Energy Task Force News 
The energy & sustainability efforts of the University of New Hampshire are often in the news! Keep track of that coverage here.
2009 Stories & Headlines
UNH Chronicles Quest for Sustianability in New Book
UNH Receives National Campus Sustainability Award
UNH Finalizes Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions 50 Percent by 2020
UNH Completes Nation's First Major University Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project
News Archive
- September 2008: UNH gives students living in on-campus residence halls a bright welcome to the new semester with free compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) for their desk lamps. A coalition of UNH offices, coordinated by the university's Energy Task Force, distributed 1,720 energy-saving CFLs to students, eliminating the need for less-efficient incandescent bulbs. The CFLs are estimated to save the university $17,250 in energy costs; their greenhouse gas reduction will be the equivalent of not driving 11.3 passenger cars for one year. Learn more...
- August 2008: UNH is named one of the top 25 cutting-edge green schools by the 2009 Kaplan College Guide. Produced by Kaplan Publishing, the Guide features 25 green private and public colleges from across the nation, including a look inside the classroom, around campus, and at student life, while shining a spotlight on what's good for the globe at each college. The Guide also profiles 10 hot green careers – from environmental engineering to geothermal development – and includes interviews with professionals from each. The green schools and careers profiles are not rankings. Instead, they give students interested in sustainability and conservation well-researched ideas and a cross-section of options. Learn more...
- July 2008: UNH is named one of 11 universities nationwide to receive the top score in a new "Green Rating" of colleges by The Princeton Review. The Princeton Review collected data from 534 schools in the 2007 - 08 academic year to tally numerical scores from 60 to 99 that measure how environmentally friendly schools are in their policies, practices and academic offerings. UNH, with a perfect score of 99, is on The Princeton Review's "Green Honor Roll." Learn more...
- June 2008:With a $50,000 Climate Ready Estuaries grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) at UNH is initiating a pilot project in the Oyster River watershed to identify road culverts that are subject to failure during the increasingly extreme storm events projected for New England by climate change scientists. The NHEP is partnering with the Town of Durham and the Strafford Regional Planning Commission on a comprehensive inventory of most major road-stream culverts throughout the Oyster River watershed, including portions of the towns of Durham, Madbury, Dover, Lee, and Barrington. The project team will then develop recommendations for culvert improvements based on risk analysis and cost estimates. In this way, the project will demonstrate to public works staff, road agents, and other community stakeholders how climate change is expected to impact an important component of community infrastructure and safety, while providing an action plan to make improvements. The results of this watershed-based storm impact modeling pilot project will be shared with other area communities as well as the other 27 National Estuary Programs across the country. Learn more...
- June 2008: UNH is one of a select group of signatories to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) whose innovative climate and energy leadership is highlighted in the ACUPCC's 2007 annual report (PDF) and campus success stories summary (PDF).
- June 2008: UNH researchers received a significant grant to study UNH's organic dairy research farm as a sustainable closed agroecosystem, exploring viable strategies for becoming energy independent. The $380,000 three-year grant, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) program, aims to explore whether closing energy and nutrient cycles could help small family dairy farms in the Northeast survive economic vulnerabilities. The study comes as rising energy, feed and capital investment costs shrink the already narrow profit margin of dairy agriculture in the Northeast, threatening the regional sustainability of the industry. "In a closed system, the only thing leaving the farm is the milk," says John Aber, professor of natural resources at UNH and the principal investigator on the grant. "The goal is to see whether we can have a closed-nutrient-cycle and energy-independent organic dairy." Learn more...
- March 2008: UNH WildCat Transit won the Federal Transit Administration "Success in Enhancing Ridership Award" in the 50,000 to 200,000 population category. Wildcat Transit was recognized for its efforts in getting at least 5% more passengers per year over a two-year period; UNH has used better traveler information, nicer bus shelters (with solar power lighting), a website with regularly updated transit and parking information, and new biodiesel transit buses to increase ridership by 21 percent.
- March 2008: In March 2008, UNH received the top honor in Business NH Magazine's first-ever Lean and Green Awards. UNH led the winners with the Overall Judges Award, which recognizes the school's extensive sustainable practices, from its cogeneration plant and reuse of purified landfill gas to power the Durham campus to transitioning its extensive public transit system to alternative fuels. "This Lean and Green Award further recognizes that sustainability is one of UNH's core identities and strengths," says UNH President Mark W. Huddleston. "I'm proud of our motivated and engaged faculty, staff, and students who work together in new and innovative ways to advance this common goal." Judges for the competition, which drew entries from around the state and from a wide range of industries, were Thomas Burack, commissioner of the N.H. Department of Environmental Services; Margaret Dillon, a board member of the N.H. Sustainable Energy Association and president of S.E.E.D.S., Sustainable Energy Education & Demonstration Services; and Ami D'Amelio, a board member of N.H. Businesses for Social Responsibility. Other winners were Abigail's Bakery in Weare, Bruss Construction in Bradford, Wire Belt Company of America in Londonderry, and Monadnock Paper Mills in Bennington (Green Processing awards); New Hampshire Audobon's McLane Center in Concord (Green Building award); and the BioVu line of inks produced by EFI VUTEk in Meredith (Green Product or Service). Learn more...
