Discover(ing) Sustainability

Peas are climbing, strawberries are ripening, tomato plants are growing bigger by the day - and the students are busy weeding, planting and bringing in the early summer harvest. Don’t forget to stop by the Organic Garden Club’s weekly farmstand - every Wednesday, 11-2 at Murkland Courtyard in front of the library. Wondering what’s in season now? Garlic scapes, salad mix, baby kale, baby spinach, radishes, strawberries . . . and peas are coming soon!

UNH ENERGY STAR® Discounts for Students & Parents

Check it out — UNH has new ENERGY STAR® discounts for UNH students and parents!

Anyone with proof of enrollment at UNH (student ID, tuition bill, class registration, etc.) can get a 10% discount on ENERGY STAR® qualified appliances and electronics at Best Buy® Newington, NH.

STEPS

1. Print the UNH ENERGY STAR® Discount postcard (PDF) and take it with you to Best Buy® Newington, NH: sustainableunh.unh.edu/climate_ed/pdf/unhenergydiscount.pdf

2. Find qualified appliances and electronics with the ENERGY STAR® logo.

3. Show your proof of enrollment and postcard when you purchase your items to get the 10% discount.

That’s it!

Learn more: sustainableunh.unh.edu/climate_ed/energydiscount.html

Run, don’t walk, to Murkland Courtyard at UNH to buy some amazing organic strawberries from the UNH Organic Garden Club. I’m having them for lunch, see?

I stumbled across the OGC’s inaugural (I think) farm stand for the season, but it’s on my calendar now for every Wednesday from 11 - 2. Smart shoppers show up closer to 11 for the best variety. In addition to strawberries, today they’re selling a beautiful mix of greens, garlic scapes, radishes, and some cut flowers.

My colleague Jody Record wrote a great story for this week’s Campus Journal about some new equipment that’s helping UNH continue to churn out U Doo, compost made from UNH Dining leftovers.

U Doo is one of the finest examples of the “one man’s trash” adage I can think of. Not only does it make wise, sustainable use of food scraps from UNH and Durham eateries, it’s coveted by local gardeners for its flower-boosting power. In my own garden, it helps produce a bounty of veggies, the rinds and seeds of which go — of course! — back into the compost bin.

Whether you’re looking for a fun summer activity for small fry, a sneaky way to convince your kids that food can be green as well as tan, or just free weeding labor, UNH’s Child Study and Development Center has some great tips for gardening with kids.

This weekend’s USA Weekend magazine tapped the CSDC’s decade of experience nurturing the future Future Farmers of America to share tips from the Growing a Green Generation Project.

Check out this beautiful new publication - edible White Mountains - “celebrating New Hampshire’s abundance of local food season by season.”  This quarterly magazine includes photos, recipes and stories about farmers and food producers from all over the state.  To read feature stories from the first issue, and subscribe to the magazine, click here.

Reposted from the UNH Today blog on behalf of Jim Graham, UNH Editorial & Creative Services.

UNH-RENU (Recycle Everything New/Used) volunteers Matt DiPirro and Erin Thesing collected donated food and clothing from dorms and apartments as students moved out last week. More than a dozen student volunteers collected several thousand pounds of food and clothing, which will be given to local food pantries and developing countries. The collection drive is held at the end of every semester.

UNH-Renu 2009 gathers the goods

The effort is a collaboration of Academic Affairs, the Department of Housing, the student organization the Ecological Advocates, and the University Office of Sustainability.

Check it out: UNH RENU.

Stop by the Durham Farmers’ Market on opening day – Monday June 1st!

At early June markets you’ll find plenty of salad greens and other spring vegetables, (strawberries coming soon), maple syrup, breads, cookies, pies, herbs and spices, bedding plants, and seedlings for your vegetable garden. This year’s market vendors include Back River Farm, Wake Robin Farm, Moriarty’s Greenhouse, Forty-Five Market Street Bakery, Applecrest Farm Orchards, Buzz Bomb World Spice Blends, Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm, and Blueberry Hill Alternatives for Life. The market is open every Monday through mid-October, 2:15 – 5:30pm in the Pettee Brook Parking Lot (map).

All over the state, farmers’ markets are opening for the season, including a few new markets in the Seacoast area – Rye Farmers’ Market, Newmarket Farmers’ Market, and Wentworth Greenhouses Farmers’ Market (Rollinsford). For more information about Seacoast area market locations, visit www.seacoastharvest.org (map) and www.seacoastgrowers.org. The NH Farmers’ Market Association posts a statewide list, and many NH markets are also listed at www.localharvest.org. Find a market near you, and put it on your weekly calendar!

