Student-Led Project Keeps CUNY Green
HSP members strike a pose at the first-ever Hunter Goes Green week. Photo: Hunter Sustainability Project
The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest urban university in the U.S., serving more than 480,000 students. And one student-led organization is taking up the task of educating CUNY students about sustainability and spreading awareness of environmental issues.
Founded in 2008 at Hunter College in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the Hunter Sustainability Project (HSP) membership includes students whose majors range from environmental studies and chemistry to economics. It was established to expand the university’s use of sustainable energy sources by installing a solar energy system on campus for power generation, education and research.
Since then, Hunter has unveiled a small 3-kilowatt PV solar array, which now offsets a portion of the school’s nonrenewable energy consumption and reduces its GHG emissions. The system has also created research and educational opportunities for Hunter students in physics, environmental science, economics and renewables, according to HSP.
The organization has taken on the broader goal of connecting the CUNY community with sustainability issues — hosting on-campus events like CUNY Divest and Love It Again! Revamp and Reuse.
Earlier this year, the group also hosted Hunter College’s first week-long educational event focused on sustainability earlier, including workshops, games and giveaways geared toward educating Hunter students and staff about living a sustainable life.
The organization made such a splash in the ecosphere that it recently received a grant from The Green Initiative Fund at the University of California–Berkeley to supplement the university’s solar panels with a green roof.
Set to be installed next year, the new roof will provide data to help students better understand and apply lessons learned in the classroom, as well as foster opportunities for creative capstones, HSP said.
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