Governance & Administration

The longest-standing endowed university sustainability program in the nation, the UNH Office of Sustainability (OS) was established in 1997 to develop a University-wide education program that links the sustainability to community life. OS initiatives integrate sustainability principles and practices into all facets of UNH’s land grant mission, including teaching, operations, research, campus culture, and public engagement and service. All initiatives involve collaboration with faculty, staff, administrators, and students, as well as local, regional, national, and international partners. OS’s initiatives fall into four areas: Biodiversity Education, Climate Education, Food and Society, and Culture and Sustainability. Our governance and administration achievements include the following:

UNH Energy Task Force: in the fall of 2005 UNH President Ann Weaver Hart announced the formation of the UNH Energy Task Force (ETF, www.unh.edu/etf). Chaired by Vice President for Research & Public Service John Aber and coordinated by the UNH Office of Sustainability and the UNH Energy Office, the ETF has faculty, administrative, staff, and both undergraduate and graduate student members from a wide variety of departments and offices on campus. The ETF is charged with: (1) developing immediate and future actions to reduce energy costs and improve energy conservation through technological improvements, increases in efficiency, reductions in waste, and selection of fuels at the Durham campus, and (2) inventorying and promoting educational and outreach programs intended to increase awareness of and behaviors around energy use, efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change.

Ecology, Climate, and Health Working Group: Formed in early 2006, the UNH Ecology, Climate, and Health Working Group includes faculty from a wide variety of departments, including Microbiology, Zoology, Natural Resources, and Public Health, along with the UNH Office of Sustainability, the UNH Climate Change Research Center, the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, to integrate research on ecological health, public health, disease, and climate change.

Slow Food Principles: In May of 2006, the University of New Hampshire signed the international Slow Food Principles “for the purpose of creating a worldwide network of universities and research institutions linked to the International Slow Food Association.” These principles include “protection of agricultural biodiversity,” “support of the rights of peoples to self-determination with regard to food,” and “education of civilized society and training of workers in the food and agricultural sector.” UNH is currently one of four universities in the U.S. to have signed the principles, and the first to award the founder of Slow Food—Carlo Petrini—an honorary degree.

Operations

GHG Inventory Update: In the winter of 2000, the OS initiated a greenhouse gas emission inventory that adapted national and international inventory methodologies to the unique scale and character of a university community. The purpose of completing an inventory at UNH is to clarify the sources of emissions and thus help guide short and long-term reduction policies including education and research. Data have been reported from 1990-2003, and a 2004-2005 update will be released in August/September 2006. Dozens of universities across the U.S. now use the greenhouse gas emissions inventory methodologies and “calculator” developed by OS and Clean Air – Cool Planet.

Biodiesel Initiative: Beginning in fall 2006/winter 2007, UNH will be converting the waste vegetable oil from campus dining areas, the New England Center (UNH’s on-campus hotel and conference center), and UNH’s student-run Dairy Bar restaurant into biodiesel to fuel some off-road farm equipment and to heat some greenhouses and farm buildings. UNH is working with a small, local business - MPB Bioenergy, LLC – that designed the patent-pending biodiesel microprocessor, along with a wide variety of faculty, staff, and students on campus to incorporate related research. For example, UNH is working with a local farmer on research related to growing sunflowers for oil pressing and biodiesel production for on-farm use. This UNH biodiesel initiative helps the University meet its commitment to being a Climate Protection Campus that reduces its emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants and that researches, develops, and demonstrates innovative solutions to energy challenges.

Transportation Improvements: Transportation policies at UNH are implemented through the framework of Transportation Demand Management (TDM). TDM seeks to shift our dependence on Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) to get to, from, and around campus to an interdependence of diverse modes of transportation that result in more choices, less congestion, and a greater quality of community life. Related transportation achievements include:

Implementation by the UNH Transportation Policy Committee of transportation demand management policies designed to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips by providing viable transportation alternatives.
Designation by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation as a “Best Workplace for Commuters” for 2004, 2005, and 2006.
Continued growth in transit offerings, especially into the densest travel routes and off-campus housing areas used by UNH faculty, staff, and students. Commuter ridership on UNH Wildcat Transit increased by approximately 72% between Fiscal Years 1999 and 2005. In terms of greenhouse gas emission reductions, the 2005 Wildcat Transit ridership alone was equivalent to removing 754 cars from the road for one year.
Addition of six compressed natural gas shuttle buses, UNH's first all-electric non-transit vehicle, and over $2 million worth of low emission diesel transit buses to be fueled with biodiesel (B20) to UNH’s growing fleet of alternative fuels and clean technology vehicles. In addition, in August 2006 UNH President Newman, Governor John Lynch, and officials from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) officially opened a new DOT biodiesel fueling facility on the Durham campus. The opening of this site marks the first use of biodiesel by DOT and UNH vehicles.

