Unity College Strategic Plan, 2014-2019
Goal 4:
Align the College’s curriculum, activities, and operations with the goal of
sustainability.
Sustainability science and elements of sustainability can be integrated into all aspects of
academic programming at Unity College. A broad approach to teaching sustainability will
make us unique among all institutions of higher learning in the United States. More
importantly, it will prepare our students to be leaders in responding to environmental and
sustainability crises of this century. Implementing sustainability programming into the
Unity College curriculum and all aspects of operations is the foundation for the success of
our graduates.
Operational sustainability goes hand-in-hand with curricular sustainability. Indeed, it is
inconsistent that non-sustainable operational actions can be implemented on a campus
striving to make a national name for itself in sustainability. Moreover, operational
sustainability is fundamental to fiscal sustainability as highlighted in this document. Indeed,
the axiom that “wealth isn’t defined by how much you earn (i.e. revenue) but rather how
much you spend (i.e. operational fixed costs)” is apropos to Unity College with its modest
endowment. Energy costs must be reduced, with a long-term goal of eliminating them.
Most importantly, Unity College can model for the nation and the world that an effective
energy policy will decrease costs while reducing carbon emissions, a point that seems to
have been largely missed by policy makers and the environmental community that
continues to focus on a carbon policy.
OBJECTIVE 1:
Develop a fully-staffed office of sustainability with expertise capable of advancing
sustainability in all aspects of College programming and operations.
Initiative: Office HR. Professionalize the sustainability office operations to include
ongoing grant seeking and proven academic leadership.
Action: Completed in March, 2014
Action: Back-fill the Sustainability office staff with an assistant director or
coordinator who can serve in a variety of roles ranging from supporting
student activism to recycling to enhancing local foods procurement and grant
writing.
OBJECTIVE 2:
Instill all aspects of institutional planning with comprehensive sustainability
guidelines.
Initiative: Divest the Unity College endowment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.
Action: Completed. Investment firm instructed to minimize exposure to the top
200 fossil fuel companies in November 2012. Currently policy for all future
investments with goal of maintaining holdings at any given time below 1
percent of investments.
Initiative: Standing Committee for Campus Sustainability to be formed and charged by
executive team to review and uphold Unity College policies and procedures and
make recommendations to senior staff for incorporation of sustainability.
Membership: representative frm each building and major department. Committee to
be chaired by sustainability director (creation in September, 2014)
Initiative: Sustainability in major decision-making processes. Sustainability office
input to be integral in all major decision-making processes that involve construction,
renovations, and energy use.
Action: Sustainability Director to be member of senior management committee and
part of the executive team.
Action: Sustainability Director to chair the Innovations and New Initiatives
Committee (so voted April, 2014)
Action: Sustainability Director or designee to be part of all building design and
construction committees.
Action: Sustainability Director to be a member of the budget committee
Action: Office to develop sustainable purchasing and construction management
policies for campus.
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Policy for future Power Purchase Agreements (May, 2014)
Policy for net zero carbon and net zero energy new construction (May,
2014)
Policy to phase out fossil fuel HVAC for non-fossil fuel beginning
immediately (June, 2014)
Policy for efficiency standards for vehicle replacement, including HEVs
and EVs (June, 2104)
o Demonstration projects for lowering carbon emissions
(biodiesel conversion student project)
o Develop and execute plan for phasing in short-haul campus
electric vehicles.
Initiative: Recycling. Modernize the process and infrastructure of recycling and enhance
efficiency. Off-load routine operations of waste management and recycling to Facilities
Management with oversight by the Sustainability Office.
Action: Invest in an enhancement of the infrastructure that supports re-cycling and
streamline the process to include zero-sort recycling (Target: July 1, 2014 for
new plan, implementation August, 2014)
Initiative: Pursue Power Purchase Agreements with investors to maximize energy
production on campus.
Action: Rooftop PPA. Develop relationships with investor PV providers as needed
to increase campus rooftop solar PV capacity to ~200 KW based on
estimated available roof area.
Action: Ground mount PPA. Add an additional 300KW ground mount solar PV to
bring PV capacity to ~70% of total campus need.
Action: Conservation PPA. Evaluate the finances of a Negawatts performancebased PPA with an energy company to increase the efficiency of campus
buildings.
OBJECTIVE 3: Infuse sustainability across the curriculum.
Initiative: Sustainability in academic programs. Market academic sustainability
internally as one component of enhanced infusion of sustainability science across
the curriculum.
Action: Propose initiatives to INIC such as a Sustainability minor and developing
sustainability outcomes in syllabi for each course on campus
Action: Sustainability director to seek faculty title (voted by the faculty, April, 2014).
Action: Develop and conduct a survey of incoming students annually to ascertain
values, perceptions, and actions that relate to energy, water, recycling, and
general sustainability. Repeat in four years for each class. Use this to
determine effectiveness of message and changes needed to make it a life
choice.
Action: Develop a life skills sustainability course required of all majors
Action: Develop sustainability minor for which many course count making it easy
for students to double minor. Sustainability Office to teach one course in this
minor.
Action: Require sustainability science learning outcomes in each Unity College
course syllabus.
Initiative: Develop partnerships and articulation agreements with partner institutions,
agencies, businesses, and governments to provide real-world sustainability
experiences and classes for students.
Action. Office to work with students on sustainability projects on and off campus
Action: Communicate with potential partners including Thomas College, KVCC,
MOFGA, MSAS, MFT, Revision and SunDog Solar, EMT, others.
Action: Consult with leaders at other institutions to determine best practices for
integration of sustainability science across the curriculum.
OBJECTIVE 4:
Advance the cause of sustainability to faculty, staff, students, prospective students,
and external audiences.
