Unity College has been nominated as the Green University of the Year for the 2013 Climate Change Award by Responding to Climate Change (RTCC). This international award recognizes Unity College for its green leadership, Unity being the only institution of higher learning from the United States to be nominated.  Winners will be presented with their awards this coming November at the COP19 United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Warsaw, Poland. More details of the nominees and awards can be found online here.

Unity College is the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels and adopt sustainability science as a focus for its academic programs, educating students to solve 21st century environmental problems, including the mitigation of global climate change.

“That Unity College has been recognized internationally for its courageous leadership is validation of its vision for a sustainable future,” noted President Stephen Mulkey.  He pointed to Unity College becoming the first institution of higher education in the United States to focus on sustainability science as an affirmative act of leadership that has resonance within the international community.

“Unity College is acting upon non-negotiable ethical imperatives,” Mulkey said.  “Our environmental mission is critically important at a time when the sustainability of our planet hangs in the balance.”

Dr. Melik Peter Khoury, Senior Vice President for External Affairs, sees the nomination as framing the day-to-day work of Unity College’s entire community.

“This nomination is recognition of the hard work that faculty, staff and students do on a daily basis in service to Unity’s environmental mission,” noted Khoury.  “Our curricular focus on sustainability science is also providing a more effective model for environmental education.  We are training students not only for their first jobs, but for jobs in the growing green economy that have not yet been imagined.”

Monday, October 21, 2013