Green Power to the People

By Sarah Rasmussen, WireTap. Posted September 15, 2004.

Last year, when Stephenie MacLagan was a freshman, she got involved with a campaign to make her college the first in the state of Maine to use 100% renewable energy.

MacLagan goes to Unity College, a very small, relatively young institution that prides itself on being “America’s Environmental University.” And according to the U.S. Department of Education, the nickname rings true. Unity College offers more environmental programs and graduates more students with environmental majors than any other college in the country. The President of the university even drives a hybrid car. So, when Stephanie and the student group she belonged to, the Constructive Activists, began their campaign, it wasn't hard to argue that switching to 100% renewable energy made sense to the university. None the less, even at such an environmentally-focused school, it was students who initiated the change.

Luckily, the students at Unity are not alone. They had help from several national groups, including the Climate Campaign, a network of students, groups, and non-profit organizations who are working together to obtain clean energy all over North America – from California to Canada. They are also evidence that the movement to get clean, renewable energy on campus is picking up speed.

Like the name implies, “renewable energy” refers to any form of energy that, unlike fossil fuels, will not run out. It includes a whole spectrum, from the cleanest, which are wind power, solar energy, and water power (water can be used as hydropower, wave power, tidal power and thermal power) to the less clean energy sources like Biomass and Municipal Waste, where wood or waste is burned to heat water that creates steam. Most providers of renewable energy use some combination of these, with the goal to reduce dependence on the so-called “greenhouse gases” and slow down global warming.

Over the last few years, there have been many victories on a diverse range of campuses. Universities are large institutions with enormous buying power. Students are considering the energy sources in their own dorms, libraries and classrooms and then working to harness this buying power to create a clean energy revolution.

For example, The University of California Board of Regents committed to 10% renewable energy (20% by 2017) and a policy which mandates that all new buildings be built according to green building standards. At the University of Southern Maine, students voted to switch their shuttle buses to biodiesel fuel. (link) And last year, Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, became the first university to commit to 100% renewable electricity.

One of the most impressive victories has been on the Auroria campuses in Denver, CO. The Auroria campuses are a group of three commuter colleges serving a diverse population of 35,000 students. The campaign was spearheaded by a Metro State student, Joel Sayre, as part of an internship with the national student environmental organization Envirocitizen. He and some of his fellow students started an organization called Metro State Active Voices for the Environment (MSAVE). They knew they wanted their first campaign to be for clean energy, and they looked to nearby CU Boulder for inspiration: the year before, students at Boulder had won a student vote approving a fee increase which would go towards renewable energy.

MSAVE decided this would be the right strategy for the Auroria campuses as well, and immediately started collecting petition signatures to get a $1 fee increase question on a campus-wide ballot. They needed 5% of the students to sign their petition; they were well-organized and quickly had 10%. “It was surprisingly easy to get people to sign the petition,” says Sayre. “It just really made sense to people.” After getting approval from the Board of Directors, they had only 5 weeks before the question went to the student body.

MSAVE quickly kicked their campaign into high gear. They spent the five weeks employing both traditional student organizing techniques (going into classrooms to talk with students, reaching out to other student organizations, setting up tables in high-traffic areas, bake sales to raise money), as well as some more creative methods. They got a company to donate two large LCD screens, which they set up in the main daily entry points for Metro State students. They used pinwheels to create a mock wind farm in a prominent location on campus. On the two days of the vote, they hosted large concerts on campus.

The student body approved the fee increase by an overwhelming 95% (MSAVE only needed a majority of 51% to win). The vote means a quarter of a million dollars for renewable energy over the next three years. $54,0000 will go towards an educational solar-powered walkway through campus, and the rest will be used for wind power.

Sarah Rasmussen is an organizer and freelance writer who lives in St. Paul, MN. Chinyere Tutashinda contributed to the article.

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