含羞草传媒

The Institute for Climate Action works as Subcommittees in the following areas:

• Curriculum
• Events and Communications (see Events and
• Newsletters tabs)
• 鈥淕reen Fee鈥� funding mechanism
• Energy: Renewable sources, and Energy Conservation
• Food: Plant-based Diet/Local Foods
• Orientation for new students
• 鈥淩oad Show鈥� 鈥� traveling educational campaign
• Waste/Compost/Recycling on Campus

Curriculum

While FPU offers courses in environmental and earth sciences in major and minor courses as well as general education (GLE) that highlight climate issues, overall attention falls far short of the magnitude and the urgency of the 鈥減roblem,鈥� and short also, of the increasing demand for more climate education on the part of a younger generation of students.

To date the efforts of the Subcommittee have focused on gathering information about practices elsewhere. Ayodele O鈥檜huru has discovered through her Senior Capstone research that some schools require climate issues to be addressed in every major, while others integrate climate into the general education curriculum.

Members of the Subcommittee are considering these two approaches, or perhaps a combination of both, as the best means of ramping up climate instruction at Franklin Pierce.

 

Green Fee funding mechanism

The goal of the Green Fee Pledge is to bring awareness to the commitment signed by the university stating it would help promote the research, education, and community engagement efforts needed to create a sustainable society, and to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from in campus operations. This Pledge would be given to all students in the form of a letter.

The fee would be $23.90, which Ayo O鈥檜huru (Class of 2020) came up with by adding $19.70, the year of the first Earth Day, plus $4.20, the day of the first Earth Day. The fees will aid campus-wide improvements such as: motion sensored lights, possible solar array, converting buildings to LEED, giving out orientation packages to all incoming students (reusable mugs, etc.), improvements to residential dorm bathrooms and kitchenettes, along with creating new job opportunity for students within residential life as an Ecorep.

Our next steps will be to craft the wording of the Pledge letter, and to present the plan to the Student Government Association board for student approval, then Student Financial Services.

Energy: Renewable sources, and Energy Conservation

The subcommittee for renewable energy and energy conservation on campus and in the community has begun to take action. Doug Lear, Director of Facilities at Franklin Pierce University, recently worked with consultants to conduct an energy audit, which shows how much energy the campus uses by building.

This audit focused on some of the larger buildings and measured electrical use. Results of this audit will be reviewed and necessary actions identified. This subcommittee will be updating the 2016 FPU Climate Action Plan and the Greenhouse Gas Inventory. We have also investigated other options, such as heating using purified waste vegetable oil.

Members of this committee are participating in the Community Power group, which is working with statewide organizations to be able to provide clean, green electricity to homeowners in the region through buyer鈥檚 collectives.

The ICA worked with Director of Facilities Doug Lear to discuss locations for photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on campus, to generate clean electricity. In the summer of 2020, Doug approached about using a to put 244 kW of PV on the field house roof; their proposal received preliminary approval from FPU and is slated for installation in Nov. 2020.

This will supply about 10% of FPU鈥檚 electricity needs. Alyssa Lewis 鈥�21 and Hannah Cuzner identified two possible locations for two ground mounted installations totaling about 5 acres, which would generate 50% of our electricity needs on the Rindge campus!

The next step is to assess the ecological and social impacts of these large-scale photovoltaic projects, and to work with Revision Energy and other groups to investigate their affordability.

Plant-based Diet/ Local Foods

The plant-based diet subcommittee鈥檚 goal is to create a more sustainable diet for the Franklin Pierce campus. In February, we met with Rebecca Hunt and John Benouski, Sodexo鈥檚 dietitian and manager to develop an action plan. The goal over the next year is to offer more plant-based options, taking student suggestions into consideration, and provide education on preparing plant-based options both in the cafeteria and in dorm rooms/apartments.

To start the collaboration, Sodexo and the ICA teamed together for Wellness Wednesday where students created their own avocado toast, and learned more about plant based food choices.

