The Mac Weekly

Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Aaron Brown Timothy's sustainability projects include hanging clotheslines in campus laundry rooms.

­You see him around campus, with his distinctive, unruly mane of curls, hurrying to attend the next meeting for an initiative against global warming.

He can be found at virtually every meeting about sustainability or community action working for projects about which he is passionate.

He is one of the great characters at Macalester that gives this school its sense of vibrancy. He is also a living testament to self-empowerment.

He is Timothy Den Herder-Thomas.

Den Herder-Thomas is dedicated to averting the impending energy crisis and ecological disaster resulting from global warming.

"I see climate change and the energy crisis as a defining paradigm shift of our society and lives," Den Herder-Thomas said. "I am deeply excited by the possibilities this holds."

To realize this vision, he has committed himself to three projects-the Clean Energy Revolving Fund (CERF), Campus Wars, and People Power Initiative (PPI).

"CERF is a financial mechanism whereby investment in energy efficiency is paid back by the energy dividends," Justin Lee '08 said. Lee is also involved with the fund and sustainability issues.

Most recently, CERF replaced over 1,200 incandescent bulbs on campus with more energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.

According to Lee, this effort will save the college $4,800 per year.

"The bulbs have a payback period of at the most two years," he said. "It's like the stock market doing 50% a year."

Campus Wars is an initiative that began at Macalester two years ago with the objective of improving energy efficiency in the dorms. Originally called "Dorm Wars," the project has since been expanded to include the entire campus.

Last year, the initiative was extended to the entire state of Minnesota, where Macalester took first in overall efficiency. This year, Den Herder-Thomas said, he and other students are working to expand campus wars to the national level.

Den Herder-Thomas has joined others in trying to formulate large-scale community efficiency projects that utilize similar financial mechanisms as CERF.

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