Initiative: Social marketing of sustainability. Market energy conservation and value of
renewables internally to sway the life choices of faculty, staff, and students.
Action: Develop incentive-based program for employees to reduce energy use at
home (completed April, 2014)
Action: Acquire plug-in hybrid for president as marketing symbol of campus
sustainability (completed, April, 2014)
Action: Develop carbon credit products to encourage donors to fund continued
acquisition of renewable energy generating capacity as part of the national
Billion Dollar Green Challenge.
Action: Refurbish, install, give away and/or loan the Carter White House solar
panels for maximum marketing potential. Find a funder for action item.
Action: Streamline the process for data collection on energy use and production
into spreadsheets. Release regular energy updates, production, and C
emissions from campus facilities by fall, 2014.
Action: Market successes, costs of energy, and trends in campus carbon
emissions both internally and externally.
Action: Enlist students to convert at least one Unity College vehicle to biodiesel as
a demonstration project.
Action: Install and market two Level 2 charging stations on campus both advertised
as solar charging stations by adding solar PV panels nearby.
OBJECTIVE 5:
Create a fully sustainable campus, including achieving a net zero carbon footprint,
zero stormwater runoff, and a large increase in local food served on campus
Initiative: Pedestrian Campus. Develop a long-term vision for a pedestrian campus and
assure that all future development and infrastructure is consistent with this plan.
Action: Develop LID stormwater plan to include policies, targets and guidelines for
construction, re-construction, and landscaping that are state-of-the-art
LID/infiltration BMPs including ADA compliance. Plan to serve as a model of
land use designed to create resilience to climate change.
Action: Develop concepts for solar PV covered parking areas and campus
walkways.
Initiative: Half Moon Gardens and McKay Agricultural Field Station. Develop
entrepreneurial business model at Agricultural Research Field Station in connection
with business and management curriculum, including but not limited to supplying
more food to the dining hall, more fully developing the local foods economy of
central Maine and selling high value specialty produce.
Action: Submit grant(s) to fund PV-powered non-fossil fuel HVAC at HMG (started
in April, 2014).
Action: Collaborate with Thomas College and partner with local entities committed
to local foods in collaboration with the HMG and/or hire a local foods
entrepreneur capable of developing partnerships and markets.
Action: Partner with local entities committed to local foods in collaboration with the
HMG and/or hire a local foods entrepreneur capable of developing
partnerships and markets.
Action: Following the lead of other institutions, create a prototype farm surrounding
the College Barns on campus, and at the McKay Agricultural Field Research
Station. Grow food seasonally outside and inside to meet a target of 80% of
the food consumption on campus.
Initiative: Efficiency and renewable improvements across campus.
Action: Engage Efficiency Maine to fund a retrofit program for HVAC efficiency
improvements.
Action: Develop plan for solar hot water installations throughout campus.
Action: Develop plan and funding to install solar thermal air systems on south side
of buildings with significant south facing walls.
Action: Engage with Efficiency Maine to continue upgrade of campus lighting.
Action: Seek foundation and corporate funders of new and renovated buildings to
increase progress toward net zero carbon at a pace accelerated beyond
what the campus budget can support.
Action: Seek funding for and construct a Technology Wall for instrumentation that
monitors all renewable and efficiency technology on campus as a showpiece
for campus tours and student recruiting.
Action: Evaluate additional renewable energy sources for campus or nearby as
demonstration or instructional projects (e.g. vertical axis wind towers, ecohydro, CHP biomass, sustainable harvesting of campus forest).
Initiative: Marketing sustainability expertise. Expand marketing of our sustainable
campus and the brand of Unity College leadership.
Action: Buy the URLs UnityEnergy.com and UnityEnergyStrategies.com to hold the
option that Unity College will develop a regional or national reputation in
renewable energy and campus carbon emission reductions such that
sustainability consulting as a revenue stream will become an option for the
President and Sustainability Office.
Appendix 1. Checklist for bidders on construction and renovations projects at Unity College
Required addendum to RFP package
To help meet the official Unity College goal of reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero
by 2019, all construction projects on campus are expected to meet or exceed the targets below
using creative methods to contain costs.
____ Is project designed to passive house energy standards or LEED Gold energy standards or better?
o R-70 attic insulation or better, plus expanding foam insulation as air sealer and/or
rigid foam to reduce thermal bridging
o R-35 walls or better, with reduced thermal bridging
o R-20 basement/slab or better, taped and glued
o U-0.25 (R-4) windows or better
o High solar gain windows on south side, low E windows elsewhere
o R-10 doors or better
o HRV plus detailed attention to air sealing? (target: <1.0 ach50 or LEED Gold Standard)
o Daylighting wherever practical
_____ Is the HVAC designed for net zero emissions of CO2? Examples:
o Air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, or equivalent HVAC;
o Radiant floor heat with solar thermal assist;
o Biomass CHP
_____ Do proposed renewable energy systems include, but are not limited to:
o Solar PV,
o Solar thermal domestic hot water assist,
o Solar thermal radiant heat assist, and/or
o Biomass or biomass CHP
_____ Are additional renewable or efficiency technologies included for educational and
demonstration purposes?
o Solar thermal hot air walls
o Solar thermal assist for radiant heat
o Combined solar PV & solar thermal
o Small wind generators
o Hybrid domestic water heaters
o Eco-hydro
o Ground source heat pumps
o Dual PV systems for grid-tie & off-grid
_____ Are all light fixtures either LED or individually solar powered (exterior lights)?
_____ Is the project net-zero stormwater runoff (minimal impervious surfaces)?
_____ Are state-of-the-art water use reduction methods proposed?
_____ Is the project designed for ease of minimizing waste and maximizing re-cycling?
_____ Will contractor(s) separate construction debris to meet the highest re-cycling standards?