Date: Immediate, June 3, 2013
Contact: Rebecca Keister, 401-456-4679, rkeister@ric.edu
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE INSTALLS
FIRST EV CHARGING STATION
PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 3, 2013 – Rhode Island College has installed a charging station for electric cars at its Keefe Transportation Center as part of the college’s focus on creating a greener college campus. The charging station supplies electric energy for recharging plug-in electric vehicles including all electric-cars and plug-in hybrids.
“With electric cars, you’re not burning fossil fuels,” said Jim Murphy, sustainability coordinator at the college. “They eliminate the carbon and soot and everything that gets into the atmosphere that we breathe. It covers many different areas in terms of not having to transport gas or oil and the elimination of pollution that is a result of using fossil fuels.”
The EV station is the final component for the Keefe Transportation Center, which also includes a bus shelter, Zipcars and rental bicycles. The center was constructed to provide shelter for commuters in inclement weather and to decrease the number of cars on campus.
The shelter was developed through the collaboration of RIC and the New England Institute of Technology (NEIT). Richard Gouse, president of NEIT, asked architectural students at the institute to take on the challenge of designing a bus shelter for RIC.
The students were grouped into teams and each team presented their designs before a RIC panel. Once a final design was selected, Saccoccio & Associates, an architectural firm in Cranston, RI, agreed to refine the specs pro bono.
The new EV station and other green initiatives, including the development of green and cost-saving initiatives by campus offices and divisions related to waste reduction, recycling, energy efficiency, green cleaning and sustainable planting, were established as part of a campus-wide effort to make RIC a model campus for sustainable practices and programs.
In addition a series of green and sustainability studies programs have been developed for those entering the workforce to undergraduate and post-graduate study including Green Business Practices, Urban and Community Farming and the Sustainable Communities Initiative.
