The new academic facility that will house the Sustainable Technologies Center and our other cutting-edge workforce development programs is the result of the State of New Mexico’s increasingly favorable policy climate promoting the emergence of viable private sector companies based in the green economy and the tremendous support of the Santa Fe Community for this project.

Initial funding for the new academic facility housing the Sustainable Technologies Center derives from $7.5 million included in a $25 million bond issue approved overwhelmingly by Santa Fe voters for SFCC in October 2007, and $4.2 million included in a state general obligation bond issue to be voted on in November 2008. These funds will pay for construction of the initial stages of the facility.

The Sustainable Technologies Center and the facility to house it are important aspects of an institution-wide initiative to secure SFCC’s place as a leader in the greening of post-secondary education in New Mexico. We are poised to respond fully to Governor Bill Richardson’s Executive Orders requiring that state institutions adopt standards to implement the use of high performance energy efficient green building practices for all state-funded buildings. Further, in 2006 we installed more renewable energy upgrades to the campus, bringing two biomass boilers online, in addition to a solar thermal heating system already in place at our pool complex. We expanded and intensified our recycling and energy conservation efforts and are committed to attaining LEED silver status for our new Health Sciences Center, and for the facility that will house the Sustainable Technologies Center.

As an original signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, I am enthusiastic about the impact we can have now, and in the future, not just to reduce SFCC’s carbon footprint but to ready a new workforce to meet the monumental challenges we face, as an institution, as a Nation, as a civilization.

For more information, please contact Lou Schreiber, 505.428.1617, lschreiber@sfccnm.edu.

SFCC is an equal opportunity/equal access institution.
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