This semester, the Campus Sustainability Initiative celebrated the first annual Campus Sustainability Week (October 24-28), intended to highlight student organizations and university programs that are working to make UMass Amherst an environmentally conscious institution. The first day of sustainability week coincided with National Food Day. Local specials were featured in all Dining Commons and community members were given a chance to get some exercise on a “Sustainable UMass”...
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Greening Greenfield Energy Committee presents… A FILM SERIES ON LIVING SUSTAINABLY How can we as a community prepare for and even celebrate the changes we need to make as we come to the end of cheap energy? November 30, 6:30 pm St. James Church, Greenfield GASLAND The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudi Arabia of natural gas”, but is it safe? This film follows a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of...
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It’s Our Future! Youth Speak Out to Save the Environment & the Earth Friday, November 18, 7-9pm Northampton Center for the Arts (17 New South Street–across from Academy of Music) Using poetry, prose, hip-hop rhyming, music (singing a capella, with guitar, etc.), dance, art, video, sculpture, skits, and stand-up comedy, young people between the ages of 8 and 25 are invited to speak out about climate change and other environmental threats, and express their hope and vision...
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Farm Credit East, CoBank, Yankee Farm Credit and United Way will provide donations of up to $500 to assist farm families hurt by Hurricanes Irene and Lee during the holiday season. Applications can be submitted until November 26 online or at a Farm Credit office. To be eligible a farm must have had $10,000 in damage or crop...
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The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating SystemTM (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS® was developed by AASHE with broad participation from the higher education community. STARS is designed to:* Provide a frame- work for understanding sustainability in all sectors of higher education.* Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of...
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The Massachusetts Farm Energy Program (MFEP), a project of Berkshire-Pioneer RC&D, celebrated the release of the Massachusetts Farm Energy Best Management Practices Guide with a Farm Energy Networking Event on Monday, October 17th at Bramble Hill Farm in Amherst, Mass. This event linked farmers with energy experts and resources, including state and federal agencies, installers, vendors, and public utilities to initiate on-farm energy projects. This event linked farmers with energy experts...
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This week, CISA and partners launched the CISA Emergency Farm Fund, a revolving loan fund designed to help farmers recover from Hurricane Irene. The Fund will offer quick, zero-interest loans to assist farmers and farm businesses in the aftermath of the storm and flooding. Thanks to an anonymous donor who has put up a $50K match, CISA hopes to raise at least $100K for the fund, which will help farmers now and in the future. CISA’s partners, Whole Foods Market, Equity Trust, and the anonymous...
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The transition from coal to green jobs has begun! After months of planning, education, and outreach, “Action for a Healthy Holyoke,” a coalition which includes Neighbor to Neighbor, won our first victory in our campaign to shut down coal and bring in green jobs! On Tuesday, the Holyoke City Council unanimously voted to pass a resolution to form a Community Advisory Group that will conduct a study on potential future uses of the Mt. Tom coal plant site. The coal plant is the...
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Please accept this invitation to meet Jittra Cotshadet over lunch on Friday October 28 at the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council, 640 Page Boulevard, Springfield (get directions here). Please reserve your seat now (no later than noon, October 27) by replying to wmjwj@wmjwj.org or calling the Labor Council, (413) 732-7970. Over the course of the past three years, Ms. Cotshadet has become a well-known labor activist in Thailand. Her work as the President of the Triumph International Thailand...
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Severe weather this summer brought devastation to many Massachusetts farms. Making a bad situation worse, hundred year flooding from Tropical Storm Irene washed away farmlands, farms, livelihoods, families, and in some cases large chunks of rural communities. Coping with a tragedy of this magnitude demands a full court press. The Commonwealth’s agricultural community has reacted swiftly to this tragedy and established the Massachusetts Farm Disaster Recovery Fund, a charitable initiative...
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