Next, a video segment for the Academic Showcase was put together to introduce students to the benefits of plant-based eating for individual health, as well as the health of our planet, provide instruction on preparing simple and cost-effective plant-based meals and snacks in a college dorm room or apartment, and help students navigate healthy and sustainable choices offered on campus.

With the outbreak of Covid-19, and all institute efforts moving to a virtual platform, the Fitzwater Center approached Dr. Christoph to host a cooking show that showcases mainly plant-based options.

鈥溾�� aired each Wednesday through April and May. Recently, the decision was made to continue the show throughout the summer, and two student hosts have been added to the show each week in order to better speak to the college students鈥� experiences.

New Student Orientation

The main goal of this subcommittee is to find an effective way to make resources regarding climate awareness and sustainability available to the incoming class. Subcommittee members, Professor John Harris and student Tristan Burlingame, determined that the best way to present the information was through a short, engaging film rather than a live presentation.

The film would feature current students and would also show the outdoor opportunities that are available to our community such as: on and off campus hiking trails, guided walks, and nature restoration projects.

We intend to create resource material such as eco-friendly college supply lists to provide to students on the website.

 

鈥淩oad Show鈥� - Traveling Educational Campaign

As part of an educational institution, the Institute for Climate Action is assembling a series of lectures and events designed to improve people鈥檚 understanding of the climate crisis. We have created a flexible talk that could be tailored to each audience, ranging from middle school children to adults in the Rotary Club, the Women鈥檚 Club and other civic groups that meet regularly but do not necessarily focus on environmental issues.

Prior to the COVID19 crisis, our intent had been to launch the lecture series in May 2020, but our target now is Fall 2020, either virtually or in person.

Fred Rogers, Jerry Burns, Catherine Koning, Pat Martin and Alyssa Lewis are involved with this subcommittee, please contact Fred Rogers at rogersfs@franklinpierce.edu if your group would like to learn about the climate crisis.

 

Waste/Compost/Recycling

Anything that gets thrown in the trash contributes to climate change! That is because our trash is either burned, producing carbon dioxide, or buried in a landfill, where it produces methane. Both carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases that trap in heat, warming the planet and profoundly altering our climate.

So, we have to do everything we can to reduce the waste we produce.

This starts with REDUCING the items you buy, trying to choose items with less packaging, re-use your bags, etc.

We can also REUSE items rather than throw them away.

Finally, we all have to RECYCLE.

Recycling has become quite challenging since China stopped buying our materials. One of the reasons they stopped was that our recyclable material was very dirty and contaminated with items that can鈥檛 be recycled; sorting and cleaning costs more money than they can make from recycling it. Plastic has always been difficult to recycle, and now there aren鈥檛 enough companies who want it, so many towns are not accepting plastic. Aluminum, cardboard and paper are still commonly recycled.

The Institute for Climate Action is currently exploring ways to get the FPU community to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE.

Energy

Replacing fossil fuel boilers with wood pellet boilers for heating campus buildings saves 49,000 gallons of oil and 109,000 gallons of propane per year. It also reduces equivalent CO2 production by 618 metric tons.鈥�

Some energy-saving strategies we integrated include:

• Wind, solar, and geo-thermal energy
• Energy efficient structure
• Radiant heating system
• PSNH energy efficiency Program rebate
• Energy efficient air-cooled chiller
• High-efficiency T-5 fluorescent fixtures
• Energy-efficient LED exit signs
• Incandescent to fluorescent fixtures
• New thermo-pane windows
• Energy Star purchasing program
• Water conservation program
• Four-day work week (summers)
• Switched to Biodiesel
• MacGray Company Washers-Dryers
• Recycling (including computers, electronics, glass, aluminum, plastics, paper, and cardboard)

 

Land Protection

We are one of only a handful of higher learning institutions to place permanent, legal restrictions on undeveloped land near campus.

