Current News

CC sets national "green energy" record; purchases wind energy certificates for 22 percent of electricity use

January 27, 2003

For Immediate Release - Jan. 27, 2003
Contact: Trish Brink (860) 439-2508;
e-mail: pabri@conncoll.edu

Growing trend among colleges

Connecticut College sets national "green energy" record; purchases wind energy certificates for 22 percent of electricity use

NEW LONDON, Conn. - In a move to support renewable energy generated by wind farms, Connecticut College has purchased 3.2 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy certificates. The certificates represent 22 percent of the college's annual electricity consumption, the largest percentage of wind power purchased by any U.S. college or university, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Last year, the college purchased 17 percent of its electricity directly from renewable energy sources, leading a growing trend among colleges and universities to support environmentally friendly sources of energy. Connecticut College was among the founding members of the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership. Other colleges and universities now involved in the partnership include Carnegie Mellon, Catholic University of America, Pennsylvania State, University of Pennsylvania and Bucknell University.

Renewable energy certificates offer energy users a way to financially support the production of renewable energy without purchasing it directly from the company that generates it. Each certificate represents the environmental attributes associated with one kilowatt-hour of generation from a renewable source such as water, solar or wind power. Connecticut College purchased 100 percent new wind renewable energy certificates from EAD Environmental LLC, a Green-e certified renewable certificate marketing firm based in New York City.

Connecticut College's move to renewable energy has been led by students Sarah Zisa and Kasandra Rohrbach, both seniors and co-presidents of the Connecticut College Renewable Energy Club. Two years ago, they circulated a petition proposing that the college purchase energy from a "green" energy cooperative in Connecticut and that students voluntarily pay a special fee to cover the additional costs to the college of the purchase. More than 75 percent of students signed the petition, and it won overwhelming support from the Student Government Association followed by unanimous approval by the college's Board of Trustees in May 2001. A year later, however, the energy cooperative went out of business. Rohrbach and Zisa immediately swung into action again to help the college explore alternatives, which resulted in the decision to purchase renewable energy certificates.

Zisa is an environmental studies major who is enrolled in the college's Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts. Rohrbach is a gender and women's studies major who is enrolled in the college's Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies academic certificate program. The Goodwin-Niering Center offers students in any major an opportunity to complement their major with an environmental component. They must qualify for the program and earn a certificate by completing special coursework, an internship and an in-depth research project. This past summer, Rohrbach fulfilled her internship requirement at the Center for Resource Solutions, in San Francisco, a company that advocates clean and efficient energy use. This center Center for Resource Solutions is one of the official organizations that sets the standards for certifying a power product as renewable, or a product that can be naturally replenished.

According to Connecticut College Vice President for Administration Ulysses Hammond, switching from the co-op to EAD "actually turned out to be a benefit. We have now negotiated an arrangement that will have a more positive impact on the environment. Not only were we able to increase our percentage of Green-e [energy], but we have also been able to designate the type of Green-e we want: 100 percent wind, which is considered one of the cleanest energy sources."

Connecticut College has long history of environmental leadership

The college's renewable energy program is the latest development in a commitment to environmental studies and stewardship that began with the establishment of a 60-acre arboretum adjacent to campus in 1931. Today, the arboretum encompasses the entire campus of 750 acres, with 400 acres serving as a living laboratory for student-faculty research.

The college's interdisciplinary Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies was established in 1993 to create stronger connections between environmental issues and other academic disciplines. In 1998 Newsweek recognized the Goodwin-Niering Center as "one of the best environmental studies programs in the United States." The Center also serves as the lead organization for campus-wide efforts to minimize the college's impact on the environment. Among these efforts is a comprehensive 50-year-old recycling program.

Other milestones in the college's environmental tradition include:

- an innovative carbon offset program. In January 2000, the college joined forces with the non-profit Reforest the Tropics, Inc., in Mystic, Conn., to convert 36 acres of Costa Rican pasture land to a forest. The college contracted with the country's former minister of agriculture to plant 10,000 trees, enough to offset the 593 tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year by the college's student center. The trees absorb carbon dioxide through their leaves, releasing oxygen back into the air and storing the carbon in the form of wood.

- a pioneering environmental studies major. In 1969, the college created one of the nation's first "human ecology" majors, now called environmental studies, under the guidance of two internationally known environmental scholars and activists, the late William Niering, who was the Lucretia L. Allyn Professor of Botany, and Richard Goodwin, the Katharine Blunt Professor Emeritus of Botany. (Goodwin was an early member of the Nature Conservancy and served as its last volunteer president; he and Niering were co-founders of the Conservancy's Connecticut chapter.) Hundreds of the college's graduates hold leadership positions in national and international environmental organizations and agencies.

- a 50-year trove of environmental data. In 1952, Goodwin and Niering established the Bolleswood Natural Area of the Arboretum and launched a 100-year study of the area's vegetation, with plant surveys at ten-year intervals. Regular bird surveys of the area have also been conducted. The survey, which has now passed the 50-year mark, has produced some of the most extensive longitudinal data on plant and bird life in New England.

Ranked among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College has an enrollment of approximately 1,850 men and women from 44 states, the District of Columbia, and 55 countries. The college is particularly known for interdisciplinary studies, innovative international programs, paid internships, and a wide range of student-faculty research opportunities. Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 80-year-old honor code and has no Greek system. The scenic 750-acre campus is managed as an arboretum and overlooks Long Island Sound. For more information, see www.conncoll.edu. Connecticut College is located at 270 Mohegan Ave., New London.

-end-

For media inquiries contact: Amy Martin (860) 439-2526; a.martin@conncoll.edu