. Addressing this threat successfully means transforming our economy, our institutions, and our livesand doing so within a generation.

We believe this challenge calls for the leadership and innovation Johns Hopkins has demonstrated since its establishment. As an institution that contributes so much to science, education, and public service, there is enormous opportunity for Hopkins to leverage its capacities toward solutions in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner, both within the university and the Baltimore community.

We can become a model for sustainability by implementing new technologies in our community and by changing our communitys behaviors. We can prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, policymakers and citizens for this challenge with new educational and extracurricular opportunities. And we can invent the sustainability technologies of tomorrow by investing in cutting-edge research today. Although the current state of JHUs endowment poses challenges to all areas of the university, these efforts must be seen as critical, long-term investments in our universitys future.

Leading society to live sustainably and reverse global climate change is a task that fits squarely into the universitys educational, research, and public service missions. Hopkins cannot remain a leading world university in the 21st century without addressing this defining global challengeand we stand only to gain by acting now. A comprehensive and collaborative university-wide initiative in sustainability, climate, and energy can reinvigorate and unite our community behind this common purpose, once again harnessing the motivation and enthusiasm embedded in our university's history.

Thank you in advance for your leadership on this issue.

PLEASE NOTE: Please provide your JHED ID (which is publicly available in the myJHU database) below. This will ensure that signatories are members of the JHU community.