Article Series:
Center for Sustainability at Johnson College
Part 1
The Center for Sustainability at Johnson College has been established. The Center is dedicated to a regional understanding and application of green and sustainable concepts. The focus of the Center is programming that provides industry-driven curriculum and events. Education and training provides opportunities leading to industry-recognized credentials and the development of career pathways.
According to The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America, a study conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts in June 2009, Pennsylvania ranks as the third largest state for green jobs. In this category, Pennsylvania ranks directly behind California and Texas, respectively.
The PEW study indicates, “A clean energy economy generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural resources. The clean energy economy cuts across five categories: (1) Clean Energy; (2) Energy Efficiency; (3) Environmentally Friendly Production; (4) Conservation and Pollution Mitigation; and (5) Training and Support.”
Dr. Ann L. Pipinski, President and CEO, states, “The mission of Johnson College is to provide a foundation of education and skills necessary for specialized employment, career advancement and life-long learning. As a result, the College focuses on recognizing and responding to industry demands in order to provide the most up-to-date training.”
Johnson College, with its awareness of industry needs, initiated plans for a Center for Sustainability early on. Recognizing the opportunities through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and other sources, the College began dedicating itself to the sustainability movement in terms of grants, training, and collaborations in the area of green energy jobs. As part of the planning, the College has had the opportunity to be a part of a grant that enabled faculty members to attend The Sustainable Energy Fund of Central Eastern Pennsylvania’s Solar Scholars program since 2008. Solar Scholars receive hands-on training in order to incorporate renewable and sustainable energy into curriculum. Doug Hampton, Biomedical Equipment Technology chairperson and Solar Scholars attendee, relates, “The program provided the instructors with many topics on sustainability, solar energy and wind power to incorporate into their current curricula.”
The Center for Sustainability at Johnson College is an umbrella term for a number of activities as opposed to being a physical office building. These activities include industry training, continuing education, collaborative programming, degree programs, and community events.
“When people think green, I want them to think Johnson College,” said Dr. Pipinski.
A number of initiatives for the Center are currently underway. Due to a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry made possible by the ARRA, Johnson College is one of six weatherization training providers in Pennsylvania. The College’s weatherization training efforts were recently highlighted by U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Energy Empowers Blog, which showcases success stories that highlight “how, together, we are building America’s new energy economy — by improving efficiency, by building sustainable businesses that create new jobs, and by dusting off age-old skills and using them in new ways to generate clean energy.” Additionally, plans are underway to create a Green Learning House on campus. The Green Learning House will take the College’s modular project concept but make the modular structure that is built a hands-on, sustainable learning tool that students utilize every year, making it permanent to campus and functional for other campus uses, like classroom space.
More information concerning the Center for Sustainability at Johnson College and its current and future projects will follow in the coming weeks. A website for the Center will also be available soon. In the meantime, visit www.johnson.edu for updates.
Center for Sustainability at Johnson College Article Series:
* Part 1 – Johnson College Announces Center for Sustainability
* Part 2 – Weatherization Training Prospers at Johnson College
* Part 3 – Center for Sustainability Announces Lecture Series
* Part 4 – Lecture Series Capstone Scheduled
* Part 4 UPDATE – Lecture Series Capstone Cancelled
Be sure to check out the Announcing the Center for Sustainability at Johnson College video:
Johnson College Cabinet Members
From left to right (Top Row): Donald Ryan, Operations Director; Dominick Carachilo ‘82, Vice President of Academic Affairs; Jeffrey Novak, Chief Financial Officer
From left to right (Middle Row): Shirley Helbing, Director of Program & Institutional Research; Dr. Ann L. Pipinski, President and CEO
From left to right (Front Row): Katie Leonard, Director of Institutional Advancement; Melissa Ide, Director of Enrollment Management
This commitment to focusing on Green and Sustainability is what we need to see more of. The programs you have put in place sound really practical and I am sure will reap excellent skills for the betterment of a sustainable America.
I am interested to know how effective they are in influencing the whole College to be Green? Are you able to change mindsets and habits and get the College students and lecturers to participate in sustainable practices? Or possibly actually get something measurable regarding energy saving, or even cost savings that everyone can see the results of?
Being from Pennsylvania originally, I think this is great, especially the Solar Scholars program. If you guys can really get this going and set an example for the rest of the state and the country, you will be one of the leader’s of the new economy.
Like Sue, I’m curious about the success of the program so far. What have been your greatest challenges so far?
This article will cover some of these issues and cover how power solar system for the home addresses some of these issues. Grid electricity and the use of fossil fuels costs money and this will only go up as the resources that power grid electricity get harder to find.
The world’s largest offshore wind farm opened off the southeast coast of England on Thursday, as part of the British government’s push to boost renewable energy.
With the opening of the Thanet wind farm, Britain now has the capacity to produce 5 gigawatts of wind-powered energy — roughly the amount of energy needed to power all the homes in Scotland, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said.
Britain gets only 3 percent of its energy from renewable sources but is aiming for a target of 15 percent by 2020. The nation ranks 25th of 27 European Union countries on action on green power.
The economy in Germany is very strong at the moment especially because of the German clean energy economy. I think Pennsylvania is on the right track, when it comes to RE. However, the American government should not only grant tax incentives, but also a clear feed in tariff.
I would never have thought that Pennsylvania would be one of the top three states for green jobs.
As more people take climate change more seriously and the demand for clean energy grows, the green jobs industry will only grow. As resources become more scarce, there may be a day when an energy demand skyrockets current electricity costs. While the cost of a home solar power system may seem high, at least you know that your solar elecrical price won’t change.
Renewable energy is not an option; it is a necessity if we are to extend our quality of life into the next century.
The elephant in the corner is the finite nature of petroleum based fuel. We will run out of it at some relatively not to distant future.
Where will that leave us? Smack dab in the arms of alternative energy, meaning in my view primarily solar, wind, and tidal utility grade energy; and bio-fuel for consumable grade energy.
It may be too early to call the movement to residential solar a trend, but Berkley Laboratories,in California, has some interesting statistics regarding the installation and acceleration of residential solar systems installed across America over the last 10 years.
Unfortunately, solar power cost is still prohibitive for most people; reducing the number of homes that are solar enabled. Manufacturing breakthroughs on the horizon it is thought may resolve that problem soon.
Your Center for Sustainability should take a leading role in helping to cause that turn around to happen.
In my opinion, it can not come too soon.
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Fantastic! It is great to see educational institutions like Johnson taking the lead in sustainability. You’ll be sending out ripples far and wide (you can see they reached Maine). Every success going forward.
Kudos to Johnson college and your center for energy sustainability….It’s great for students to become knowledgeable in many areas of environmentalism.
It is very important that we have educational institutions that take the environment seriously. It is even better when they use their ability to educate people in our environmental issues and the solutions we will need for the future. We are interested in any idea that helps keep our earth green and sustainable.
Thank you for this effort and we hope you have continued success in preparing people for the future.
It is wonderful to see the Center for Sustainability providing an initiative for green and sustainable energy concepts. This is not to say that I agree with all initiatives, but it all starts with education and awareness. There is so much we can do to help our environment, and sustainable energy is one of those things that will continue to have a high impact. Pennsylvania is a deregulated energy state, and that means residents and business alike have the choice of where their power comes from. Check out my blog for more information. I would like to see everyone choose greener energy choices, and I’d like to see power generation companies choose more and more renewable forms of energy as we progress. We need to do this together!
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