Sustainability Office kicks off newsletter

Keene State College’s Sustainability Office recently began a new newsletter to update the community on all the work they are doing that will be published once per semester. The newsletter is titled The Green Gazette. KSC Eco-Rep Julia Yates said there are a few different items that the newsletters will cover.

“We will include updates on any of our current projects or initiatives as well as announcements for any upcoming events or programs. Overall, we want to share all the good news about sustainability on campus,” Yates said. “Readers can expect to learn about general sustainability and how KSC is working toward its ambitious sustainability goals. There are some really interesting stories about how sustainability is being practiced across campus in different ways.”

The first issue of The Green Gazette is 13 pages long and includes a variety of features and information, including a story on the college’s switch to single-use bags and the National Recycling Competition that KSC took part in recently. The newsletter also includes any job openings in the Sustainability Office, including openings with Eco-Reps, ROCKS and Green Bikes. 

“This edition of the newsletter is about 13 pages including the cover page and table of contents; there was a lot to cover,” Yates said. “Future editions may vary in length depending on how much information we have to share.”

According to Director of Campus Sustainability Cary Gaunt, this is also a special issue of the newsletter because of what month it is published in. 

“This is a special Earth Month because we honor the 50th anniversary of the very first Earth Day that occurred on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day back in 1970 launched the beginning of a global environmental movement that just gets stronger and stronger, especially now with the growing youth climate movement,” Gaunt said. 

The newsletter will also include more large-scale stories. This past issue discussed Keene State’s selection of Siemens Industry Inc. to support the whole campus energy transformation and the college’s goal of achieving the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) Gold rating for higher-ed sustainability by the end of the year. 

“On Earth Day 2017, President Treadwell announced a series of ambitious sustainability goals, including having the campus be powered 100 percent by renewable energy by 2030, and be carbon neutral by 2050,” Gaunt said. “The Office of Sustainability coordinates efforts to achieve these goals, but everyone on campus is engaged.”

The newsletter also discusses the KSC Student Sustainability Innovation Fund. According to KSC President Melinda Treadwell, this effort will help engage more students in sustainability.

“I think the idea is we have students who will work on different sustainability initiatives. We’re trying to engage students in sustainability by working through this program the office has conceptualized,” Treadwell said. 

“The Office of Sustainability is doing some incredible work and the newsletter seemed like a great way to show the KSC community everything we’ve been working on,” Yates said. “The office also wanted to share the great news of sustainability work going on across campus.”

Those interested in reading upcoming newsletters can contact the Sustainability Office for a PDF copy at Julia.Yates2@keene.edu. Those with sustainability related stories are also urged to reach out to the Sustainability Office. The next newsletter will be available in the fall 2020 semester.

Rachel Vitello can be contacted a

rvitello@kscequinox.com.