A Promising New Initiative for Hanover’s Large Energy Users
Sustainable Hanover is excited to have launched a new initiative to bring together the largest energy users in Hanover to share ideas and solutions for a more sustainable future. This group includes representation from Dartmouth College, Kendal at Hanover, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Hypertherm, Sheridan Printing, the Coop Food Stores, and the Town.
Hanover Hygiene Heroes
There are many clubs at Hanover High School that focus on helping to save our environment. One of the more notable clubs is the Hanover Hygiene Heroes, who have made it their goal to “relieve Hanover of its pollution, one week at a time.” The club began when students were on a lunch trip to the Co-op.
Successful Styrofoam Collection!
Thanks to everyone for contributing to the successful Hanover/Norwich Styrofoam/Lights collection on Saturday, January 25, 2025!
Intrepid volunteers including teens from Youth in Action and the Hanover High School Environmental Club, nonagenarians from Kendal, and all ages in-between braved the frigid temperature to get the job done! Through their efforts, they took in 253 loads brought by car and walk-ins.
Gail Gentes Appointed to Sustainable Hanover
At the February 10, 2025 meeting of the Town of Hanover’s Selectboard, Gail Gentes was appointed to a three year term on the Sustainable Hanover Committee.
Community Power Outperforms Expectations
Recent news from the Community Power Coalition of NH (CPCNH) contained some surprises. Community power programs, including our own Hanover Community Power (HCP), are surpassing expectations held in April 2023 when Hanover launched as one of ten communities in the first wave of CPCNH programs. Over the first 16 months, HCP customers saved $643,000 compared to what they would have spent for utility supplied electricity.
WHO KNEW Y-O-U Might NOT Know About Sustainable Hanover’s Many Interesting Articles With Info You Can Use?
One of Sustainable Hanover’s initiatives is to publish a short piece called a WHO KNEW every Tuesday in the Hanover listserv focusing on a wide range of topics that might be useful to you. Sustainable Hanover archives all these pieces accompanied by photos on its website.
Dartmouth Leads & Hanover Supports
Anyone driving through Hanover this summer has surely noticed the construction along East Wheelock, especially the once very deep and huge holes in front of the New Hampshire and Topliff dorms. “It looks like the College is building a subway system,” my husband commented.
Prominently displayed signs suggest otherwise. “Turning the corner from steam to hot water,” says one. “In the trenches to reach our goal,” says another. This construction is the initial stage of a $500m effort by Dartmouth to decarbonize.
Sustainable Hanover’s 15th Anniversary Celebration!
Hanover’s July 4th Independence Day Parade provided the perfect opportunity for the Sustainable Hanover Committee to celebrate the accomplishments achieved over the past 15 years.
Yard Sale 2024!
For the 13th year, dozens of local residents, having paid a small fee, gathered in the Dewey Lot to sell their excess stuff. In spite of an ominous weather forecast, the weather stayed fine. Many wonderful volunteers came together to help throughout the month, the few days before and especially on the big day.
Sustainable Hanover is Celebrating its 15th Anniversary!
Sustainable Hanover (SH) began in 2009 when the Hanover Select Board, citing “a growing body of evidence (that) suggests communities like Hanover must pay increasingly close attention to issues associated with climate change, peak oil consumption and sustainability”, decided to address this need by creating the Sustainable Hanover Committee (later renamed as SH). Hanover’s existing Recycling Committee was re-organized to become SH’s first task force. SH has grown tremendously over these 15 years.
The Co-op Has Big Goals for Reducing Its Carbon Footprint
Sustainable Hanover is always eager to hear about sustainability measures that local residents and businesses are planning and implementing.
Recently Nate Osheyack, Facilities Manager, and April Harkness, ESG Manager, for the Co-op Food Stores, spoke to the Sustainable Hanover Committee about the Co-op’s activities and plans to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, increase access to renewable energy, and reduce waste.
Center for Ecotechnology
At the April 4, 2024 meeting of the Sustainable Hanover Committee Abbey Massaro, Senior Waste Reduction Consultant representing the Center for Ecotechnology (CET), gave a presentation about a program developing sustainable practices for rural businesses and schools. CET, a non profit was founded in 1976 in Massachusetts with a focus on energy conservation. It has expanded its expertise and services to include waste related to food and deconstruction due to building projects and its geographical outreach to New England states.
Composting in Hanover
Hanover households have several options to avoid sending food waste to produce polluting gases in landfill. For residents with the space, backyard composting is an excellent way to recycle food scraps into a valuable soil resource. Interested in learning how to do this successfully?
Hanover’s First Director of Sustainability and Beloved Colleague Departs
It is with great sadness and gratitude that Sustainable Hanover bids farewell to April Salas as the first Director of Sustainability for the Town of Hanover.
Styrofoam Recycling
In collaboration with the The Norwich Solid Waste Committee, Sustainable Hanover’s Waste Reduction/Recycling Team held its second annual Styrofoam Collection on January 27, 2024 at the Richmond Middle School. It was, by many measures, a great success.
Better Bin Recycling App
Thanks to its Waste Reduction/Recycling team Sustainable Hanover has launched a new app to help residents stay informed and recycle more effectively. . The Hanover Betterbin app is specially designed for Town residents to provide up-to-date information on both of the local recycling options available to them: having Casella pick up their recyclables curbside on the prescribed weekday for their neighborhood, or dropping off their recycling at the Lebanon Solid Waste and Recycling Facility. When unsure whether a particular item can be recycled or is considered trash, app users can scan a photo of the UPC code on the item and get handling information.
EV Update: Workplace Charging
More and more people are driving EVs and need to charge them. Charging is most efficient when the car is parked for more than a few hours, so charging at home and at work are the best options. Some employees may not be able to charge at home, or the range of their EV may not cover both directions of their commute, so workplace charging is important.
Installing chargers will help meet your sustainability goals and may help recruit and retain employees.
Sustainable Hanover Retreat
Twenty-five Sustainable Hanover volunteers gathered at the home of Robin Kaiser and Peter Gish on Wed, October 18th to learn more about Hanover’s Sustainability Master Plan and share ideas as to how Sustainable Hanover can support that plan moving forward. Ably facilitated by our good friend, Sarah Brock of Vital Communities, this group included volunteers from the official Sustainable Hanover Town Committee as well as representatives from its several initiatives (energy, waste reduction/recycling, sustainable landscaping, energy, transportation, communications, 3C). Chris Kennedy who serves on both Sustainable Hanover and the Master Plan Advisory Committee introduced the main points in the draft of the Master Plan which was being released for community input that same day. Volunteers then broke up into subgroups to discuss first five year, then one year priorities for Sustainable Hanover moving forward.
Sustainable Hanover’s WHO KNEW?
Every Tuesday members of the SHC Community Climate Connections post a “Who Knew” article on the Hanover listserve (vitalcommunities.org/community-discussion-lists/.) These brief but informative features are a means by which all of us can take individual actions to address climate issues. Ultimately they are all published on the SHC website. Here are some examples
Window Dressers Update
The third Norwich/Hanover Window Dressers Build is now complete! This year the Norwich Congregational Church was host. 268 window inserts were made by 115 volunteers for forty-one households between September 29 and October 5. According to Window Dressers, one medium pine insert may save an average of 8.5 gallons of heating oil every year, for an estimated savings of $15 – $43 per year, depending on variations in fuel price.