Hampshire College offers free electric vehicle (EV) charging stations on campus to their community as a way to build and support the infrastructure required for large scale adoption of electric vehicles. EVs are a key part of the school’s longstanding commitment to sustainability.
Hampshire provides four 220-volt EV charging stations free to the community, powered partly by the college’s solar fields. There's a time limit of three hours, and employees can work together to make sure that all vehicles are able to be charged daily as needed.
Hampshire’s R.W. Kern Center is a model for what a sustainable, equitably built environment can be. Hampshire produces 100 percent of the building's energy with rooftop solar, treats its own wastewater, and maintains a nearby meadow of indigenous plants to host local wildlife.
“When people come to visit Hampshire College, we want them to see what a beautiful, accessible sustainable campus looks like,” says Sara Draper, director of the R.W. Kern Center. “For us, providing free electric vehicle charging on campus for students, employees, and visitors is a way that we as an organization can help build and support the infrastructure required for large scale adoption of electric vehicles.”
Some of Hampshire's other sustainability efforts include a bike share and repair program, an onsite campus farm and CSA, two large-scale solar fields with capacity to provide for all campus electrical needs, and a residential composting program. Many of these programs started as student projects or were championed by student groups. Over the next two years, Hampshire hopes to grow their charging capabilities, offer educational test drive events for the community, generate an annual sustainability report with a section on transportation, and transition campus fleet vehicles to electric, including the President’s personal vehicle.
“I've heard personally from staff that knowing that there are already chargers on campus is a big factor in them deciding to buy an electric vehicle,” says Sara. “We know our students will continue to innovate and advocate with us to build the future we need and we know that electric vehicles and sustainable transit are part of that future.”
Learn more about Hampshire College at hampshire.edu. To download the complete MassEVolves Hampshire College case study, click here.
MassEVolves is a statewide initiative conducted by Recharge America in partnership with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Environmental Protection. More information about the MassEVolves program is at massevolves.org.