Amherst College Sustainability Tour

At Amherst, sustainability is a core value. The campus is home to many sustainable features that foster academic experiences, have earned national and regional recognition, reduce our campus footprint, and support and inspire the campus community. From buildings and grounds to academics to campus wellbeing, we aspire to integrate sustainability into every part of campus life. While this tour features many physical examples of our sustainability efforts, check out the Amherst College Office of Sustainability for a more comprehensive summary of the college’s sustainability programs and initiatives.

See below for a comprehensive list of our sustainability features

Scroll through the map below to see the features offered at Amherst College.

The third floor of the science center provides a great view of the building’’s green roof. A Green Roof is just as it sounds - a building roof planted with vegetation. The roof provides habitat for a variety of plant, animal, and insect species, retains precipitation thereby reducing runoff, and helps regulate the building's indoor temperature.

Located on the south side of the Science center is a large rain garden. A rain garden is an intentionally designated area designed to collect runoff from surrounding hardscape and allow this runoff to soak into the ground instead of washing away. Rain gardens like this one are planted with plants, trees, and bushes that can survive in waterlogged environments.

Photovoltaics (PV) convert light (photons) to electricity (voltage). The largest campus PV solar array is located on the roof of the science center. The energy from this array helps power the building.

Amherst is committed to creating the most sustainable campus possible. The Office of Sustainability strives to foster sustainable communities that are socially just and equitable, environmentally sound and resilient, and economically viable, and works to infuse sustainability across the curriculum, co-curriculum, and operations of the college. We firmly believe that change towards a more sustainable future is possible when people have the vision, tools, and network to define and lead into new ways of thinking and working together, breakthrough research is applied to real-world problems, and new models, methods, and pathways for integrating sustainability into daily life, learning, and future careers are developed. We invite you to join us on our sustainability journey!

Want to learn more about Amherst's sustainable features or have any suggestions?

Check out the Office of Sustainability's  website. 

Contact us at  wdripps@amherst.edu  or come visit us in Charles Pratt 101.