After only three weeks at the University, Chancellor Michael Martin said he wants to look into the possibility of turning the campus “green.”Martin said, as president at New Mexico State University, he was one of the first people to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, an effort to address global warming and neutralize greenhouse gas emissions at universities.”I’m taking it seriously,” Martin said. “I won’t make a commitment right now, but my inclination is to sign on.”The commitment sends the right message, and the downsides of it are relatively limited, Martin said.LSU System President John Lombardi said anyone signing the commitment should consider all of the fiscal consequences.”When you sign these broad statements that say you’re going to do something, then you have to be prepared to do it,” Lombardi said. “And doing it is often expensive.”Taking measures to reduce LSU’s carbon output would make the campus a leader in environmental responsibility, said Katie Peterson, vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization, in an e-mail.”The Presidents Climate Commitment is an excellent way for colleges and universities to show leadership in working towards a more sustainable society,” Peterson said.Martin said he wants to determine LSU’s view on the commitment and why it has not been signed in the past.”Once I’ve reflected on it, my inclination is to tilt in that direction because, obviously, I’ve bought it one other time and believed in it in that setting. Why wouldn’t I here?” Martin said.Lombardi said he is in favor of Martin signing it once he has all the information needed to find out if LSU is able to follow the commitments implied in the document.Although Lombardi said he would support Martin in signing the statement, Lombardi would not personally sign it.”I don’t sign anything because I don’t think signing those things does any good,” Lombardi said. “If you’re going to do something, you ought to do it. If you’re not going to do something, you ought not to do it. But signing statements doesn’t help.”More than 500 presidents and chancellors from colleges and universities across the nation have signed the PCC.Eugene Turner, oceanography and coastal sciences professor, said there are reasons why the commitment might not work at LSU.”One example is we have trouble getting recycle bins put in some places,” Turner said. “The community can work to help make this happen.”Peterson said administration is not ready to take an aggressive approach to sustainability.”From my understanding, the Presidential Climate Commitment is too short of a timeline for the LSU System to deem feasible to incorporate into the plans for LSU,” Peterson said.In contrast, she said many other large universities have signed the commitment, including Ole Miss and the universities of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida, and the goals are within LSU’s reach.”If LSU truly wants to be the flagship university it claims to be, then we need to lead the way in responsible sustainable development,” Peterson said.Martin said building sustainability into the academic curriculum is the least appreciated part of the commitment.”Part of that commitment is to begin to carry on a dialogue with students about you change not just how the campus works, but how we change the larger society, and become more conscious of it,” Martin said.Lombardi said it is a good agenda to be in favor of reducing pollution, energy use and energy dependency.”Everybody’s looking for ways to improve all that,” Lombardi said. “I’m in favor of doing all that.”Martin said LSU is first and foremost an educational institution, and LSU should do what it does best — educate.”[Let’s] begin the conversation about how to educate people better about all those issues out there that they’re going to have to cope with when old guys like me are gone,” Martin said.—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]