1:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Barringer House; Global Classroom
Citizens' Climate Lobby Fall Conference Virtual Watch Party and Potluck
Sharper Than Ever: CCL's Next Chapter
Saturday, November 15, 2025 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Barringer House; Global Classroom
Grounded in our values and guided by a new strategy, CCL is pushing climate action forward. What to expect: Equip yourself to be an effective climate advocate in the current political landscape. Learn the policy details of permitting reform, a critical component of America’s clean energy future. Reconnect with CCL’s values and unique culture, so you’re ready to carry our new strategy forward.
Contact: Laurie B Husted Phone: 845-464-8025 E-mail: [email protected]
Sustainability News
Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability
The College earned a STARS Gold rating and the MBA in sustainability was ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review.
Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability
Bard College has recently been recognized for its commitment to sustainability by two organizations. This July, the College earned a Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). This nationwide group ranks colleges based on all aspects of sustainability on their campuses, from academic buildings to dining and events planning. Bard’s report included its participation in the Race 2 Zero Waste food scrap conservation program, where it placed first in the food organics Small College category.
Bard’s MBA in sustainability was also ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review for the fifth year in a row. The list is based on student ratings of how well their MBA “prepares them to address environmental, sustainability, and responsibility issues in their careers.” Bard’s MBA is based in New York City and utilizes a hybrid curriculum to prepare students for critical social and environmental challenges. “At a time when clean energy and climate change action, organizational justice, reducing plastics and toxic pollution, and enhancing the planet’s biodiversity are all under political attack, Bard remains the leading MBA focused on embedding sustainability as simply good business,” said MBA Director Dr. Eban Goodstein.
Burpee Trial Garden Project at Montgomery Place Featured in the Daily Catch
The summer garden students will continue their work through August tending the plots, recording observations on iPads, and sharing their findings in real time with Burpee’s plant breeders.
Burpee Trial Garden Project at Montgomery Place Featured in the Daily Catch
Bard student Violet DiBiasio ’27. Photo by Emily Sachar, Courtesy of the Daily Catch
The Burpee Trial Garden, a seed test garden and horticultural research site at Bard’s Montgomery Place campus, has been featured in the Daily Catch. The garden, in its first season, is currently being tended to by three Bard students, Violet DiBiasio ’27, Max Frackman ’27, and Mikhal Terentiev ’26, who are undertaking horticultural research and hands-on scientific investigations with real-world applications in the Hudson Valley and beyond. “This project is helping Bard restore and revive the historic formal gardens at Montgomery Place, and help gardeners in the process,” Amy Parrella, Bard Arboretum director, told the Daily Catch. “Gardening has been proven to alleviate stress and have therapeutic and healing results. And this opportunity will help students to cultivate their passion for plants and inspire their commitment to nurture their environment.” Trial gardens measure how well a specific cultivar or variety will perform in a specific area or growing condition, and the garden at Bard is supported by a $1 million grant that is being paid over four years from the Burpee Foundation. The summer garden students will continue their work through August tending the plots, recording observations on iPads, and sharing their findings in real time with Burpee’s plant breeders.
Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies Receives 2025 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant
The grant, in the amount of $75,680, will support CCS Bard’s Envelope & Air-sealing Upgrades Project, a series of energy efficient upgrades at Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art.
Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies Receives 2025 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant
The Hessel Museum of Art.
Bard College is pleased to announce that the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard) has been announced as a recipient of a 2025 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI) grant. The initiative is a program of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, established and managed in partnership with RMI, the leading global expert in clean energy, and Environment and Culture Partners, a nonprofit driving the US cultural sector’s sustainability efforts. The grant, in the amount of $75,680, will support CCS Bard’s Envelope & Air-sealing Upgrades Project, a series of energy efficient upgrades at Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art.
These upgrades to building infrastructure will both increase overall energy-efficiency and reduce fuel oil consumption. Building upon the success of the Museum’s former 2022-23 Frankenthaler-supported Technical Assistance project—which included a suite of air infiltration and envelope diagnostic testing across the facility—Bard operations and museum staff have utilized that information to identify a new scope of air-sealing measures. The new project aims to reduce air-infiltration rates by 15% through a host of measures, thereby reducing the energy required for space heating and cooling, humidification and dehumidification, and fresh air ventilation for occupants.
“The FCI grant will enable CCS Bard and the Hessel Museum of Art to take climate action by allowing us to make our building more energy efficient, lowering our carbon footprint," said Tom Eccles, executive director of CCS Bard. “Not only will this contribute to Bard College’s campus-wide sustainability initiatives and goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2035, but it will also be deeply meaningful to our students and the broader community of artists, curators, scholars, and educators who care passionately about these issues and address them in their work.” The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is the first nationwide program to support energy efficiency and clean energy use for the visual arts and the largest private national grantmaking program of its kind for cultural institutions. Launched in 2021, the initiative funds energy efficiency programs and clean energy projects at visual art organizations, including art museums, art schools, non-collecting arts institutions, and nonprofit art events. “The Foundation is proud to continue supporting visionary projects that are reshaping the way arts institutions operate,” said Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. “FCI’s fifth cycle highlights a new level of strategic thinking among applicants—one that seamlessly integrates creative practice with environmental responsibility. By extending this initiative, we reaffirm our belief that the arts can play a meaningful role in shaping our shared future.”
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Center for Environmental Policy,Bard MBA in Sustainability,Center for Civic Engagement |
02-27-2014
The Landscape and Arboretum Program at Bard College and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) are offering noncredit continuing education classes on gardening at Bard College this winter and spring. Open to the public, these classes feature some of the top names in the horticulture industry and cover a wide array of topics.