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 Tell Us About Your Campus' Sustainable Initiatives
NJHEPS, working with The NJ DEP, is making a data base of NJ's sustainable projects in higher education. Please share with us any projects that are completed or in progress to make your campus more sustainable. We are looking for anything and everything from curricula to buildings to clubs! | |
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Do you have an event/article you would like to see in the NJHEPS Newsletter?
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Let us know! Send an email with your idea to NJHEPS@gmail.com with details of the event/article you wish to include.
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A Message from Michael Kornitas, President
Greetings! | |
I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy new year. It's that time of year for resolutions and I am reminded of something I was taught as a kid and that is the "Golden Rule". "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." As an organization based on sustainable practices and principles I think this fits in well. We are looking to transform NJHEPS in the next couple of months. We are going to seek our direction and roles for the future. As always, we are looking for ideas and how we can help you. Our bottom line? We want to be able to give you what you want. Are the dues you are paying delivering the value you desire? If not, what is it that your organization needs? Let us know.
On another note, I would like to thank everyone for their participation in making NJHEPS the premier organization for sustainable practices and principles for higher education in NJ. I would also like to thank our host institution, Ramapo College of New Jersey. They graciously provide us the many tools and supporting resources we need for our operations and the provide a terrific place for NJHEPS to call home. Have a great year!
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A Message from the Executive Director
| 2011 was a busy year-my first as Executive Director of NJHEPS. I'd like to thank NJHEPS' leadership-and membership, for the wonderful opportunity they've provided me and I look forward to building on our 2011 programming in 2012.
I'd like to call your attention to our upcoming program on Friday January 20th, at Rutgers in partnership with NJAPPA. This should be a very useful and practical workshop for those interested in learning specifically how obtain project funding for clean energy projects in higher education in New Jersey. This will also feature an update on NJ's Clean Energy Program from the NJ Board of Public Utilities. We've got other great projects and programs in progress, from our strategic planning initiative to our next in the series of terrific events with our stakeholders at the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and the NJ Department of Labor/Wokforce Development. We expect these efforts will build on our most recent working group session this past December, which reviewed a very focused agenda for progress in a variety of areas, as discussed elsewhere in this newsletter.
Look for more events in our "Creating a Sustainable Campus" workshop series, and a variety other initiatives, as well. Our newsletter and web-based calendar will keep you informed, and we look forward to serving you in 2012.
Gary Minkoff Gminkoff@njheps.org |
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2011 Retrospective: Thank you Ramapo College for a great year!
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Our host institution, Ramapo College, does so much more than provide for our "back office" accounting, transactional, technology and human resource needs. NJHEPS calls the Sharp Sustainability Education Center on the Ramapo College campus its home and we utilize two interns, both students at the college. During 2011, Ramapo and NJHEPS co-sponsored a Green Career event-attended by approximately 200 students, faculty and professionals. This "speed networking" focused event enabled students to learn more about professionals in the Green Career field, their paths to their current roles, and provided direct contact opportunities for students to expand their base of relationships for advice and mentoring, as well as for job opportunities.
Additionally, Ramapo hosted NJHEPS' annual steering committee meeting at the Anisfield School of Business; this is the meeting when NJHEPS elects its officers, members can re-connect and the NJHEPS leadership is briefed about the prior year's events and future plans. At this event, NJHEPS' Immediate Past President was slated as the Host Institution Liasion to assure continue smooth and effective relationships between the organization and the college.
Another 2011 highlight for NJHEPS was the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction workshop, co-hosted by the Ramapo Institute for Environmental Studies, held in the Ramapo Trustees' Pavilion, in December; professionals, faculty and students were in attendance for a range of presentations and discussions covering strategies, tools and methods for campuses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Among the featured speakers was Professor Michael Edelstein, Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at Ramapo College. NJHEPS thanks Ramapo College for it gracious support and looks forward to a terrific partnership in 2012.
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| NJAPPA & NJHEPS are pleased to present:
Getting Your Clean Energy Projects Funded:
What You Need to Do - and How to do it
| ...A "Hands On" Workshop
Friday, January 20, 2012
8:45-12:00 Rutgers College Avenue Campus Center,
New Brunswick, NJ
There is no cost to attend this event but seating is limited; This event is open to NJAPPA Education Partners and NJHEPS members only. Continental breakfast will be served RSVP
Agenda:
1. General Sessions
What's New in New Jersey's Clean Energy Program -Robert M. Hanna, Esq. President, NJ Board of Public Utilities Kean University/NJHEPS/EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Initiative
-Dr. Daniela Shebitz, Kean University
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2. Breakout Sessions (Participants may attend 2 of 3 sessions; they will run concurrently and each session will be presented twice during the morning)
Applying for LGEA (Local Government Energy Audit) Funding -Mark Showers, Rowan University, President, NJAPPA -(TBA) TRC Solutions Energy Efficiency Projects - Planning and Funding -Michael Kornitas, Energy Conservation Manager, Rutgers, the State University of NJ and President, NJHEPS; -Mike Fischette, President, Concord Engineering
Renewable Energy Projects - Planning and Funding -Andrew Christ, New Jersey City University and President-Elect, NJAPPA; -Benjamin S. Parvey II, CEO, Blue Sky Power
Notes: -3 CEU Credits are available on request -Please bring any relevant project information-specifications, financial estimates, etc. since you may use this workshop to complete the paperwork necessary to apply for NJ's Clean Energy Program funding.
