Town Meeting on Nov. 8 voted 123-54 for the bylaw that mandates construction so all new and expanded town buildings produce, through renewable sources, as much energy as they consume. Supporters of the measure, led by Mothers Out Front and Climate Action Now, believe that Amherst is the first town in the state to adopt such a bylaw.
By Maureen Turner for Going Green
Hitchcock Center serves as a powerful teaching tool for the rest of us.
Signs of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment’s commitment to sustainability are evident all around its South Amherst site: the large solar array on its roof, the rain barrels at the bottom of downspouts, the station for refilling water bottles in a hallway, the composting toilets in the restrooms. But many of the green measures the center took in constructing its new home, which opened in 2016, are not immediately visible to the eye. At a recent event, “Building without Toxins: Educating for a Healthy Material World,” the nonprofit organization highlighted some of those less immediately obvious measures, the result of thoughtful, even painstaking decisions made at every step of the construction process.
Amherst & Easthampton, MA – The Hitchcock Center for the Environment and Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary are excited to sponsor the first Western Mass Youth Climate Summit, scheduled from 9am-5pm on Friday, November 17, 2017. The Western Mass Youth Climate Summit provides an empowering platform for high school students to engage in conversations with their peers on the issue of climate change and to discuss actions and goals their team will take to address the problem.
By Jonathan Wright
A recent Gazette article on the award-winning R. W. Kern Center at Hampshire College, also commenting on its beautiful sister-ship, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, on the Hampshire campus, gives the reader a sense of the scope of the Living Building Challenge undertaking and the achievement (“Hampshire College’s new building earns national award for sustainability,” June 5).
by designLAB Architects
The new 9,000-sf home of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, Massachusetts, will serve as a teaching tool that fully integrates and celebrates the relationship between the built and natural environments. A participant in the Living Building Challenge, the new center generates it’s own energy form the sun and captures its own drinking water from the rain.
By Jonathan A. Wright
One of the primary goals of the Living Building Challenge (LBC) is to eliminate the use of known toxins in products installed in the built environment. If it is harmful to life – humans, animal or anything else – do not use it if at all possible. In 2016, Wright Builders Inc. completed two living buildings which will be evaluated for certification in the next 18-to-24 months. These projects gave us a unique opportunity to work inside the largely unexplored new world of materials research, vetting documentation, and research.
There’s a quiet revolution underway in Massachusetts….
By Stacey Enesey Klemenc
When EnnisArt was contacted to install a map of the Connecticut River Watershed for the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, Massachusetts, it was up for the challenge — specifically the Living Building Challenge. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, EnnisArt specializes in custom concrete flooring and concrete innovation, with a penchant toward artistic projects that maintain a green focus.
By Damaris Perez-Pizarro
La gran apertura del nuevo centro educacional Hitchcock Center Education for a Healthy Planet dio lugar en su nueva ubicación 845 West Street, Amherst, el sábado 1 de octubre donde un sin número de familias, líderes de la comunidad y líderes políticos se dieron cita para ser testigos de tan importante edificio para la comunidad del Western Massachusetts, los niños y el planeta en general.
By John Courtmanche
The Hampshire College campus will be a place of learning for some 10,000 more students of all ages each year as the college’s latest Cultural Village partner, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, celebrates its grand opening on Saturday, October 1. Eighteen months after signing a 95-year ground lease with the College, The Hitchcock Center has relocated from its previous home north of campus to its newly built 9,000-square-foot facility located between the Red Barn and the Hampshire College Farm, with access to nature trails and a range of ecological habitats on the College’s property.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax