UNITY, Maine, Oct. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels and adopt sustainability science as a focus for its academic programs has been nominated for an international award for its green leadership.

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Unity College is the only institution of higher learning from the United States to be nominated for the inaugural Responding to Climate Change (RTCC) Awards: 2013 Green University of the Year.  The inaugural RTCC Awards will be presented in Warsaw, Poland.  Details of the RTCC Awards are online at http://www.rtcc.org/2013/10/02/rtcc-2013-awards-green-university-of-the-year/.

Unity College's focus on sustainability science educates students to solve 21^st century environmental problems, including the mitigation of global climate change.

"That Unity College has been recognized internationally for its courageous leadership is validation of its vision for a sustainable future," noted President Stephen Mulkey.  He pointed to Unity College becoming the first institution of higher education in the United States to focus on sustainability science as an affirmative act of leadership that has resonance within the international community.

"Unity College is acting upon non-negotiable ethical imperatives," Mulkey said.  "Our environmental mission is critically important at a time when the sustainability of our planet hangs in the balance."

Dr. Melik Peter Khoury, Senior Vice President for External Affairs, sees the nomination as framing the day-to-day work of Unity College's entire community.

"This nomination is recognition of the hard work that faculty, staff and students do on a daily basis in service to Unity's environmental mission," noted Khoury.  "Our curricular focus on sustainability science is also providing a more effective model for environmental education.  We are training students not only for their first jobs, but for jobs in the growing green economy that have not yet been imagined."

In recent years Unity College has gained national attention for a variety of achievements including: its focus on sustainability science; its ground-breaking "green" innovations such as the award-winning TerraHaus, the first student residence on a college or university campus built to the Passive House standard, the most energy efficient building standard in the world; and for being the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels, igniting a growing national movement in higher education.

SOURCE Unity College

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