University of New Hampshire
PAE-24: Sustainability Policy Advocacy

UNH is a land- sea- and space-grant university recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a community engaged institution. Through its dynamic partnerships, UNH is bringing diverse interests together across the state, the nation, and the world to solve the most pressing challenges facing citizens, schools, policymakers, businesses, organizations, and communities. Both faculty and students are engaged in public policy advocacy for sustainability. For example: UNH President Mark Huddleston signed on to a letter sponsored by AASHE urging Congress and President Bush to sign HESEA into law in 2008: http://www.fundee.org/campaigns/hesa/ In February 2008 Tom Kelly testified for the importance of sustainability in the food service industry at the hearing on Sustainability and the Food Service Industry to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.http://globalwarming.house.gov/tools/assets/files/0364.pdf At the request of the NH Governor's office and NH state legislature, UNH faculty, staff and students often help inform policy and decision-making. For example, UNH CSO Tom Kelly was invited to be on the NH State Energy Committee, and Dr. Cameron Wake of UNH's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space is part of Governor Lynch's Climate Change Task Force. In 2011, Tom Kelly cosigned a letter to the NH legislature in support of NH staying involved in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). In 2010, UNH Professor Andrew Rosenberg was referred by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to advise the White House on marine spatial planning. The President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is the specific entity which Rosenberg was recruited to. Before coming to UNH, Rosenberg was a senior level official at NOAA and also worked with the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy among other endeavors. More here: http://www.tnhonline.com/unh-professor-tapped-to-advise-white-house-1.624928 The Carsey Institute at UNH conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. The Carsey Institute gives policy makers and practitioners the timely, independent resources they need to effect change in their communities. www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu UNH student Laura Carpenter followed up on an active learning project in a political science seminar (international environmental politics) to get a bill through the NH legislature that legalized and set out guidelines for NH property owners to install wind turbines on residential property. Governor Lynch signed the bill into law in 2008. More here: http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2008/July/lw23law.cfm