Though they’ve been snagging the headlines, it wasn’t Middlebury College or the University of Vermont that nabbed the distinction of being the first college in the state to divest from fossil fuels. That honor goes to little Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, where the board of trustees voted on February 2 to strip its $920,000 endowment of the 200 top fossil-fuel companies as identified by the environmental organization 350.org.
Unlike other colleges in Vermont, where the push to divest is coming primarily from student activists, Sterling’s decision originated in the board room: President Matthew Allen Derr says it was the 18-member board that hatched the plan to divest, and voted unanimously to pursue divestment.
“This was a board that was really able to speak with one mind,” says Derr. He adds that the thinking at Sterling, a college devoted to a mission of environmental stewardship, was, “If not Sterling, than who would do this?”
Sterling is the third college in the country — after Unity College in Maine and Hampshire College — to pledge to divest its endowment from major fossil-fuel companies. Those promises are in the vanguard of a growing movement calling for divestment on college campuses nationwide. To date, 350.org tallies 234 “Go Fossil Free” campaigns in the U.S., including four in Vermont at Middlebury, UVM, Green Mountain College and Goddard College.
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