Students Showcase Experimental Dance, Data Visuals, and More at National Energy Conference
Tuesday, February, 25th, 2025 Curricular Engagement Decarbonization Events Home Slider News Student Programming Sustainable CORE Fellows
Picture this: a room full of engineers watching an interpretive dance meant to mimic energy dispersing across Tufts’ campus. This is just one of several creative community engagement ideas that Tufts students have tested on campus and recently shared with energy professionals from across the country.
Tufts students network with energy professionals during the 2025 Campus Energy Conference.
Tufts was an honorary cohost of the International District Energy Association’s annual Campus Energy Conference that took place in Boston in the first week of February. Here, Tufts students, staff, and faculty connected with energy professionals, shared research and project findings, and deepened their understanding of sustainable energy solutions. Highlights from this week-long conference include:
- Students studying engineering, environment, and policy networked with professionals working in the sustainable energy field, discovering how they can help solve challenges facing the transition to carbon-free energy.
- Four undergraduate students shared results from their campus energy projects as inspiration for energy managers to bring back to their university campuses (see below).
- Andrea Woelfel, Manager of Plant Operations & Maintenance Planning, led energy professionals on a tour of the Medford/Somerville campus energy plant to showcase its use of energy-efficient cogeneration to create electricity, heating, and cooling for campus.
Eric Hines, Professor of the Practice in Civil and Environmental Engineering, presenting on strategies for transformative engineering education.
- Erin Hines, Professor of the Practice in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dano Weisbord, Chief Sustainability Officer, shared lessons learned from using Tufts campus as a testbed for transformative energy and engineering education. Including having an engineering capstone class design a campus ground-source heating system.
Student Project Spotlight
Here’s a summary of what four Tufts students shared about their campus energy projects with conference participants.
Sparking Connections Through Community
Camille Smokelin, A25, and Sierra Moll, A25, present on community engagement for students to learn about campus energy.
What is it? Student-led initiatives that connect students with how energy is created and used across campus.
Why does it matter? To make Tufts’ decarbonization strategy more accessible to students and easier to understand.
Who’s involved? Camille Smokelin, A25, and Sierra Moll, A25 – both Sustainable CORE Fellow Coordinators and Environmental Studies majors – lead creative ways of engaging student with the energy efficiency features of the Medford/Somerville Central Energy Plant through tours, lectures, and performances.
What makes it unique? Camille worked with Senior Lecturer Renata Celichowska to introduce a new class where students explore environmental topics through the arts. The semester concluded with an outdoor dance performance that mimicked the sights and sounds of the Central Energy Plant and then traced the path of energy across campus.
Capturing a Snapshot of Tufts Emissions
Will Garrett, A25, shares his findings on how to make accessible emissions data visualizations.
What is it? A visual representation of Tufts greenhouse gas emissions that gives a comprehensive snapshot of our emissions history.
Why does it matter? It provides an accessible baseline understanding of where we are now to help coordinate efforts across campus as we work to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Who’s involved? Will Garrett, A25, a Sustainable Solutions Fellow and Math and Environmental Studies major, synthesized data visualization research to find a model of displaying Tufts emissions data that is understandable for all audiences.
What’s next? Will is combing through complex spreadsheets of emissions data to build a data visualization that can be used as an educational tool.
Decarbonizing What We Purchase
Bergen Kane, E26, presents her recommendations for quantifying emissions from Tufts’ supply chain.
What is it? Developing ways to quantify emissions from the production of purchased goods and services.
Why does it matter? Supply chain emissions for products that Tufts purchases, also called “scope 3 emissions”, are extremely difficult to calculate, but account for a large part of Tufts emissions. We need a way to understand these emissions to reduce them.
Who’s involved? Bergen Kane, A26, a Sustainable Solutions Fellow and Engineering major, found that about half of Tufts’ vendors, mostly large companies, currently have climate commitments such as emissions reduction goals. This semester she is researching tools for Tufts to calculate the emissions associated with the products that Tufts purchases to better understand Tufts true impact.
What makes it unique? Instead of suggesting that Tufts break ties with vendors that don’t have climate commitments, Bergen is instead approaching the issue with an environmental justice lens. She identified that small, local vendors have less capacity to focus on emissions reduction and recommends that the university supports rather than penalize these vendors.