News and Events

Bard MBA Finance Professor Kathy Hipple and colleague Perry Goldschein look at a seemingly simple rule change requiring financial advisors to act in their clients’ best interests.

Bard researcher, alumnus, and Hudsonia director Erik Kiviat '76 has made a career out of understanding and protecting the natural environment of the Hudson Valley.

Professor Eli Dueker's new Bard Water Lab has teamed up with the Saw Kill Watershed Community and Riverkeeper to monitor water quality in the region.

Bard Sustainability Manager Laurie Husted and student researcher Jason Chang '18 talk about the new microhydro project at Bard, which last week won a $1 million New York State clean energy grant.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State will award $1 million each to Bard College, University at Buffalo, and Broome Community College as part of the “Energy to Lead Competition.” The competition was announced by the Governor in October 2015 and challenged student-led coalitions from New York colleges and universities across the state to develop plans for local clean energy projects on campus and in their communities. The announcement was made Monday at Bard College.

Student-Led Coalitions at Bard, University at Buffalo, and Broome Community College Awarded  $1 Million Each to Develop Innovative Clean Energy Projects in Their Communities

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State will award $1 million each to Bard College, University at Buffalo, and Broome Community College as part of the “Energy to Lead Competition.” The competition was announced by the Governor in October 2015 and challenged student-led coalitions from New York colleges and universities across the state to develop plans for local clean energy projects on campus and in their communities. The announcement was made Monday at Bard College.
 
“On behalf of the College I would like to thank the Governor’s office and NYSERDA for this important award,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “Innovation is at the core of Bard’s mission, and this award helps us to continue to innovate in environmental issues and energy conservation, and to signal the importance of these issues to the entire higher education community.”
 
Bard College’s “Micro Hydro for Macro Impact” project will show how novel microhydro power generators can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, be financed in different ways, and integrate into student curricula and workforce training. The project is expected to result in the avoidance of 335 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, and will also include the launch of an online public information resource, “NY Micro Hydro,” to help others install microhydro power throughout the state.
 
“The winners of this competition will transform ideas into real clean energy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy bills and improve resiliency for campuses and their surrounding communities,” Governor Cuomo said. “I extend my congratulations to the winning students and faculty, and commend them for their commitment to combating climate change by building a cleaner and healthier environment.”
 
The Energy to Lead Competition is part of Governor Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy to build a clean, resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. Through REV, New York State has set the following 2030 energy targets: generate 50 percent of electricity from renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels and reduce energy consumption in buildings by 23 percent from 2012 levels. Collectively, the three winning college projects will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking 17,000 cars off the road each year.
 
The $3 million competition was administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and was open to student-led coalitions from two- or four-year public or private colleges or universities. The competition challenged schools to develop ideas for innovative projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy or greenhouse gas emission reduction on campus, in the classroom and in surrounding communities.
 
Applicants were required to demonstrate innovation in one or more of the following areas: project design, business model, partnerships, and/or curriculum integration. They were also asked to describe the project’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions, how they would measure success and how they would use the $1 million award to advance the project. 
 
“Students bring a unique urgency, passion and creativity to the fight against climate change.” Richard Kauffman, chair of energy and finance for New York State. “As we remake our energy system in New York, we are thrilled to harness the leadership of our young people to help us do it faster, cheaper and bigger than any other state. I look forward to the next phase, when the winners will turn these strong ideas into real projects for the benefit of their colleges, their communities and the state as a whole.”
 
“New York is a national leader in developing innovative energy solutions to protect our environment and grow our economy,” John B. Rhodes, president and CEO of NYSERDA. “Congratulations to the winners and all the participants in ‘Energy to Lead’ for taking up this challenge and developing compelling ideas that not only solve critical energy issues on their campuses and communities, but that also make a point of ensuring others can learn from and replicate their success.”
 

Professor Eshel has received the fellowship for his project, "Rethinking the American Diet: Optimally Unifying Environmental and Nutritional Sciences."

