Newly solarized Kroka Expeditions structures their semester programs to teach self-sufficiency, community building, and wilderness skills. Both semester programs start out on their campus in southwestern New Hampshire. Students learn how to use land sustainably. Students and staff at Kroker grow fruit and vegetables in their garden, and raise cows and chickens for dairy and meat.
Kroka is also working to become a carbon neutral and zero-waste organization. They started improving their 200 year-old farmhouse and administrative building to be the first Living Building in New Hampshire. It includes 37 PV solar panels, installed by ReVision Energy this past summer.
"On our campus, we have perfect southern exposure, and installing PV panels was just on piece of the puzzle in divorcing our infrastructure from fossil fuels while investing in clean energy sources. We plan to install micro-hydro and wind systems eventually, and are proud to share our sustainably produced energy with our community by tying into the grid," Hannah Billian, staff member, said.
Billian said they teach children about energy sustainability so that they may learn and become invested in pursuing sustainability work in their future. Billian also said with the money saved by using this system, Kroka is able to reinvest funds into their scholarship program, bringing more community members to their programs so that they may participate in all that Kroka has to offer.
"Thanks to our partners at ReVision Energy as well as Hammond Climate Solutions, we were finally able to make this dream a reality". Misha Golfman and Lynne Boudreau, Founders of Kroka, have had a dream to solarize the entire campus.
Culled from JILL MCLAUGHLIN.
0 Comments