Infrastructure improvements: UNH has conducted an on-going energy efficiency program for the past 25 years. Several million dollars have been invested in retrofit projects including high efficiency lighting systems, motors, and control systems. Achievements include:

Ranking by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the top 5% of universities in its peer group for energy efficiency.
Online operation of an on-campus combined heat and power (CHP, or cogeneration) facility, reducing the Durham campus’s greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 40%. The foresight of the UNH Board of Trustees to approve construction of the CHP facility demonstrates not only UNH’s commitment to emissions reduction but also the significant economic benefits to be realized from improving energy efficiency and reducing GHGE.
Awarding of first U.S. Environmental Protection agency ENERGY STAR rating for residence halls in the country to Congreve, Lord, and McLaughlin.

Educational opportunities: UNH strives to educate faculty, staff, student, and local residents on issues related to sustainability at every opportunity. Examples of this include:

A “powerdown” educational campaign over Thanksgiving and winter breaks in 2005 that resulted in over 147,000 kWh and $20,000 in energy costs saved and greenhouse gas emissions prevented equivalent to removing 30 cars from the road for one year.
UNH’s very first annual Student Energy Waste Watch Challenge in residence halls and on-campus apartments in 2006-2007. The residence hall or apartment on campus that saves the most energy and water wins a pizza or ice cream party, bragging rights, and peace of mind.

WildCap: See below under “Community Service and Outreach.”

Local Harvest Initiative: As a Land Grant University, UNH is committed to supporting and advancing the state's agricultural economy. In recognition of the many benefits a vibrant agriculture affords in NH, the UNH Local Harvest Initiative will raise awareness and educate students, staff and community members about our local agricultural landscape and its role in sustaining our physical and economical health and wellbeing, now and in the future. Components of this initiative include use cage-free eggs, local honey, and fair trade coffee in all dining areas; buying produce grown by the UNH Organic Gardening Club for us in on-campus dining areas; and an annual campus/community dinner that showcases locally grown food. What’s more, UNH began a program to compost food waste from several locations on campus and in the wider Durham community in 1998. Since the program's inception, over a half million pounds of food waste have been diverted from the waste stream.

Curriculum & Research

Organic Dairy: Responding to a need by farmers for scientific research to support organic dairy efforts, UNH is the first land grant university to have an organic dairy farm and education/research center. The organic dairy is a research center for organic production and management and an education center for organic dairy farmers, farmers considering the transition to organic, and students of sustainable agriculture.

Community Food and Nutrition Profile: OS is partnering with the UNH Department of Animal and Nutritional Sciences (ANSC) to develop a profile tool that integrates multiple disciplines and societal sectors to inform systemic assessments, interventions and evidence-based evaluations to improve health and integrity across the entire food system. Specific components of the Community Food and Nutrition Profile (CFNP) include characterization of community members' food resources, acquisition behaviors, and diet and health practices/status. These will be integrated with assessment of the economic, cultural and ecological resources of the community's agriculture and foodways. The CFNP findings will be used to provide baseline data on the University's sustainability and status in terms of food, nutrition and health practices, and will also be used as a benchmark from which progressive interventions and policies will be developed and evaluated.

Climate and energy related coursework: UNH has a wide variety of curricula focused on climate change impacts and mitigation, including the following undergraduate and graduate courses: ChE 401 Energy and the Environment; ESCI 405 Global Environmental Change; ESCI 514 Introduction to Climate; ESCI 815 Global Atmospheric Chemistry; ESCI 764/864 Introductory Paleoclimate Analysis; ESCI 862 Paleoclimatology; NR 415 Global Biological Change; and NR 767/867 Earth System Science, among others. In the last five years, over 500 students have taken ESCI 405: Global Environmental Change, an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in which students study the relationships among global environmental change, climate, and health, and meet with campus administrators to develop greenhouse gas reduction recommendations.

