Paul Smith's College of Arts & Sciences
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Paul Smith's College formally partnered with the Northern Forest Centers Feel Good Heat Campaign to promote the use of automated wood heat in the Northern Forest Region. Paul Smith's College participated in social media outreach events, and presented with the Northern Forest Center at various events and conferences. In the fall of 2018 Paul Smith's College started heating it's 3 main academic buildings with locally sourced, sustainably harvested wood pellets.

The Northern Forest Center advocates for Automated Wood Heat to advance the organization’s mission: to build economic and community vitality while fostering sound forest stewardship across the Northern Forest of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. In the interest of promoting Automated Wood Pellet heating systems and regionally-manufactured wood pellets, the Center has organized and raised dedicated funds for a targeted consumer awareness campaign to be guided, endorsed, and adopted by numerous Automated Wood Heat stakeholders in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Participation in the “Feel Good Heat” campaign is designed to build recognition and enhance consumer confidence in Automated Wood Heat as an ideal renewable energy option in the Northeast, and increase participants’ exposure to potential consumers. This campaign builds on the Center’s previous investments that led to the installation of more than 150 Automated Wood Heat systems across the region, advanced boiler incentive programs in each of the Northern Forest states, and supported the development of the wood pellet supply chain.

https://northernforest.org/programs/modern-wood-heat/modern-wood-heat-blog/778-i-m-stoked-about-automated-wood-heat

www.saranaclakeny.gov/index.php?section=projects-module&projectsection=14&project=123

The Village of Saranac Lake is one of New York’s newest Climate Smart Communities (CSC), and the first community in Franklin and Essex County to enter the program. The Village of Saranac Lake has joined the network of New York communities engaged in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving climate resilience.

The Climate Smart Communities (CSC) Certification program provides local governments with a robust framework to guide climate action and enable communities to achieve recognition for their leadership matched with community goals. The Village of Saranac Lake has joined over 200 participating communities, within New York State, to engage their citizens and local governments on best practices for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The goals of the CSC program are to engage and educate local governments in New York State, provide a robust framework to guide their climate action efforts, and recognize their achievements as they make progress. Participation in the program is free and voluntary; there are no fees or legal requirements. The program is designed to encourage ongoing implementation of actions that reduce greenhouse gas emission and help communities adapt to the effects of climate change.
Paul Smith's college has partnered with various other regional partners, including The Wild Center, North Country Community College, 350.org, to work with the Village of Saranac Lake to complete it's first ever climate smart communities certification. Paul Smith's College's sustainability coordinator serves on the committee but also PSC students and faculty donate time to assist the village in researching and documenting Climate Smart Communities Credits.

https://www.npandl.com
https://www.paulsmiths.edu/sustainability/2019/04/05/paul-smiths-announces-sustainability-energy-initiatives/

In the Fall of 2018, Paul Smith's College Partnered with Northern Power and Light. A newly created company that sells hydroelectricity from local small scale plants to North Country NY residents and businesses. They do this though a program called Community Distributed Generation (CDG)

Paul Smith's College was one of the first to sign up to purchase electricity through Northern Power and Light, but we also collabrated on an outreach and public relations efforts. These collabrations were mostly in the form of social media promotion, press releases, outreach events and presenting at conferences together to promote the sale of small scale local hydroelectricity.