The purchase of 100% renewable electricity by Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME has attracted the attention of the EPA, which applauded Bowdoin’s efforts this week and made the college a member of its Green Power Leadership Club. Bowdoin has been powered by renewable electricity since July, after a student-run campaign last spring succeeded in securing a commitment from President Barry Mills and Treasurer Catherine Longley.
Bowdoin is now purchasing 12 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power per year from Miller Hydro Group — the owner of the only certified low impact hydroelectric facility in Maine. The Worumbo hydroelectric facility is located only 17 miles from Bowdoin’s Brunswick campus. Bowdoin is also purchasing 285,000 kWhs of Green-E certified renewable energy credits through Sterling Planet. Bowdoin’s purchases will meet nearly 65 percent of the campus’s annual electricity use. In combination with Maine’s existing Renewable Portfolio Standard, a full 100% of Bowdoin’s electricity is coming from qualifying renewable resources.
The decision to commit to a 100% renewable electricity purchase for the college resulted from a collaboration between student activists from the ad hoc group Clean Energy Now, the college President and Treasurer, and over 700 students and faculty members who expressed their support for the student proposal via written and email petitions. The shift to green electricity is the centerpiece of a larger effort by the college administration, student groups, and faculty to develop sustainable solutions to meet the energy needs of the campus community.
The Clean Energy Now campaign was born at the Northeast Climate Conference at Yale last April, inspired by a stellar workshop by student activists at Penn State and the hundreds of other student leaders in attendance. Many thanks to the Energy Action, Climate Campaign, and SSC folks who inspired and supported our efforts!
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Great first post, Katherine! Clean Energy NOW!
Awwww yeah! Honored to call you a once fellow Bowdoinite and now fellow blogger, Katherine! (And what’s that in your bio about possible post-grad designs on the youth movement?? I’m skipping and singing and smiling as I type!!)
Everyone: Don’t let their quiet modesty fool you. If you’re looking for a fabulous story of climate victory, Bowdoin’s got it:
From an amazing sustainability coordinator (Keisha!) to a supportive administrator (Katie!) to a student campaign that put the pressure on at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right style, and brought home the ask in record time (mere weeks after they launched the campaign)… all while they also looked beyond campus to organize a summit unprecented in the history of state summits, helped grow and sustain a state network that includes young’uns and “grownup groups” alike, took to the streets of Montreal, and even left plenty of time for, um, “booty shaking.” These folks never lost their senses of humor. And all that in less than an academic year. While they were also going to school. And pursuing multitudinous other interests.
So if you’re lookin’ for some campaign wisdom from the self-taught, on-the-ground visionary vanguard of the student climate movement, don’t hesitate to give Katherine and Holly and the Bowdoin folk an email (excuse my taking the liberty of volunteering those services…).
Bowdoin-biased though I may be, I can guarantee you’ll end up as absolutely infatuated and inspired by them as I am.
So here’s to the Bowdoinites and likewise, their counterparts on campuses across our country. continent. and global community! Keep on shaking up the system–and speaking out about climate change ; )
I’m impressed with the progress of your intention! Way to go People. Keep it going! Your work is a gift to all of us on the planet, Thank you all for your work! Very truely yours, Michael Cifala Tree farmer
Great work!!!
- Kat West, Sterling Planet Director of Regional Outreach