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April 25, 2003
Mark Spiro in the Green Spotlight
If there was an environmental Olympics
at Colgate, Mark Spiro would take
home the gold. Spiro, Colgate’s Vice President
of Administrative Services, has been
an integral part of the backbone support for
environmental initiatives on campus since
his arrival in 1999. When considering the
most important and key players in the environmental
action process, other actors
on campus have all pointed to Spiro as
their first choice. While considering
Spiro’s integral role, people such as Bob
Turner (head of the Environmental Studies
Program and the Campus Ecology
Group) and Molly Ames Baker (Co-Director
of Outdoor Education) have pointed
out that the most important thing to consider
is not his extraordinary commitment
to environmental action, but his willingness
and ability to make these actions a reality.
Spiro came to Colgate from Cornell
University in the summer of 1999. He he
immediately had a hand in creating the
environmental audit process on Colgate’s
campus. This process was created in response
to a new Environmental Protection
Agency program which randomly tests universities
for environmental health and
friendliness. Spiro’s efforts, and as he points
out, the outstanding work of Jennifer Martin
and the rest of the team, resulted in no
citations or recommendations from the
EPA’s surprise visit to Colgate last fall.
In addition to this important initiative,
Spiro has also had a part in several other
projects in the past three and a half
years. The creation of the shuttle introduced
low emission engines to Colgate-owned
vehicles and has had an effect on the reduction
of vehicular use on upper
campus. Colgate now uses more organic
products and lesser amounts of pesticides
and herbicides for grounds operations.
Printing services now uses food-based inks
and energy star-certified appliances. Colgate
also joined the University of Vermont in petitioning
the Staples Company to carry recycled
paper, and according to Spiro, this
effort was a success: 80 percent of Colgate’s
paper is now recycled.
Although Spiro did not come up with all
these ideas himself, and as he says, he often
does not do the background work in first
bringing these initiatives to the attention of
the Colgate community, he receives all of
the plans for environmental initiatives on
campus and often approves them or recommends
them to President Chopp. According
to Bob Turner, having an environmentally
motivated administrator is an important step
in the approval of many significant environmental
projects. Events with which
Spiro has been involved, such as the Campus
Ecology Group meetings and the Green
Summit, have provided a link between the faculty
and student body to the administration.
Spiro, however, takes little of the credit
deserved. “The people who work for me and
with me bring the right principles to the job
and do things to make us a more environmentally
friendly university,” he says. He
gives credit to those initiating and doing
legwork in environmental action plans, such
as Bob Turner, John Novak, Norm
Kuklinski, Bob Pils, Bob Keats, Barbra
Walker, and Jennifer Martin – all key players
in the environmental initiatives at
Colgate. He also gives praise to the student
groups as well as the ENST 480 students,
and he sees this as a tremendously helpful
partnership between students, faculty,
staff and administration.
Spiro has great goals in mind for
Colgate’s environmental future. He is excited
about the continuation of the ENST
480 seminar projects, the Green Fund and
greener construction standards at
Colgate. He sees the next two large steps
in Colgate’s environmental history as alternative
fuel for the Colgate fleet, if it becomes
available in the Hamilton area, and the
finalization of a composting site for the university,
which is still a project in progress.
Spiro is excited about the future and
about the present efforts at Colgate. He
is enthusiastic about the leadership that
the University undertakes in its environmental
efforts and about the action that
so many Colgate students and employees
are eager to take. He gets two enthusiastic
thumbs up from environmental
activists and participants at Colgate. He
enthusiastically replies, “Working on this
effort together with students and faculty
has just been a real joy!”
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