Clarkson University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

As a strategy for fulfilling our climate commitments (Second Nature), two members of Clarkson's Sustainability Committee approached the village and town boards of Potsdam, NY to propose that they sign on to the CSC program. As a result both local municipalities joined. A joint Climate Smart task force between the village and the town was formed that is inclusive and participatory as any interested community member can join and be a part of the task force. A Clarkson faculty member chairs the GHG subcommittee. Clarkson staff and faculty are also involved in nearly all other aspects of the task force's work. We have engaged paid student interns, senior capstone projects, and honors classes in work with the Potsdam CSC task force.

This partnership started with an agreement amongst the presidents at the 4 local colleges - Clarkson University, SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Canton, and St. Lawrence University. They each agreed to contribute a minimum of $2,000 / year toward joint sustainability efforts. The NoCoPEACS group started as the committee to oversee those efforts. Since beginning, the group has grown to include more partners including a 5th local university and the Potsdam and Canton municipal sustainability committees. Community members from different organizations are also invited and included in the committee. Together the group conducts fundraising and carries out an annual or every 18 month mini conference called "Sustainability Day" in addition to a Green Living Fair which invites local sustainability vendors and nonprofits that help to represent that there is a place and way for all to participate in sustainability. Clarkson faculty and students are deeply involved in both. Dr. Susan Powers from Clarkson University is currently the chair of the NoCo PEACS group.

As a part of commitment by the Clarkson CEM Program to hands-on and co-curricular education, Director Erik Backus along with Bill Olsen and Jim Billings launched the Clarkson CEM Consulting Group in 2015. This in-house Clarkson University capability provides pre-professional consulting in planning, engineering, and construction areas. This business enterprise uses students in an experiential learning mode in order to deliver products that the targeted market segments would not be otherwise able to conduct using professional consulting services. Likewise, these efforts help to build community economic opportunities by jumpstarting projects that would otherwise not be able to be done absent some key preliminary work. The goal has been to generate further professional work and efforts that can aid in the development of a more robust North Country economy. One of the main different projects they have focused on are complete streets projects. Some of the towns that complete streets studies have been done for by C3G are Potsdam, NY and Canton, NY.

There is a formal partnership with the NY Olympic Region (Lake Placid, North Elba, Olympic Regional Development Authority, and School system of LP) and the US Green Building Council. It is both an applied program with current certification process for USGBC's LEED for Communities Program. Two Clarkson faculty as well as two years of ADK Semester (Fall 2018 and Fall 2023) students have played an integral role in the certification and recertification of the region.

Complete Streets Work: https://sites.google.com/clarkson.edu/clarkson-c3g/
CSC: https://potsdamny.us/community/climate-smart-community.html
NoCo PEACS: https://sites.google.com/clarkson.edu/sustainabilityday/about

Data as of FY23