In 2005, a 46-acre parcel of wetlands and upland forest was protected with a conservation easement held by the Monadnock Conservancy Land Trust,鈥痗reating a wildlife corridor connecting Pool Pond and Pearly Pond. Franklin Pierce received national recognition for these efforts by the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program.

Based on a study by David Graham-Wolf for the Rindge Conservation Commission, a 300-acre parcel of land owned by Franklin Pierce was identified as having high-quality habitat and conservation value, and the Sustainability Council is working to protect additional land.

Sodexo Food Services at 含羞草传媒 partners with the ICA. Sodexo participates in Food Day, Campus Sustainability Day, Earth Week, Weigh Your Waste, and other events on campus to celebrate and promote local food. Sodexo promotes sustainability through locally sourced food and innovative kitchen and dining hall management systems that reduce the amount of energy and water used within operation.

Sodexo pairs with to offer expanded selection of fresh produce, dairy, and prepared foods from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Locally sourced food and produce reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from processing, storing, shipping, ultimately supporting a healthy regional agricultural community. 鈥�

The Institute for Climate Action offers paid student internships every year! Interns work with the ICA through subcommittees and the group as a whole. This includes weekly group meetings to plan, coordinate, and hold events.

Interested students should contact koningc@franklinpierce.edu for more information.

The Institute for Climate Action is honored to partner with and support the work of a number of wonderful organizations around the local area, the region, the state and the country to work on the climate crisis. A few of these organizations are shown below:

350.org

is international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.

 

Antioch University Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience

delivers applied research, consulting, and education and training. Our approach is solutions oriented, pragmatic, participatory, and inclusive and is based on change leadership best practices and systems thinking. We focus on stakeholder capacity building at the local scale (watershed, municipal, county, region) of preparedness and resilience nationally and internationally, with an explicit awareness of social and climate justice.

Citizen's Climate Lobby

is a non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change.

 

Clean Energy New Hampshire

mission is to promote clean energy and technologies through education and advocacy for a stronger economic future.

League of Conservation Voters

influence's policy, hold politicians accountable, and win elections. This is how we fight to build a world with clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate that are protected by a just and equitable democracy.

 

Monadnock Sustainability Hub

The was formed as a merger between the Monadnock Sustainability Network and the the Monadnock Energy Hub. This strategic joining of forces allows us to better address energy efficiency, electric transportation, renewable energy and other sustainability issues with in our towns.

We are building a broad community effort as we fight for a cleaner, safer, & more resilient Monadnock Region.

 

Sunrise Movement

is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We鈥檙e building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.

Climate neutrality is defined as having no net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is achieved by minimizing GHG emissions as much as possible and using carbon offsets or other measures to mitigate the remaining emissions (, 2009).

• Use more active transportation like walking and biking instead of driving a vehicle.
• Share rides. The CampusWeb Ride Share Board makes it easy!
• Unplug electronic devices when not in use.
• Use smart strips to power off multiple devices at once.
• Recycle. Recycling reduces the need for new materials to be extracted from the earth, transported, process, and packaged, and reduces landfill waste that creates greenhouse gases and pollution. Recycling also helps protect wildlife habitat, which in turn helps keep CO2 out of the atmosphere. Participate in zero-waste move-out.
• Donate your reusable goods instead of sending them to the landfill.
• Grow your own food. The campus garden and campus greenhouse are a resource for food, learning, and community for all.
• Participate in other learning and action events throughout the year.

• Birds of the Monadnock Region Checklist [PDF]
• Birds of Pearly Pond [PDF]
• FPU Recycles [PDF]
• Goose Management Report by Catherine Koning - Dec. 2018 [PDF]
• Lakeview Drainage Basin Poster [PDF]
• Long-term Variable Milfoil Management Plan [PDF]
• Long-term Variable Milfoil Management Plan Poster [PDF]
• Pearly Pond Lake Management Brochure - Tips for Homeowners [PDF]
• Watershed Restoration Plan for Pearly Pond [PDF