- January 2008: In the 2008 National Wildlife Federation report "Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus," UNH figures prominently among the 100-plus schools cited for responding to global warming with best-practice strategies. UNH is the only New Hampshire institution featured in the report. Learn more...
- January 2008: DeMerritt Hall -- home to the UNH physics department andcurrently undergoing renovation -- is touted for its many sustainable elements, including recycling original building materials, installing energy efficient laboratories, redesigning the building’s exterior to maximize benefits of natural daylight and cutting edge insulation details, and using florescent lighting throughout, which will use one-fifth the amount of electricity as incandescent lighting, among other features. Learn more...
- December 2007: UNH faculty, staff, and students saved approximately 279,400 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of energy, $52,000 in energy and water costs, and 140 metric ton equivalents of carbon dioxide emissions through the University’s third Student Energy Waste Watch Challenge and annual Thanksgiving “powerdown” initiative. These energy and emissions savings are the equivalent of 326 barrels of oil or not driving 30 passenger cars for one year. Learn more...
- October 2007: Berrien Moore III, director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at UNH, is among the network of scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the prize with former Vice President Al Gore.
- October 2007: UNH is one of just 25 universities nationwide to achieve Campus Sustainability Leader status from the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s College Sustainability Report Card 2008, released October 24, 2007. UNH received "A" grades (on a scale of "A" through "F") in four of five campus categories: administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, and transportation. The College Sustainability Report Card 2008 assesses the 200 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities with the largest endowments, ranging from $230 million to nearly $35 billion (UNH’s endowment is $235 million). Learn more...
- September 2007: UNH was one of 50 colleges around the country named in KIWI Magazine’s first ‘Green College Report.’ KIWI, a magazine dedicated to helping families live natural and organic lifestyles, cited UNH for its dining and composting initiatives, its climate change focused courses, and its University Office of Sustainability, which is the nation’s longest-standing endowed university sustainability program. UNH was the only New Hampshire school included in the report. Learn more...
- August 2007: UNH President Mark Huddleston announces that the university, in cooperation with Waste Management of New Hampshire, Inc., has launched EcoLine, a landfill gas project that will pipe enriched and purified gas from Waste Management's landfill in Rochester to the Durham campus. The project will make UNH the first university in the nation to use landfill gas as its primary energy source. The renewable, carbon-neutral landfill gas, from Waste Management’s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise (TREE) facility in Rochester, N.H., will replace commercial natural gas as the primary fuel in UNH’s cogeneration plant, enabling UNH to receive 80-85 percent of its energy from a renewable source. Part of UNH's commitment to sustainability, the landfill gas will stabilize the university’s fluctuating energy costs, which have doubled in the last five years and grown at an annual rate of 18.9 percent, and will also have a major impact on UNH’s carbon dioxide emissions. It will reduce the university’s greenhouse gas emissions an estimated 67 percent below 2005 levels and 57 percent below 1990 levels. Read the August 2007 press release.
- July 2007: President Mark Huddleston announced in July 2007 the elevation of the University Office of Sustainability (UOS) to strengthen its across-campus mission and reflect its leadership role in continuing the university’s national visibility in sustainability. Along with its move to the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, the office’s founding director, Tom Kelly, will assume the role of Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) for the university. “Sustainability is now recognized as one of UNH’s core identities and strengths with faculty, staff, and students from many disciplines working together in new and innovative ways to advance a common goal,” said Huddleston. “The role of the chief sustainability officer is to help ensure that we are considering every strategic opportunity to unite the spirit of discovery with the challenge of sustainability across our land, sea and space grant mission.” Read the Campus Journal July 2007 article.
- July 2007: Once again, the UNH Office of Sustainability partners with Proulx Oil & Propane of Newmarket to offer renewable home heating - bioheat (20% biodiesel, 80% home heating oil) - to UNH employees and students. Proulx will also donate $5 from each bioheat contract signed to both the fund established to support the daughters of former UNH Office of Sustainability associate director -- and great supporter of renewable energy -- Crescentia Healy-True, who passed away in 2006 from breast cancer, and the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge, a non-profit group located at UNH and dedicated to helping New Hampshire households reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds per year. (Take the Challenge at carbonchallenge.sr.unh.edu.)