It’s been years in the making, but UNH is now using purified landfill gas from the Turnkey landfill in Rochester to generate power. You can read more about EcoLine and watch a video about it here:

Wonder how rotting garbage can run your computers and lab equipment and heat your showers? Check out this fantastic animation by my astonishingly creative colleague Bridget Finnegan.

Posted on behalf of Jason Whitney, Internship Coordinator for the University of New Hampshire Advising and Career Center and co-leader of the UNH Sustainability Internship Program (SIP). This article originally ran in the late spring edition of “Bridges,” the newsletter of the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers (EACE). You can read the original article here. To read the UNH Career Center blog, visit unhcareercenter.com.

To say that we are living in interesting times is an understatement. When I spoke at the EACE Annual Conference last June, many of the economic challenges we are now dealing with had not yet emerged. To solve today’s challenges, we can’t use the old “business as usual” approach. We need to consider new options - alternatives that we can sustain for today and beyond. By collaborating with employers and offices on our campuses we can create new ideas to solve these challenges. At the University of New Hampshire, we are fortunate to be working with individuals in our campus community and businesses throughout our state who understand this and see these challenges as opportunities.

Since many of us are doing more with less, there is more interest than ever in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. As defined by New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, sustainability is “the deliberate consideration and implementation of business practices that support profitability while protecting the environment and enhancing the quality of life for this generation and future generations.” More employers are realizing they can meet their bottom line while still doing the right thing for their communities and the environment.

Our students also have been showing increased interest in and asking more questions about sustainability and “green” industries, and are actively seeking out opportunities to learn more. As career services professionals, we are in a unique position to help our students and employers.

During my conference presentation, the focus was on the benefits of working with employers already implementing corporate social responsibility and sustainability into their business practices. I spoke briefly about the UNH Sustainability Internship Program (SIP), which was an idea in development at the time. Working with Dr. Tom Kelly, the UNH University Office of Sustainability’s director and also UNH’s chief sustainability officer, and Sara Cleaves, associate director, the pilot program has been a success and will be expanded with more employers and students participating next fall. The 10 to 12 week internships just wrapped up in early May and the initial student and employer feedback has been positive.

So what makes this program unique from other internships? The UNH Sustainability Internship Program works to connect talented students with organizations advancing sustainability throughout New Hampshire and beyond. Today’s students can be the next great generation of leaders if they have opportunities to apply what they are learning in the classroom to real world issues. They want to make a difference and can help organizations meet their challenges and achieve their goals for a more sustainable organization.

SIP students gain valuable work experience where they learn from dedicated mentors how to incorporate sustainability into their professional and personal lives. Students not only apply what they learn in the classroom, but also participate in outside-the-classroom learning about sustainability through peer meetings to discuss selected readings and films, participating in field trips to see sustainability in action, and blogging about their internship. Students also are encouraged to work with their internship supervisors to develop reports, posters, and other research materials they can share as part of UNH’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference. Students benefit as well by networking with professionals in diverse industries throughout New England who share their interests in sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

The internship program is open to all students in any academic discipline. Internships are accessed through our online internship database. We deliberately marketed the program to encourage students from liberal arts and other disciplines to help them move beyond preconceived notions about sustainability and “green industries” being only for students in environmental science and natural resources. The University Office of Sustainability explains sustainability as “seeing things whole and acting accordingly” - sustaining quality of life generation after generation across biodiversity, climate, food and culture. We recruited SIP employers to span this holistic conception of sustainability, allowing us to involve more students than just those interested in natural resources.

The Sustainability Internship Program is a true collaboration and this is the main reason why the pilot program has been successful. In addition to the UNH Office of Sustainability, New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility (NHBSR) has played an important role. Guided by the vision of Executive Director Molly Hodgson-Smith, NHBSR has more than 150 member organizations that are committed to implementing corporate social responsibility principles through their business practices. Four employers participating in the internship program are NHBSR members.

Employers who were invited to participate in the pilot program agreed to provide documentation to support their work in sustainability, helping to ensure that students were going to get the specific experience they want in these areas. These employers provide one or more students with an internship focused on researching, implementing, or enhancing sustainability/social responsibility for their organization. Internships range from students working for non-profit organizations that are helping municipalities reduce their energy use and carbon footprint, to a student learning about the growing field of eco-hospitality and its potential benefit to for-profit companies and the local economy, to another student who is conducting research for a sustainable investing firm. By providing these hands-on internships and high quality, consistent supervision and mentoring, employers are making a sound investment in the future - helping to solve their challenges while giving students the experience they need to grow and develop into the leaders of tomorrow.

This summer we will be evaluating the pilot program and acting on the recommendations of the students and employers. One student’s blog entry talked about how she wishes SIP was a requirement for all students. We believe this program is one of the first of its kind and we expect to see it grow in the coming years, perhaps even making the student’s wish come true so future generations can look back and say we made the most of these interesting times.