By Scott Merzbach
AMHERST — Backers of the bylaw adopted at Town Meeting last fall mandating that all new municipal buildings produce as much energy as they use are continuing to bring experts in zero-energy design and construction to town.
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.
By CAITLIN ASHWORTH
FLORENCE — Along with art, music and physical education, kindergarten teacher Andrea Egitto says nature exploration should be part of the curriculum.
Franklin County, MA – Inspired by the film depicting America’s third Moon landing mission, on Friday, December 8, Hitchcock Center for the Environment will lead an innovative Science and Engineering professional development program for 60 Pre-K through 6th grade teachers in the Union 38 School District.
By Micky Rathbun
I learned of a disturbing new syndrome last week at a benefit for the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst: nature deficit disorder. OK, it’s not a medically recognized term, but it’s very real.
About 40 students from Amherst Regional, Hampshire Regional, Northampton and Holyoke high schools used two environmental organizations as their laboratory earlier this month during the first Western Massachusetts Youth Climate Summit.
Throughout the day Friday, about 40 area high school students got to see firsthand how two local environmental organizations are confronting the challenges posed by a warming planet. The inaugural Western Mass Youth Climate Summit took place at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst and the Mass Audubon headquarters at the Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton.
Town Meeting on Nov. 8 voted 123-54 for the bylaw that mandates construction so all new and expanded town buildings produce, through renewable sources, as much energy as they consume. Supporters of the measure, led by Mothers Out Front and Climate Action Now, believe that Amherst is the first town in the state to adopt such a bylaw.
By Maureen Turner for Going Green
Hitchcock Center serves as a powerful teaching tool for the rest of us.
Signs of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment’s commitment to sustainability are evident all around its South Amherst site: the large solar array on its roof, the rain barrels at the bottom of downspouts, the station for refilling water bottles in a hallway, the composting toilets in the restrooms. But many of the green measures the center took in constructing its new home, which opened in 2016, are not immediately visible to the eye. At a recent event, “Building without Toxins: Educating for a Healthy Material World,” the nonprofit organization highlighted some of those less immediately obvious measures, the result of thoughtful, even painstaking decisions made at every step of the construction process.
Amherst & Easthampton, MA – The Hitchcock Center for the Environment and Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary are excited to sponsor the first Western Mass Youth Climate Summit, scheduled from 9am-5pm on Friday, November 17, 2017. The Western Mass Youth Climate Summit provides an empowering platform for high school students to engage in conversations with their peers on the issue of climate change and to discuss actions and goals their team will take to address the problem.
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax