Students continue to push for a 100 percent renewable-energy-dependent campus by 2030, as part of the Climate Reality Project’s Campus Corps at NC State. This is one of many projects that the Climate Action Pack at NC State is involved in this spring. They are working with other organizations to create a more environmentally conscious student body.
Emery Kiefer, a senior studying natural resources and policy administration, and president and founder of the Climate Reality Project at NC State, found inspiration to collect signatures in an older petition that made a difference on campus. Since then, the project has seen tremendous support from students and administration alike.
“A few years prior, there was a petition that was passed in NC State with 2,000 signatures to start a sustainability fund, and the sustainability fund is a fee that every student pays every semester that gets pooled into a fund that students can use to do projects around campus to promote sustainability,” Kiefer said. “Since we started last fall, we blew our signature goal of 3,000 out of the water and we are resting at about 4,200 signatures by the beginning of December. We are continuing with that at this semester.”
Kiefer and her team have been working with Chancellor Randy Woodson and the sustainability office since the beginning of the project. Woodson voiced his support after discussing the specifics of the project and the five-year plan that students have drawn out.
“At first, I think the chancellor was a little resistant and was unsure of what that meant for our university especially with economics behind renewable energy and the North Carolina policy, but the more we discussed it, the more he came around to the idea without much opposition,” Kiefer said. “By the second time we met with him, he was pretty much flat out like ‘I completely agree with you all, I think this is something great we should do, it’s a matter of how much we could do with the current policies that are in place.’”
Christine Wood, an organizer with the Climate Reality Project who has been helping students at NC State throughout the process, spoke about Woodson’s support of the petition and student’s efforts to transform the campus’s energy policy.
“They were quite receptive, considering once they saw that this is something that they actually wanted,” Wood said. “I thought was a huge victory and, I think everyone at the climate reality project is really grateful for Chancellor Woodson and the sustainability office for listening to our concerns.”
Wood said that alongside petitioning, the organization is working on other projects in which interested students can participate.
“At NC State, we are pushing for that goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030,” Wood said. “But, another goal of ours is really just to educate a campus community about climate change and sustainability, and also to train future leaders and climate activists, particularly to grow the movement in general of climate justice and organizing.”
Kiefer described students who participate in the campaign as passionate and ready to take action.
“The students who come to our meetings are students who are really active and really want to make a difference not only on campus, but make a difference for our country and for our world,” Kiefer said. “They recognized that climate change is a very significant issue and that we are the first generation to really feel the effects, but we need to get out and do something.”
Students interested in participating in the Climate Reality Project can attend the next general body meeting on Feb. 27. More information about the petition and other events is available on the Climate Reality Project Campus Corps at the NC State Facebook page.
Solar panels installed by the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center sit outside of the Solar House at the McKimmon Center.
