Coming Together

A key first step toward environmental cooperation, the Town of Mansfield and the University of Connecticut came together to address the major issues of climate change facing the community Thursday. The conference, "Climate Change: Science, Policy and Strategies for Life in a Changing World," is the first time members of the university and town community have sat down to share information, ideas and grapple with the environmental crisis as one cohesive community.

According to Richard Miller, director of environmental policy at the university, this conference is just one in a series of town-university dialogues on climate change.

Thursday's conference began with a multidisciplinary presentation of general climate change information by a panel of experts from the university, followed by an open question answer session. Anji Seth presented the basic science behind the "Greenhouse Warming Theory," while Dan Civco delved into more specific causes of the global warming trend stemming from expanding development.

"Human activities have been definitively linked to climate change," Seth said while presenting information about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore in October.

Richard Parnas, director of the UConn biofuels consortium, discussed technological approaches to address climate change and Kathy Segerson, an economics professor, explained several economic approaches. Concluding the opening session, Richard Hiskes, a political science professor, presented the political side of the environmental crisis.

"There is a misperception that global climate change is too large a problem for town and municipal governments," said Mayor Elizabeth Paterson during her opening remarks. "This misperception is fundamentally flawed."

Paterson and Town Manager Matt Hart cited several ways that Mansfield is combating warming, including redesigning the middle school by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and keeping a special fund for projects aiming to upgrade town infrastructure such as installing more efficient water heaters.

During his opening address, Miller highlighted several of the university's environmental achievements including the first Silver LEED athletic facility in the country - the Burton-Shenkman football training complex, the UConn Biofuels consortium, which produces 30,000 gallons of B20 biodiesel per year and the co-generation plant, which generates both heat and electricity simultaneously, saving 29,000 tons per year in CO2 emissions.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) environmental analyst Lynn Stoddard presented trends across Connecticut and information about how Mansfield measured up to the rest of the state on environmental action.

One idea that stimulated great interest from the panelists, audience members and city officials was the suggestion that the town work with the university to build a larger biodiesel production facility than currently proposed by the UConn Biofuels consortium. The current proposal would produce enough biodiesel to fulfill half the university's consumption. Audience members suggest that the plant scale be increased to produce enough biodiesel to service the greater Mansfield area, converting used cooking oil from local restaurants as well as from university dining halls into fuel.

Attendance at the program exceeded expectations, with a diverse audience hailing from Tolland, Willimantic, Mansfield and Willington.

"There were 102 people [pre-registered]," said Cherie Taylor, administrative coordinator for UConn's office of environmental policy, adding that there was also an entire class that met at the conference in place of lecture and many unregistered individuals.

All totaled, there were over 110 people in attendance.

"I think it's a great idea for the town and the university to work together to present this information," said Kathryn Shinkiewicz, a 7th-semester environmental engineering major. "This has a big potential to grow, too, since it wasn't very well advertised. There are a lot of environmental engineering majors that aren't here."

"I think it's good to get together to talk like this," said Donald Hoyle, a retired minister who resides in Mansfield and serves on the Mansfield Clean Energy Committee, adding that he hopped other towns would hold similar conferences for their citizens.

Contact Timothy Bleasdale at Timothy.Bleasdale@UConn.edu.