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Bard Office of Sustainability

News and Events

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Upcoming Events

  • 11/15
    Saturday
    1:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5
    Barringer House; Global Classroom
    Citizens' Climate Lobby Fall Conference Virtual Watch Party and Potluck

    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

A group of students sitting at tables on a wooden patio.

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

A group of students sitting at tables on a wooden patio.
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.
Bard Ranked Best Green MBA for 2025

Post Date: 08-13-2025
A woman speaks in front of a tree surrounded by lush greenery

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

A woman speaks in front of a tree surrounded by lush greenery
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. 

Further Reading:

https://www.bard.edu/news/bard-college-receives-1-million-grant-from-burpee-foundation-to-support-creation-of-trial-garden-at-montgomery-place-campus-2024-06-18
 
Read the Full Article in the Daily Catch

Post Date: 08-05-2025
Students stand in the lush green surroundings outside a gray modern building

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

Students stand in the lush green surroundings outside a gray modern building
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.”

Further Reading

Post Date: 07-08-2025

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February 2022

02-22-2022
EUS Research Professor Gidon Eshel Speaks with the <em>Guardian</em> about Tyson Foods Using Land Almost “Twice the Size of New Jersey” for Animal Feed
Tyson Foods utilizes between nine and 10m acres of farmland – an area almost twice the size of New Jersey – to produce corn and soybeans to feed the more than 2 billion animals it processes every year in the US alone, according to new research. Speaking with the Guardian, Bard EUS Research Professor Gidon Eshel said the scale of farming needed to produce animal feed contributes to many of the environmental problems of large-scale agriculture. These issues include changes to soil and the natural flow of water, the way solar energy relates to the earth, and disruption of plants and animals. Pollution from fertilizers and pesticides are another big concern, and the risks of contaminating drinking water and harming ecosystems. There is a significant opportunity cost in growing feed crops. “If you produce 100lbs of corn and feed it to beef, you get 3lbs of edible beef. Because of this, using land to grow feed crops instead of food [for humans] is incredibly questionable – it’s wasteful,” he said.
Full Story in the Guardian
Photo: Gidon Eshel.
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
02-15-2022
Bard College Receives $150,000 Grant from George I. Alden Trust to Support Teaching and Research in the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing
Bard College has received a $150,000 grant from the George I. Alden Trust to acquire an upgraded gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer in order to support the continuity and growth of ongoing curricular and research projects within the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard. This new instrument, with its expanded analytical capabilities, is an essential component of the five-year infrastructure and instrumentation plan created by the Chemistry and Biochemistry Program. 

“We are so grateful to have this support from the Alden Trust. Continuing the essential analytical capacity of our labs is important. And with this funding, we are able to expand the range of experiments that are possible, providing many more opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and research at Bard,” said Associate Dean of the College and Associate Professor of Chemistry Emily McLaughlin.

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS) provides the technology to separate mixtures, and to identify and quantify pure compounds and individual components of mixtures for applications ranging across scientific disciplines. At Bard, this type of instrument has been central to the science curriculum for over 25 years. The acquisition of an upgraded gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer impacts the undergraduate teaching and learning experience in substantial ways—including in research and curricular work in chemistry, biology, environmental studies, and Bard’s Citizen Science Program, in which all first-year students take part. 

The enhanced capabilities of the new GCMS will facilitate ongoing and new collaborations among faculty and students, including the ability effectively sample aqueous environmental samples for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  The GCMS has been a central part of analytical chemistry at the College, resulting in work presented at local, regional, and national conferences and manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals. 
Photo: Maddie Nye ’19 working on an instrument similar to a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer in Bard’s Chemistry Program. Photo by Pete Mauney ’93 MFA ’00
Meta: Type(s): General | Subject(s): Academics,Biology Program,Chemistry Program,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental/Sustainability,Grants | Institutes(s): Citizen Science |
Results 1-2 of 2
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