Innovative UNH Masters of Public Health Program: UNH’s Masters of Public Health Program offers an option entitled “Public Health Ecology,” which educates public health students to address the risks associated with climate change and variability through courses on climate and health (PHP 930 Climate Change and Health) and disease ecology (PHP 932 Disease Ecology).

2006-2007 Discovery Program University Dialogue on Energy: UNH’s Discovery Program is designed to provide a common and unifying framework for the UNH undergraduate experience and focuses on the first year experience, interdisciplinary learning experiences, and integration with the academic major. As part of this program UNH hosts an annual campus-wide series of discussions and events around a theme called the University Dialogue. The 2006-2007 theme is energy - “Power to the People” - and aculty from many departments on campus have already authored energy-related papers for discussion sessions. What’s more, the 2007 UNH Undergraduate Research Conference – which highlights students research from all departments and colleges – will highlight energy and climate related research.

INHALE (Integrated Human Health and Air Quality Research): INHALE is an integrated assessment investigating the link between climate and public health in New England by the Office of Sustainability, UNH Climate Change Research Center, and the UNH School of Health and Human Services. Given the regions poor air quality, the project INHALE focuses on the relationship between air quality, weather, and asthma and broader indicators of pulmonary function.

Community Service and Outreach

New Hampshire Center for a Food Secure Future: In July of 2005, the Office of Sustainability, in collaboration with Cooperative Extension and the Department of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, received funding to support a one-year strategic planning process for the creation of a New Hampshire Center for a Food Secure Future. The vision of the center is to promote comprehensive, systemic approaches linking local and regional food, farm and nutrition issues to improve the integrity of the entire food system. The strategic plan was completed in August of 2006, and the center will begin its activities this fall.

New Hampshire Farm to School: A collaboration of OS and the NH Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, the NH Farm to School Program connects NH farms and schools by integrating agricultural production, school food procurement, and school curriculum with the goal of developing a healthy, community-based, community-supported school food system. Over half of the K-12 schools in NH are participating in the NH Farm to School Program.

Northeast Regional Lead Agency: In the fall of 2005, the NH Farm to School Program was selected as the Northeast Regional Lead Agency to explore the establishment of a national Farm to School Initiative. This role included gathering information on farm to school programs in the northeast, as well as leading the process of assembling a set of recommendations for the development of a national initiative.

Northeast Farms to Food Update: In collaboration with the Northeast Small Farm Working Group (NESAWG), OS updated the Northeast Farms to Food report in 2004. The report contains information and data necessary for the region’s leaders, citizens, educators and activists to better understand the food system. OS is currently working with NESAWG to create a new update, due to be released in November 2006.

Annual Local Harvest Dinner: An annual dinner featuring local foods held at a UNH dining hall was initiated last fall. The dinner attracted over 1,600 diners and organizers anticipate an even larger turn out this year. The dinner is open to the public.

Cultural Excursions: In line with our principle that the arts are as fundamental to sustainability as clean air and water, OS launched its new program—Cultural Excursions—to contribute to the campus and community’s opportunity for shared cultural experiences that reflect the highest levels of achievement in the performing arts. Beginning last winter, the program coordinated five excursions to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Museum of Fine Arts, which attracted many alums, emeritus professors, and community members. A full program of excursions is scheduled for the coming year.

WildCap: In 2005, OS partnered with local business Houghton’s ACE Hardware of Durham, Lee, and Newmarket, New Hampshire, to launch WildCAP. Part of UNH’s Climate Education Initiative, WildCAP offers UNH faculty, staff, students, and parents, along with Durham-area residents and landlords, discounts on ENERGY STAR and energy efficient appliances and electronics for residence halls, apartments, and offices.

Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium: UNH hosted the first northeast campus sustainability summit in 2004, leading to the ongoing networking and annual meeting of the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium as part of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). The 2014 meeting will be held back at UNH.

Member Spotlight

Tufts University (Medford, MA) is our current spotlight campus! At Tufts, GHG emissions have been reduced to close to 1990 levels, dining services offers organic and local foods, an electric tractor mows the organic baseball field, several buildings have PV and solar thermal installations, and its newest residence hall received LEED Silver certification. Learn more

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