Antioch University New England

Campus Category

Four year and graduate institutions under 5,000 student FTE

Contact Information

Abigail Abrash Walton
Asst. to the President for Sustainability & Social Justice; Faculty
Environmental Studies

Education and Research

Antioch University New England (ANE) educates environmental leaders, organizational managers, educators and therapists to create or work in organizations that are successful, effective, sustainable, humane, and socially and environmentally responsible.

Our mission statement emphasizes ANE’s core commitment to providing "transformative education through scholarship, innovation, and community action for a just and sustainable society."

Three of our five academic departments offer explicitly “green” degrees:

  • ANE’s Department of Environmental Studies, the oldest graduate environmental studies department in the country, offers master's and PhD programs in multiple disciplines, including a unique environmental/social justice- and sustainability-focused award-winning Advocacy Clinic.
  • ANE’s Organization & Management Department offers a highly regarded Master of Business Administration in Organizational and Environmental Sustainability (Green MBA). Last year, Net Impact listed ANE’s Green MBA in the top five, including two first-place rankings, in seven of 13 categories in the group’s review of 63 MBA programs nationwide.
  • ANE’s Education Department offers the Educating for Sustainability MEd, the first and only graduate program in the country that explicitly links sustainability and education. This program trains in-service educators nationally to apply sustainability at any grade level and every subject area.
  • Principles of Sustainability course is part of the curriculum in all three departments’ programs.

ANE faculty and students have:

  • Engaged in numerous partnerships to enhance Keene’s performance as a leader in addressing climate change, including development of Keene’s Climate Adaptation Plan, the first of its kind in the world.
    • Another example is a faculty-supervised student project called The 10% Challenge, which targets Keene businesses to voluntarily commit to reducing GHG emissions by 10%. The project helps businesses identify their energy consumption through an audit and to develop an action plan; it is a collaborative effort between ANE and the City of Keene’s Cities for Climate Protection Committee. This June, the NH Planners Association recognized the 10% Challenge with its Project of the Year Award.
  • Pioneered place-based education
  • Conducted cutting-edge applied research of adaptation to increased stormwater run-off associated with climate change, effective biodegradable packaging, counseling first responders in areas devastated by climate-change-associated flooding, and enhancing recycling infrastructure in conflict zones.

All ANE graduate programs (23 master’s; three doctoral) are practice-oriented, requiring students to apply classroom-based learning to solve real-world problems through up to 600 hours of community-based experience related to their fields. Examples of this work:

  • Environmental Studies students helping local towns protect drinking water supplies
  • Psychologists in training offering low-cost counseling services to all who seek them
  • In 2008, students organized an ANE Power Vote initiative, gathering pledges from 45% of the ANE community to make clean energy a priority in voting decisions and placing ANE in the top 5 nationally of all participating colleges/universities.

Indeed, ANE students completed 129,300 hours community service hours in the past year. The Carnegie Foundation awarded ANE its community engagement classification for Curricular Engagement and Outreach & Partnerships for "demonstrated excellent alignment between mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement."