Bard College was awarded two New York State Hudson River Estuary Grants as part of the $3 million in awards Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week for new projects to help communities improve recreation access, protect water quality, conserve open space, and increase storm resiliency in the Hudson River Estuary watershed. A $49,950 watershed grant was awarded to the Bard Office of Sustainability to conduct a study assessing the impacts of maintenance and repair, partial removal, or entire removal of the Lower Saw Kill dam. The dam on the Saw Kill Creek is a known barrier to aquatic connectivity for American eel, a Species of Greatest Conservation Need. A second $44,744 river access grant was awarded to the Bard Environmental and Urban Studies Program to support a feasibility study to explore trail repairs and boat launch options to the Tivoli South Bay shoreline trail. Both projects are affiliated with the Saw Kill Watershed Community.

Bard is among the REV Campus Challenge First Movers, a group of colleges leading sustainability efforts in a program of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Bard biology professor Felicia Keesing, codirector of the five-year, $8.8 million study, outlines the different tick-eradication strategies they'll be using on Dutchess County properties.

The Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce 40 Under 40 Shaker Awards were presented on April 28, recognizing the next generation of leaders in the region.

BPI students are growing their own food as part of the public health curriculum and donating the excess to charity. 

Brooklyn, New York — Chelsea Mozen MBA '15 joined the inaugural class of Bard’s MBA in Sustainability program in the fall of 2012 because she wanted to help rewire the world with clean energy. This month, one year after graduation, Chelsea joined Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson and other team members at the company headquarters to announce a bold, near-term commitment by the Internet retailer to achieve carbon neutrality. The company pledged to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2020 and grow a thriving, carbon neutral marketplace in the months, years, and decades to come.
 
At the heart of Etsy’s climate strategy is a revolutionary approach to solar development that Mozen began to design while interning with the company as a Bard MBA student. In her capstone MBA project at Bard, Mozen developed an idea for solarizing Etsy sellers as a way to offset the pollution coming from transporting goods to customers, which Etsy estimates accounts for 95 percent of its climate footprint.
 
After her internship, Etsy hired Chelsea into a new position as senior energy and carbon specialist. Over the last two years, working as part of a team at Etsy and with external partners, including the solar firm Geostellar, Chelsea helped shepherd her capstone vision into reality. In the new pilot program, Etsy will utilize verified emissions reductions from the solar installations to work toward the goal of net zero emissions. Etsy sellers will receive discounts for the solar systems in exchange for the offsets, which will be priced at the social cost of carbon.
 
Mozen credits the capstone process at Bard as giving her the time to puzzle through the many obstacles leading to today’s announcement. "Etsy’s mission is an ambitious one: to reimagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world," said Mozen. "Being a part of a supportive and creative academic community while developing the initial structure for the Etsy Solar pilot program was not only essential to its success, but also brought us closer to achieving our mission."
 
Mozen continues to dream big. In her volunteer time, she has been working on a multiyear project to bring community-owned wind power to rural communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. "What I love about Etsy Solar is that it’s really about shared value creation for our community," said Mozen. "By working together we can drive responsible solutions to our collective impact."

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The Bard MBA in Sustainability is one of a select few graduate programs globally that fully integrates sustainability into a core business curriculum. At Bard, students work in collaborative teams learning how to build businesses and not-for-profit organizations that combine economic, environmental, and social objectives into an integrated bottom line that creates both healthier businesses and a more sustainable world. Graduates of the Bard MBA are transforming existing companies, starting their own, and pioneering a new paradigm of doing business that meets human needs, protects and restores the Earth's systems, and treats all stakeholders with justice and respect.
 

Chelsea Mozen MBA '15 joined the inaugural class of Bard’s MBA in Sustainability program in the fall of 2012 because she wanted to help rewire the world with clean energy. This month, one year after graduation, Chelsea joined Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson and other team members at the company headquarters to announce a bold, near-term commitment by the Internet retailer to achieve carbon neutrality. The company pledged to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2020 and grow a thriving, carbon neutral marketplace in the months, years, and decades to come.

