Two environmental studies students create City of Biddeford website on sustainable energy alternatives

Two students in the University of New England's environmental studies program have worked with the City of Biddeford to develop a website that will provide a single source of information on sustainable energy.

The idea for the project originated with Owen Grumbling, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, who is a member of Biddeford's Energy Conservation Commission. The project was supervised by Biddeford Environmental Codes Officer Brian Phinney.

The Website
Dyleski and Stratton focused on the most relevant ways municipalities can be energy efficient and decided on eight categories: solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, hydropower, weatherization, transportation, electricity and lighting, and water conservation.

The website has gathered together reference information and case studies on cities, including Biddeford, that have made use of sustainable energy alternatives. It also does payback analyzes, showing how long it takes to recover the initial cost of the energy saving investments.

In addition, the website provides information on low-cost options that cities and towns can undertake that require only small investments but that have an immediate impact, such as replacing light bulbs and ballasts and installing energy saving vending misers into vending machines.

The site also highlights how larger sustainability projects can be financed by municipalities with no impact on property taxes, such as the $1.4 million investment Biddeford made in energy efficiencies that are being paid for solely through energy savings.

"This internship not only increased my awareness on varying types of energy efficiencies but it also gave me the opportunity to create a difference in the community," Stratton said.  "By constructing this website I felt that I was actually using my education and spreading it to raise awareness as to what each individual and organization can do to decrease their impact on the environment."

UNE's Green Learning Community
Grumbling noted that "Brittany and Kaitlyn agreed that the Green Learning Community, our interdisciplinary first-year program, helped them, as strangers, be able to collaborate well and helped them apply their learning actively in a professional way to meet an environmental need."

The students and the city are currently putting finishing touches on the website and testing it before going live.