“Education: a debt due from present to future generations.” (George Peabody)
Though much is owed to future generations, and each of us must do our part to pay forward our share, the MKCREATIVE team have taken a particular interest in the greening/sustainability/new-energy nexus of our economy and environment. We were thus especially pleased to read some recent articles about how college students are working with and beyond their institutions of higher education to expand Green Week into a personal habit and a drive for sustainable change throughout the economy.
The blog “Earth PM” (Earth Project Management) posted a stunning report about how the University of New Hampshire is turning garbage decomposition into a renewable source of methane gas. According to the posting, “UNH will sell power in excess of campus needs back to the electric grid. ‘By selling the RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates, a certificate of exchange in a Cap-and-Trade economy) from EcoLine™, UNH will further fund its aggressive plan toward climate neutrality,’ says Tom Kelly, UNH chief sustainability officer and director of the office of sustainability. ‘With this climate action plan, called WildCAP, UNH has committed to lowering its emissions by 50 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2080.’” Besides the excitingly high percentage of lowering emissions, the project involves engineers, designers, mathematicians, project managers, and a community-outreach/PR group, so UNH students are learning by doing.
Towson University in Maryland is making a big effort for National Volunteer Week, with a series of events (expressly green and otherwise) meant to get students out to the larger community. National Volunteer Week includes inspirational opportunities to volunteer, as well as chances for volunteers to get the recognition they rarely receive by always deserve.
Our lieutenant governor has also been touting the work of some of the colleges in western Maryland and their efforts to lower emissions as well. The efforts of Hood College in Fredricksburg (and the capital funding from the governor’s office) are especially touted in the press release this week:
The retrofit project is considered a green project and will significantly lower the college’s energy consumption. The system, parts of which date back to 1927, provides service to most of the campus and experiences increasingly frequent failures that disrupt heating service to both academic and residential facilities. The infrastructure replacement will install new boilers and steam lines to serve the academic core of campus and install independent boilers in facilities on the perimeter of campus. …The critically needed project will reduce operating costs, improve reliability and minimize Hood College’s carbon footprint and will reduce college’s utility consumption by nearly 33 percent.
These are great strides among just a few of regional educational institutions. Most importantly, though, the projects are encouraging the next generation to think green and to put environmental ideals into real-world problem-solving situations – a meaningful down payment on what we owe our progeny.
