In the News

Press Release: Hitchcock Center Living Building Featured in Net Positive for Higher Education Symposium with International Living Future Institute June 25th and 26th at Hampshire College

Hitchcock Center Executive Director Julie Johnson will speak at the Net Positive for Higher Education Symposium sponsored by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). Her talk on June 26th is entitled Engaging Stakeholders and Funders in Creating a Living Building and will share Hitchcock Center’s process of building constituent support in the Living Building process.

Talking ticks at the Hitchcock Center

To combat the growing rate of Lyme disease in the Northeast, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment will host a presentation Monday night on how to best protect oneself from tick bites. In Hampshire County, reported cases of Lyme disease have increased 32 percent since 2013, according to the state Department of Public Health, with 216 confirmed and suspected cases last year.

Press Release: Hitchcock’s Living Building Featured in the Peabody Essex Museum’s Wild Designs Exhibit May 26, 2018 – August 4, 2019

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA presents an exhibition that explores how engineering and design concepts from nature can make the world a better place. Opening May 26, Wild Designs features not only bio-inspired works by artists, but also 24 projects and prototypes conceived by innovators who look to nature and living systems for new ideas and creative solutions to human problems.

Pioneer Valley Nonprofits Raise Nearly $1.7 in One-Day Effort

May 4, 2018 — More than 400 nonprofits in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts joined forces on Tuesday to raise $1,697,604 in an annual one-day effort called Valley Gives, 12% more than the total raised last year.

Conservationist urges protection of Massachusetts forests

By DUSTY CHRISTENSEN

AMHERST — As the existential problem of catastrophic climate change increasingly haunts humanity, many are looking for important ways to combat carbon emissions and reverse the trends pushing the planet to the precipice of disaster. It was under that context that forest preservationist Michael Kellett spoke Sunday at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment about Massachusetts forests in the era of climate change. Forest loss contributes significantly to climate change, and Kellett — executive director at the nonprofit RESTORE: The North Woods — advocated protecting those forests as a way to mitigate climate calamity.

‘The time is now.’ Preservationist says wood burning not the answer to climate change

By DUSTY CHRISTENSEN

As the existential threat of climate change increasingly haunts humanity, many are looking for important ways to combat carbon emissions. It was under that context that forest preservationist Michael Kellett spoke Sunday at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment about Massachusetts forests in the era of climate change. Forest loss contributes significantly to climate change, and Kellett — executive director at the nonprofit RESTORE: The North Woods — advocated for protecting those forests as a way to mitigate climate calamity.

Press Release: The Hitchcock Center for the Environment announces the release of its Nature Play and Learning Places Master Plan

The Hitchcock Center for the Environment is proud to announce the release of its Nature Play and Learning Places Master Plan. This plan is integral to the Center’s vision to create a worldclass environmental learning center. The Master Plan will complement the Center’s new 9,000 square foot “living” building, designed and constructed to meet highest standard of sustainability in the built environment through the Living Building Challenge™.

Randhir Recognized in Mexico for Environmental Sustainability Exchange

Professor Timothy Randhir of the department of environmental conservation was recognized last month as a distinguished visitor by the mayor of Tuxtla-Gutierrez, the capital of the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Randhir led an expert delegation of environmental professionals from western Massachusetts that visited Chiapas from Jan. 14-24 as a part of a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State.