HIGH-ENERGY GRADS HARNESS SOLAR POWER
Brian Kolenda, Leah Stokes
and Matto Mildenberger
Class of 2007
Photography: Geoff George
To drive new industries like solar energy, “you need to have investment in them. Universities are places of change, momentum, research – it's a really great place to do it.”
– Leah Stokes
May 2008 - Brian Kolenda, Matto Mildenberger and Leah Stokes were instrumental in reducing Trinity's energy use, but their own energy seems boundless.
“In our first year, Brian and I would joke about building a windmill on Trinity’s back soccer field,” says Mildenberger, with a laugh. Instead, the two started a conservation campaign at Trinity to persuade students living in residence to cut back on their use of power and hot water. Later, after Stokes joined them, the pilot program was expanded and christened “Rewire.” Now used in offices and residence buildings across the U of T campus, the initiative has so far reduced energy use by about 10 per cent wherever it has been introduced.
Putting up a windmill on the back field was a joke, but generating power on the Trinity College campus might not be as outlandish as it seems. Last year, Kolenda, Mildenberger and Stokes proposed a plan to put solar panels on the roof of the Larkin Building, and in 2007 the Student Capital Campaign Committee approved $250,000 in funding for the plan.
The three estimate that the solar array could produce between 70,000 and 90,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The College would enter into an agreement with the Ontario Power Authority to sell the power at a favourable rate, producing a potential annual revenue stream of $29,000 to $38,000. Part of the resulting income would be designated to create bursaries for Trinity students.
Installation is a big up-front cost (and further donors are being sought), but Stokes says being an early adopter puts Trinity in a leadership position. In order to drive new industries like solar energy, she says, “you need to have investment in them. Universities are places of change, momentum, research – it's a really great place to do it.”
The three graduated from Trinity in June 2007, and together they have established an environmental consulting agency, Adapt Environmental Inc., that advises companies and non-profits about their environmentally sustainable options. “The idea is to help small and medium-sized organizations green their operations in whatever way they can,” says Kolenda. “From quantifying their greenhouse gas emissions to greening their day-to-day operations – how can they reduce their environmental impact?”
Kolenda is now studying law at Queen’s University, so he often works remotely, while Mildenberger and Stokes run things in Toronto. They’re also on their way to graduate school: Mildenberger will be pursuing a master’s degree in the fall of 2008, focussing on climate change and food, while Stokes is moving to New York to begin a master’s of public administration program at Columbia University, with an emphasis on sustainability.
Having witnessed the College’s dramatic drive to conserve energy in recent years, Mildenberger is excited at the prospect of a new major project like a solar array. “Trinity is an incredible place,” he says, “because when students and the administration believe in something, they have an incredible ability to get it done.”
– Graham F. Scott