- June 2007: Year three of WildCAP is in full swing! Order your ENERGY STAR and ENERGY STAR equivalent compact fridges, compact microwaves, and compact fluorescent light bulbs by August 24th to have them ready for pickup during student move-in days for Fall 2007!
- May/June 2007: Released two new and/or updated documents on biodiesel at UNH:
- April 2007: Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Robert Varney celebrated Earth Day on April 20, 2007, on the Thompson Hall lawn at UNH. Varney awarded five UNH buildings with the EPA ENERGY STAR rating -- residence halls Randall-Hitchcock, Sawyer, and Jessie Doe; buildings P, Q and R of the Woodside Apartment Complex; and administrative building Taylor Hall. He acknowledged the work of students in Professor Ihab Farag's chemical engineering class "Energy and the Environment," who worked with the UNH Energy Office and EPA New England staff to conduct energy audits of the building using EPA software.
- April 2007: N.H. Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Tom Burack and UNH VP of Research John Aber celebrated Earth Day on April 20, 2007, on the Thompson Hall lawn at UNH by announcing the winners of UNH's Student Energy Waste Watch Challenge, a four-week competition among residence halls and apartments to reduce each building's per capita energy and water consumption. Englehart Hall won first place, Smith took second and Sawyer won third. In total, UNH residence halls and apartments saved 173,990 kilowatt hours in electricity during the challenge for an electricity cost savings of $22,000. Savings are equivalent in emissions reductions to removing 17 passenger cars from the road for one year.
- December 2006: Enterprise Rent-a-Car adds hybrids to its UNH Durham fleet
- November 2006: UNH 2006 Thanksgiving powerdown and Student Energy Waste Watch Challenge (won by Hubbard, Hunter, and Smith Halls) combined save $22,721 in energy and water costs and over 50 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions - the equivalent of removing 10 average American automobiles from the road or lighting 127 average New England homes for one year!
- November 2006: UNH Energy Task Force launches 2006 powerdown educational campaign.
- October 25, 2006: UNH launches its first Student Energy Waste Watch Challenge!
- October 5, 2006: The work of the ETF was the focus of a panel presentation at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) 2006 Conference at Arizona State University in Tempe. The panel - entitled “Integrating Sustainability Throughout a University’s Core: A Case Study of the University of New Hampshire’s Energy and Climate Initiatives” included Tom Kelly and Sara Cleaves of the UNH Office of Sustainability, Stephen Pesci of UNH Campus Planning, and Stacy D. VanDeveer of the UNH Dept. of Political Science.
- September 2006: UNH released its 2004 - 2005 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Update.
- September 18 - 20, 2006: Biocrop and biofuels expert Dr. Duane Johnson from Montana State University Northwestern Ag Research Center visited UNH to learn about UNH's biocrop and biofuels-related interests and research and to share information about his own research.
- September 2006: UNH released a new UNH Energy Efficient Product Standard that strongly encourages all UNH faculty and staff to purchase U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star Products. For more information please see the official standard (PDF) and guidelines on purchasing energy efficient products.
- August 2, 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 UNH Durham campus. The opening of this site marks the first use of biodiesel by DOT and UNH vehicles. Read more here.
- June 2006: WildCAP - discounts through Houghton’s ACE Hardware of Durham, Lee, and Newmarket on ENERGY STAR and energy efficient appliances and electronics for UNH students, parents, faculty, and staff, along with Durham area residents and landlords - relaunched for its second year. Read more here.
- May 8, 2006: UNH was awarded the first-in-the-nation U.S. EPA Energy Star Label for residence halls. Learn more here.
- April 19, 2006: the Energy Task Force and UNH Dept. of Political Science hosted Sonia Hamel of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development and Joe Fontaine of the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services Air Resources Division to discuss how the Northeast is responding to climate change, including through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Learn more about this roundtable discussion here.
- Feb/March 2006: Six new compressed natural gas shuttle buses are added to UNH’s Clean Fleet. The Clean Fleet Project includes a variety of transit improvements - from alternative fuels to cleaner technologies – all implemented with the goal of making UNH’s transit system one of the cleanest in New England.
- January 2006:
UNH designed by EPA and DOT as a “Best Workplace for Commuters” for third year in a row.
- Nov/Dec 2005: Powerdown over Thanksgiving and winter breaks results in over $20,000 saved in energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions prevented equivalent to removing 30 cars from the road for one year.
- November 2005: The UNH Energy Task Force is created.
