Beyond Living Buildings

“A Living Laboratory” (fall 2013) and recent correspondence with fellow classmates and President Falk prompted me to write this letter. The Living Building Challenge is a worthy environmental initiative. Green building is what we must do in the future if indeed we have one. Of more immediate concern to me is the fate of our children and grandchildren in the world our generation will leave behind. The unfortunate likelihood is that it will be one depleted resources, devastating and unpredictable storms and a reduced standard of living and quality of life for all, including the most privileged, like those who had the benefit of a Williams education. Now is the time for the college to show intellectual and moral leadership and demonstrate concrete commitments through divestment of stock in fossil fuel companies, educating students and alumni in finding real and hopeful solutions for this generation and the next, and becoming a role model for an amplified level of institutional self-sacrifice. The college’s current commitments to sustainability, frankly, seem anemic in the face of the manifest threats to the planet and to humans, animals and plants.
—Steve Kaagan ’65, honorary degree 1984, Asheville, N.C.