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Profile
Antioch University New England (ANE), located in Keene, NH, serves 1,000 students and is, by design, a small graduate school that educates environmental leaders, organizational managers, educators and therapists to create or work in organizations that are successful, effective, sustainable, humane, and socially and environmentally responsible.
Our mission statement emphasizes ANE’s core commitment to providing "transformative education through scholarship, innovation, and community action for a just and sustainable society" and is demonstrated from our curriculum and research to our bricks and mortar. The ANE campus is located in an early 20th-century converted furniture factory and remediated brownfield. Campus site selection was based on ANE’s commitment to smart growth, reducing materials and energy use, site restoration, and maintaining our walkable/bike-able downtown location. We outfitted our “re-used” building with skylights, non-VOC carpets and paint, energy-efficient lighting and salvaged hardwood flooring and worked with the city to create Keene’s bike path, a rail-to-trail project bordering campus.
Past Initiatives
ANE faculty and students have:
- Engaged in numerous partnerships to enhance Keene’s performance as a leader in addressing climate change, including development of Keene’s Climate Adaptation Plan, the first of its kind in the world.
- Pioneered a project called The 10% Challenge, which targets Keene businesses to voluntarily commit to reducing GHG emissions by 10%. The project helps businesses identify their energy consumption through an audit and to develop an action plan; it is a collaborative effort between ANE and the City of Keene’s Cities for Climate Protection Committee. The NH Planners Association recognized the 10% Challenge with its 2009 Project of the Year Award.
- Conducted cutting-edge applied research of adaptation to increased stormwater run-off associated with climate change, effective biodegradable packaging, counseling first responders in areas devastated by climate-change-associated flooding, and enhancing recycling infrastructure in conflict zones.
In 2005/6, ANE faculty, staff, students and administrators designed and conducted a ground-breaking “whole systems” Sustainability & Social Justice Audit to assess and enhance ANE’s performance. We are entering year three of implementing the subsequent Sustainability & Social Justice Action Plan and have established a campus-wide Sustainability & Social Justice Committee to guide initiatives. In 2008, ANE created a new President’s Cabinet-level position of Assistant to the President for Sustainability & Social Justice to coordinate campus initiatives and incorporate perspectives into senior-level administrative decision-making.
Since signing a Climate Change Action Partnership Agreement with Clean Air-Cool Planet in 2006, ANE has completed two GHG inventories, regularly tracked & analyzed our energy usage, and implemented energy-efficiency and conservation measures that have reduced our electricity usage by 17%. Our Carbon Neutrality Task Force will develop ANE’s Climate Action Plan in 2009, providing a roadmap to achieving our institutional goal of carbon neutrality by 2020. ANE President David A. Caruso signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, and ANE is a member of AASHE and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Partner.
Our recent sustainability measures include:
- Installation of restroom light occupancy sensors and vending machine removal
- Launched Carbon Counts: You Can Too education and outreach campaign, which includes campus-wide “Please Flip Me Off” light-switch signage, e-alerts, and community-building speaker series featuring faculty, student and alumni expertise. Campaign raises awareness about dimensions of climate change and what actions individuals and institutions can take to reduce emissions and adapt to climate-change impacts
- Established Green Guru Office Energy-Efficiency Audit program to help employees reduce emissions through computer-setting adjustments, installation and use of power strips and other low-tech solutions. 60% of ANE employees have participated in the audit initiative.
- Campus-wide transition from CRTs to LCDs and contract with vendor for “green” removal of e-waste.
- Transition to non-toxic Green Seal-certified cleaning and restroom products, 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper in ANE’s copiers and printers, and 100% recycled paper products in restrooms.
- Introduced PIN-protected print accounts, reducing overall annual student printing on campus by 40% from roughly 612,000 to 242,000 pages
- Converted Student and Employee handbooks and range of institutional forms to electronic form to reduce paper usage
- Initiated purchasing of “green” office supplies and campus-wide purchasing practice of locally sourcing used office furniture
- Launched Green Bikes program to reduce car trips from/to campus. Roughly 5% of campus employees and students participated in program’s first year.
- Celebrated 20th anniversary of ANE’s recycling program (plastics, glass, cans and paper) by establishing “Resource Recovery Stations” to enhance recycling, reduce waste toxicity, and educate users about where solid waste goes
- Increased on-campus composting by more than 400% during the past 6-month period
- Created campus vegetable/herb garden to provide food for ANE café & Keene Community Kitchen
- Added edible plants to campus landscaping and removed non-native invasives
- Established Re-Use center for clothes, household items and office supplies; open to all ANE employees and students and community social service agencies.
Courses of Study
Three of our five academic departments offer explicitly “green” degrees:
- ANE’s Department of Environmental Studies, the oldest graduate environmental studies department in the country, offers master's and PhD programs in multiple disciplines, including a unique environmental/social justice- and sustainability-focused award-winning Advocacy Clinic.
- ANE’s Organization & Management Department offers a highly regarded Master of Business Administration in Organizational and Environmental Sustainability (Green MBA). Last year, Net Impact listed ANE’s Green MBA in the top five, including two first-place rankings, in seven of 13 categories in the group’s review of 63 MBA programs nationwide.
- ANE’s Education Department offers the Educating for Sustainability MEd, the first and only graduate program in the country that explicitly links sustainability and education. This program trains in-service educators nationally to apply sustainability at any grade level and every subject area.
- A Principles of Sustainability course is part of the curriculum in all three departments’ programs.
Contact
Abigail Abrash Walton
Assistant to the President for Sustainability and Social Justice
Faculty, Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program, Department of Environmental Studies
Director, Advocacy Clinic
Antioch University New England
40 Avon Street
Keene, NH 03431
TEL: 603/357-3122
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