Directions and Parking will be provided with RSVP. Support for this program has been generously provided by Blue Sky Power, Concord Engineering and the USEPA.
This workshop is part of an EPA grant
designed to help you and your campus community learn how to track and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
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Ramapo College of New Jersey Student/NJHEPS Intern "On the Go" Shares Experiences from two recent NJHEPS events.
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By Willard Reasoner
On December 2nd 2011, at Ramapo College of New Jersey, NJHEPS, in partnership with Kean University, hosted a very successful event entitled "Creating a Sustainable Campus." This was the most recent in a series of workshops designed to help institutions in EPA Region 2 reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; at Ramapo, we launched a workshop innovation-and for the first time, participants were eligible to receive Continuing Education, as well as. AIA credits. The turn-out was motivating as stewards of sustainability came together to share their sustainable insights. The highlight for me the presentation by Ramapo College Professor Michael Edelstein, Director of the Institute for Environment Studies, in which he reviewed the history of sustainability at Ramapo College.
I am fortunate because as an NJHEPS intern, I participate in the planning, communications and actual operations of these events. It's been a terrific supplement to my studies at Ramapo.
After the Ramapo workshop, I packed my bags and headed to Bard College in New York for a weekend-long workshop. Bard hosted the first ever C2C Fellows meeting with Majora Carter, a noted sustainability advocate and social entrepreneur, as the Keynote speaker. The seminar provided a unique experience to leaders in the environmental policy movement. Thirty selected students discussed the secrets to fund raising, communication, storytelling.
Before I knew it I was "on the road" again; on December 9th 2011, NJHEPS in partnership with Kean University hosted its next "Creating a Sustainable Campus" workshop at Dominican College in Orangeburg, NY. Early December was a very busy, but productive and enriching time, but Ramapo has enabled these, and other great journeys in my education in sustainability.
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| Is there a Smart Microgrid in your Campus' Future? |
The Sustainable Business Accelerator is pleased to announce an agreement between their client, Consolidated Energy Design, Inc. (CED) and Stevens Institute of Technology to undertake a demonstration of the country's first "smart microgrid" system integrating electrical, gas, and water usage, solar PV, electric vehicles and advanced energy storage on campus with self-healing artificial intelligence and prediction technology software.
This system is supported by the world's largest power grid (PJM), which will be monitoring this project (see PJM support letter posted at SBANJ.org).
The programming features FADRS® SG-MATIS© - a next generation version of "Fully Automated Demand Response/Demand Reduction system" (FADRS®; pronounced faders) that communicates in real time with the grid, and optimizes energy use from all sources in such a way as to save 15-30% more than other energy management and building automation software, and to enable the university to participate in all three PJM Demand Response programs as well as Frequency Regulation.
The net result is that Stevens Institute of Technology could end up with ZERO utility cost while at the same time doing its part to make the PJM grid more reliable and stable.
To see if this is an appropriate solution for your campus, please contact Chris Kogler at ckogler@sbanj.org or at 908-334-8263 to schedule an onsite evaluation.
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| Working Group Initiative Update
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NJHEPS continues its progress on its working group initiative with key stakeholders at the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and the NJ Department of Labor/Workforce Development.
On December 9 at Princeton University, working groups met to discuss sustainability issues related to Curriculum, Green Careers, Facilities, Law, Policy and Regulation and Green Technology Research and Development. In addition to the planning for white paper presentations that are expected a little later this year, some of the very exciting discussions focused on actual models, in the process of development, around some of these key topics. As crucial next steps for 2 of the groups, the Facilities group is preparing a survey to circulate at NJ Higher Education Institutions on a variety of facility and energy-related topics. Please be sure to let us know to whom this survey should be directed.
Among other efforts, the Green Careers working group has launched an ambitious and exciting series of projects; as a vision, this group hopes to create a partnership between the NJ Department of Labor & Workforce Development, NJ State Employment and Training Commission, NJ Higher Education and the NJ Employer Network to collaborate on building sustainability career paths for students where programs, resources, educational choices and career counseling services are available that lead to education, certificates, and academic degrees that readily prepare students to seek in-demand sustainability jobs with employers prepared to hire graduates.
To support this, a series of interviews with various campus stakeholders to get a better understanding of current efforts in sustainability culture and campus-wide efforts for students as well as sustainability career paths for students.
Please be responsive to these survey efforts if you are contacted; the opportunities for New Jersey's Higher Education community to have a meaningful impact on sustainability -both for our educational institutions as well as for other stakeholders in the government, private and non--profit sectors is very significant. In future issues of this newsletter we will report on the progress of the other working groups, as well as, some of the results of these survey efforts.
We look forward to continuing to update you on these exciting initiatives.
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| Upcoming Kean University/NJHEPS Greenhouse Gas Reduction Workshops
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If you have not already had the opportunity to attend one of our free workshops on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make your campus more sustainable, we have more events to offer you-and you can even earn Continuing Education or AIA credits.
Green Design and Carbon Tracking: Efficient Campus Practices & Operations: USEPA,New York, NY - Friday,
2/10/12: http://ku8.eventbrite.com/
Green Design and Carbon Tracking: Efficient Campus Practices & Operations:
These workshops are funded through a grant from the USEPA. For more information email us at njheps@gmail.com
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Thank you for reading our newsletter! We certainly hope you found it worth your while. If you have suggestions or ideas to make it better please feel free to contact us through our webpage http://www.NJHEPS.org. Feedback is certainly appreciated.
Sincerely,
NJHEPS
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