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. April came to the Upper Valley in the fall of 2016 to run the Revers Center for Energy, Sustainability, and Innovation at Tuck. She brought with her extensive experience in renewable energy, specifically with the Department of Energy (DOE) and Obama White House. According to Yolanda Baumgartner, Co-Chair of Sustainable Hanover:
I believe it was winter 2017 when I met April at a Dartmouth meeting. She was part of the campus committee that produced the 2017 Green Future report which in its time was a HUGE step forward for Dartmouth. We chatted about Sustainable Hanover. She seemed interested enough that I invited her to a meeting, and boy was I amazed when she came!
April joined Sustainable Hanover (SH) first as a volunteer. With obvious talents and expertise, she quickly became the Town’s part-time Director of Sustainability. She supported and became an important liaison with Dartmouth during the Ready for 100 Campaign and connected SH with 3Degrees, consultants who provided a path for our work towards 100% renewable electricity. According to former Town Manager, Julia Griffin:
April had a relationship with 3Degrees through Dan Kalafatas who is a Dartmouth alum and she knew they might be ideal to help us. Boy was she correct.....Kourtney was a huge help and the work that both she and Jessica did to help us come to a decision as to how to proceed was really valuable guidance.
During her tenure, April brought to SH two teams of Tuck students. The first researched possible geographic locations in town for what became the largest municipal solar array in NH. She also helped create the proposal to develop solar on Town sites that enabled greater than 95% municipal operations to be offset by the generation of on site electricity. The second team researched Power and Purchase Agreements (PPAs) as well as Virtual Power and Purchase Agreements (VPPAs), providing results and recommendations to the Town’s largest power consumers.
April supervised important work of summer interns and connected SH with faculty at Dartmouth who provided valuable advice on our communications (Kevin Keller, Professor of Marketing) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (Matthew Delmont, Professor of History) efforts. Griffin comments:
Given her access to cutting edge work being performed worldwide wearing her Tuck Revers hat, she continually brought opportunities to us to consider. She helped to keep us all energized and focusing well beyond the UV.
Last but not least, April was critical in envisioning, establishing, implementing, and guiding the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire (CPCNH). This included serving as the first Board Chair and heading the successful search for its first CEO. Through these efforts, community power came to Hanover in the spring of 2023 providing all residents and small businesses access to 100% renewable electricity. In addition, Brian Callnan, CEO of the CPCNH, recently reported that since its launch, Hanover Community Power has saved retail electricity customers $306,000 and added $139,000 to a reserve that Hanover can use in the future to stabilize rates as well as invest in efficiency and renewable energy projects. Griffin remembers:
April's expertise, connections and knowledge of the national organizations involved in sustainability and renewable energy (e.g., NREL (National Renewal Energy Laboratory), RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute), WRI (World Resources Institute), etc.) really helped Hanover punch way above our small community weight in terms of access to resources, training and technical support.
In addition to her intelligence, expertise, and resources, April was a beloved colleague with positive energy and warm enthusiasm. We are enormously grateful for her contributions, sad to see her go, and wish her every success.