The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation has awarded a $5 million dollar leadership grant to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies to support a scientific study, being done in partnership with Bard College, that seeks to reduce Lyme disease in neighborhoods. Research will be carried out in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New York State Department of Health, and Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health. If successful, the project will revolutionize Lyme disease prevention.

Bard College professor Brooke Jude has led a research team that includes students in the Bard biology program, at Al Quds Bard College in the West Bank, and at several Hudson Valley schools. This investigation of bacterial species in the local watershed was recently published in a citizen science–themed issue of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. Researchers worked to determine the prevalence of violacein-producing bacteria, which potentially limit outbreaks of an invasive fungus that leads to a decline in the amphibian population. The secondary school students gathered water samples, after which the college students—Yegor Dukashin and Kelsey O’Brien from Bard, and Raneem Jo’Beh from Al Quds—worked to identify the samples. Local students participated from Red Hook High School, Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, and F.D. Roosevelt High School in Staatsburg.

As part of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy’s Power Dialog, thousands of high school and college students will meet with state officials to discuss the U.S. pledge to cut emissions 30 percent by 2030.

Join the conversation on social media. Follow @ThePowerDialog on Twitter and the Bard Center for Environmental Policy on Facebook. Use the hashtag #PowerDialog2016 to see news from Power Dialog meetings across the country.

During the week of April 4, as part of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy’s (Bard CEP) Power Dialog initiative, thousands of college and high school students will meet with officials in 20 states to explore policies that could help meet the United States’s pledge—made at the Paris climate summit last December and as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan announced last August—to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
 
“The United States is the world’s biggest global warming polluter behind China, and we are the biggest per capita climate polluters,” says Bard CEP graduate student Rebecca Chillrud, a lead organizer for the Power Dialog. “Last December in Paris, for the first time, the United States and China both pledged to cut global warming pollution. In turn, the U.S. commitment to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030 will depend in significant measure on what happens in state capitals around the country.”
 
For the past nine months, Chillrud, fellow Bard CEP student Meredith Lavalley and bard environmental and urban studies undergraduates Maggie Berke ’17 and Xaver Kandler ’18, have been working with students across the country to catalyze a nationwide conversation about state-level action on climate change. Power Dialogs are scheduled for 20 states, from Alabama to Washington, during the first week of April. Students from over one hundred colleges and universities will meet with top state officials in charge of cutting global warming pollution. Kandler has been helping to organize the New York event, scheduled for Tuesday, April 5, at SUNY Albany. More than 250 students will meet with top officials including Richard Kauffman, chair of energy and finance for the governor, and Jared Snyder, deputy commissioner, Office of Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy.
 
“We will bring the voice of students and those who will be most affected by climate change in the coming decades,” says Kandler.
 
“The world is so interconnected now that a small group of students can really make a difference on a national scale,” said Bard CEP Director Eban Goodstein, in praise of the students’ work. “Our team helped catalyze serious climate conversations in Alabama and Arizona, Vermont and Virginia, involving more than one hundred colleges and universities and thousands of students. Great work.”
 

For the past nine months, four Bard students have been working with students across the country to catalyze a nationwide conversation about state-level action on climate change. Now, during the week of April 4, thousands of high school and college students will meet with state officials to discuss the U.S. pledge to cut emissions 30 percent by 2030. 

During the week of April 4, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy will host The Power Dialog, a national event in which thousands of students will meet with top officials in more than 30 states to discuss climate policy. Participants will head to their state capitols to talk about state-level action to help meet the U.S. climate commitment of a 30 percent cut in global warming pollution by 2030. The Power Dialog gives students a voice in critical decisions that will determine their future and the future of the earth.

Dot Earth highlights Bard CEP's Power Dialog, a series of meetings between students and policymakers on April 4 about supporting the Clean Power Plan and Paris climate commitments.