AASHE Campus Sustainability Hub

Effectively advocating for renewable energy and implementing local projects require a range of knowledge and skills. The College of the Atlantic's interdisciplinary curriculum makes it possible to gain a powerful combination of skills that are often spread out across different majors at a typical college or university. Opportunities to work on local energy projects are available to all, not just advanced engineering students.

The introductory class The Physics and Mathematics of Sustainable Energy, team-taught by an engineer and a physicist, gives students a broad foundation in various aspects of renewable energy and energy conservation. Students may then go on to take more advanced, project-based classes to plan and carry out energy ventures such as installing an array of solar cells on campus or a wind turbine on Beech Hill Farm. COA uses their campus and farms as laboratories in which students and faculty research and implement renewable energy conservation.

COA students are frequent participants in meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At these meetings, students engage with the process of the negotiations and collaborate with youth activists from around the globe. Back at COA, classes like Global Environmental Politics, Climate Justice, and Environmental Law and Policy give students a solid grounding in the theory and practice of international environmental politics. The student-led group Earth in Brackets meets regularly on campus and sends representatives to UNFCCC meetings, as well as blogging about climate change politics, sustainable development, and environmental justice. Between the energy and dedication of the students, and the support from faculty who are active on the forefront of UNFCCC politics, Earth in Brackets has emerged as a leader in the youth climate justice movement.

Students learn the science behind the changing climate in courses such as Climate and Weather, Seminar in Climate Change, and Environmental Chemistry. Geology courses like Geology of Mt. Desert Island or Geology and Humanity introduce studies of the earth’s climate and its change over multiple time scales.