Connecticut College News

Connecticut College is undoubtedly an environmentally conscious college. Currently, Conn is participating in RecycleMania, a ten-week national competition in which the recycled items from 514 nationwide colleges are measured per student. In last year´s competition, Conn placed among the top 25 schools, beating Wesleyan, MIT, Yale, and Brown. There are also 134 Conn students registered to attend Power Shift, a climate and energy conference that spans over 4 days in Washington D.C. Connecticut College will be sending more students to Power Shift than all but two colleges. Tyler Dunham, co-president of the Renewable energy club, said, ""Our goal is to have the largest number of Connecticut College students ever to attend an out-of-state event." Connecticut College demonstrated its commitment to the environment once again by purchasing wind renewable energy certificates. RECs are tradable environmental commodities that represent 1 megawatt-hour of electricity that is generated from an eligible renewable energy source. The purpose of buying RECs is to counterbalance approximately 100 percent of the college´s annual electricity consumption. In the general population, a popular reason for buying RECs is to prove that used energy is carbon neutral and hence does not contribute to global warming. The decision to buy RECs was supported by Conn´s Environmental Model committee and was approved by the Student Government Association. "The purchase of RECs provides support for renewable energy such as wind, adding these energy sources to the national electric grid," said Amy Cabaniss, Campus Environmental Coordinator. Conn started buying RECs when the Renewable Energy Club´s proposal for the college to support a $25 increase to create a Renewable energy fund was passed. It is reported that the University of Pennsylvania is the largest purchaser of RECs among American colleges and universities, buying 192, 727 megawatt-hours worth of RECs from wind power. The Air Force purchases the most RECs in the US government. Last year they bought 899, 142 MWH worth of RECs. Intel is the largest corporate purchaser with 1, 302,040 MWH of RECS, and Whole Foods is the largest purchaser among retailers with 509, 105 MWH of RECs. The wind RECs, Power Shift, and RecycleMania reflect the efforts and dedication of the students, faculty, and staff to make Connecticut College one of the most environmentally-conscious college campuses in America.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Amy Martin, 860-439-2526, a.martin@conncoll.edu or Deborah MacDonnell (860) 439-2504, dmacdonn@conncoll.edu