Campus Operations

  • Campus is converted furniture factory and remediated brownfield. Site selection based on commitment to smart growth, reducing materials & energy use, site restoration, and maintaining walkable/bike-able downtown location. Outfitted “re-used” building w/ skylights, non-VOC carpets and paint, energy-efficient lighting and salvaged hardwood flooring. Worked with city to create Keene’s bike path, a rail-to-trail project bordering campus.
  • Reduced campus electricity usage by 17% over the past three fiscal years
  • Implemented energy-saving measures, including restroom light occupancy sensors and vending machine removal. (Inspired our bookstore vendor, EFollett, to eliminate one of its two beverage coolers.)
  • Launched Carbon Counts: You Can Too education and outreach campaign, now entering its third year, which includes campus-wide “Please Flip Me Off” light-switch signage, e-alerts, and community-building speaker series featuring faculty, student and alumni expertise. Campaign raises awareness about dimensions of climate change and what actions individuals and institutions can take to reduce emissions and adapt to climate-change impacts
  • Established Green Guru Office Energy-Efficiency Audit program to help employees reduce emissions through computer-setting adjustments, installation and use of power strips and other low-tech solutions. 60% of ANE employees have participated in the audit initiative.
  • IT switching out CRTs with LCDs and contracts with vendor for “green” removal of e-waste.
  • Transitioned to non-toxic Green Seal-certified cleaning and restroom products, 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper in ANE’s copiers and printers, and 100% recycled paper products in restrooms.
  • Communications Department uses 100% post-consumer FSC-certified paper and has reduced the size and quantity of publications. For example, reduced paper usage for ANE’s viewbook by 95%.
  • Introduced PIN-protected print accounts, thereby reducing overall annual student printing on campus by 40% from roughly 612,000 to 242,000 pages
  • Converted Student and Employee handbooks and range of institutional forms to electronic form to reduce paper usage
  • Initiated purchasing of “green” office supplies and campus-wide purchasing practice of locally sourcing used office furniture
  • Launched Green Bikes program to reduce car trips from/to campus. Roughly 5% of campus employees and students participated in program’s first year.
  • Host online ride-share board
  • Celebrated 20th anniversary of ANE’s recycling program (plastics, glass, cans and paper) by establishing “Resource Recovery Stations” to enhance recycling, reduce waste toxicity, and educate users about where solid waste goes
  • Use biodegradable food service items for campus events
  • Increased on-campus composting by more than 400% during the past 6-month period
  • Created campus vegetable/herb garden to provide food for ANE café & Keene Community Kitchen
  • Added edible plants to campus landscaping and removed non-native invasives
  • ANE’s café serves organic, fair trade coffee and local, organic produce; operated by service agency for developmentally disabled adults
  • Established a private room for nursing mothers and gender-neutral family-friendly restroom
  • Established Re-Use center for clothes, household items and office supplies; open to all ANE employees and students and community social service agencies.
  • Selected as demonstration site for pervious pavement, designed to reduce stormwater run-off and sand/salt usage for snow/ice removal 

Administration and Finance

From our ground-breaking 2006 “whole-systems” sustainability and social justice audit undertaken to measure how well we practice what we teach, to the institutional commitment to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2020, ANE administration constantly works to be an exemplar of our values.

  • Created a new President’s Cabinet-level position of Assistant to the President for Sustainability & Social Justice to coordinate campus initiatives and incorporate perspectives into senior-level administrative decision-making
  • Established campus-wide Sustainability & Social Justice Committee of staff, students, administrators and faculty to guide initiatives
  • Designed and conducted ground-breaking “whole systems” Sustainability & Social Justice Audit to assess and enhance ANE’s performance
  • Entering year three of implementing subsequent Sustainability & Social Justice Action Plan
  • Established campus-wide Sustainability & Social Justice Committee of staff, students, administrators and faculty to guide initiatives
  • Formed Energy & Climate Action Task Force, which examined ANE's GHG emissions and set an institutional goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2020. The SSJ Committee’s Carbon Neutrality Task Force will develop ANE’s Climate Action Plan this year.
  • Created a new President’s Cabinet-level position of Assistant to the President for Sustainability & Social Justice to coordinate campus initiatives and incorporate perspectives into senior-level administrative decision-making
  • Established campus-wide Student Government to amplify and incorporate student interests/perspectives in campus decision-making
  • ANE President David Caruso signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
  • Signed Climate Change Action Partnership Agreement with Clean Air-Cool Planet, committing ANE to measuring and making plans to reduce our GHG emissions
  • Joined AASHE
  • Became a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Partner
  • Institutionalized energy-use and GHG emissions tracking via Accounts Payable Office; generate quarterly reports for Cabinet review
  • 75% of ANE students receive financial aid. ANE offers a variety of awards and tuition reduction to increase affordability of its programs, including to ALANA and international students of color, women over 40, single parents, veterans and those serving underserved groups
  • Coordinate robust Americorps engagement by an average of 20 master’s and PsyD candidates annually.
  • Drafted Responsible Purchasing Policy that incorporates sustainability and social justice dimensions
  • Instituted Livable Wage Policy in 2004
  • Established a Sexual Harassment Policy for employees and students (1972)
  • Diversity Committee & student-led environmental justice workgroup formed (1990s); ANE added diversity training for employees and new classes in Environmental Justice
  • Established Multicultural Center for Research and Practice, which promotes multiculturalism within a social justice orientation; students founded ANE’s Support Group for Ethnic and Racial Diversity
  • Students formed, with faculty support, an LGBT & Allies group to provide support, conduct advocacy and share resources around issues of sexual identity
  • Created formal student Earth Day Coordinator position; serves as primary organizer for Keene’s annual Earth Day celebration
  • Hold Black History Month “Gallery Walk” guided tours of permanent display of posters celebrating African-American achievement.
  • Hold campus-wide annual events to report out on sustainability & social justice achievements and initiatives.

 

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