Unity College President Stephen Mulkey, a leader in the movement for institutions of higher education to divest from fossil fuels, joins Chloe Maxmin of Divest Harvard in a discussion organized by Sustain Wayne, an educational and networking initiative supporting local economy and resilience to climate change.
The discussion is free and open to the public, and will take place Sunday, August 4 at 4:30 pm at the Ladd Recreation Center located at 26 Gott Road in Wayne, Maine.
Mulkey is a champion of sustainability science, which he sees as the defining framework for academic programming at Unity College. He led the College’s Board of Trustees in a unanimous vote last fall to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Unity was the first college in the nation to do so, and has since been followed by four others. The College’s efforts are part of a growing movement around the world by students at colleges and universities who see their school’s investment in carbon-heavy assets as conflicting with the mission of education and the well being of future generations.
Prior to setting Unity’s agenda for initiating the spark to encourage higher education to take a stand on the mitigation of global climate change through the first step of divesting from fossil fuels, Mulkey organized the College’s academics with a forward thinking approach. He pivoted the curriculum at Unity College to focus on the “what’s next” of environmentalism, sustainability science, and the transdisciplinary (collaborative) approach to ecological problem solving.
Maxmin is a Maine native and co-coordinator of Divest Harvard, and is helping lead the student effort to divest from fossil fuels at Harvard University. She will share her experiences as a young environmentalist, from starting the Climate Action Club at her high school, Lincoln Academy, to her work at Harvard, with 350.org, and the founding of First Here, Then Everywhere, a website dedicated to young activists.
About Sustain Wayne
The mission of Sustain Wayne is to teach ways to enhance sustainability and resilience of the individual, the community and the planet; to inspire others to envision a positive and fulfilling future, one in which we live in greater harmony with the land and each other; and to increase our connectivity, share our knowledge and resources, and face a changing economy and environment with greater confidence. For more information, please visit www.sustainwayne.org.
In recent years Unity College has gained national attention for a variety of achievements including: its focus on sustainability science, the leading-edge of 21st century ecological problem solving and the vanguard in the fight for the mitigation of global climate change; its ground-breaking “green” innovations such as the award-winning TerraHaus, the first student residence on a college or university campus built to the Passive House standard, the most energy efficient building standard in the world; and for being the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels, igniting a growing national movement in higher education.
Unity College is a private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.
