{"id":76149,"date":"2013-04-17T09:36:08","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=76149"},"modified":"2013-04-17T09:44:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T13:44:43","slug":"storrs-center-sustainability-praised-by-state-energy-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/04\/storrs-center-sustainability-praised-by-state-energy-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"Storrs Center Sustainability Praised by State Energy Commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dan<\/a>
Dan Esty, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, described Storrs Center as a model of smart growth development. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. Esty toured the new Storrs Center Tuesday, taking time out to praise the Mansfield Downtown Partnership for its commitment to building an environmentally sound and energy efficient community that should be a model for other towns to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pleasure to compete with the sounds of construction equipment that is building this complex into what I see will be a model of what the smart growth development of the future will look like \u2013 a mixed-use residential, commercial, walkable, bikable, electric car-driveable community \u2013 and it is a special joy to be here today to celebrate that,\u201d Esty said following an early morning tour of the complex along Dog Lane.<\/p>\n

Esty arrived in Storrs in his Chevrolet Volt, parking it neatly in one of four public charging stations in the Storrs Center parking garage. While a small crowd of town officials and others looked on, Esty used his parking ticket to activate the charger and plugged in a thick black power cable that dropped quietly from the ceiling.<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/a>
Dan Esty, right, DEEP commissioner, plugs in his electric car at the Storrs Center parking garage during a visit on April 16. At left is Daniel Shanahan of Control Modules of Enfield. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dan Shanahan of Control Module Industries of Enfield said the dual parking ticket-charger activation technology was especially consumer friendly and \u201cthe first of its kind system in the world.\u201d Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power which donated charging stations to the town of Mansfield and other communities across the state as part of a research project, said the Level 2 chargers supply 240 volts and can fully charge a vehicle in about four hours.<\/p>\n

One of the Chevrolet Volts charging in the garage Tuesday belonged to Hertz, which offers the electric vehicle as part of its small fleet of cars available to UConn students and visitors through the company\u2019s Hertz On Demand<\/a> car share program.<\/p>\n

Mansfield Mayor Betsy Paterson said the town\u2019s five public charging stations \u2013 four in the Storrs Center garage and one near the local community center \u2013 support the community\u2019s vision and commitment to environmental sustainability. Paterson noted that an 83-kilowatt solar array on top of the Mansfield Community Center currently supplies about a third of the center\u2019s electrical needs, and the new parking garage is constructed to allow for the installation of a photovoltaic energy system on the upper level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate the day when a solar carport on top of the garage will support the electrical needs of the building and its four charging stations,\u201d Paterson said.<\/p>\n

\"Provost<\/a>
Provost Mun Choi speaks at Storrs Center, as Dan Esty, DEEP commissioner, and Mansfield Mayor Betsy Paterson look on. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn Provost Mun Choi praised Esty, Paterson, and others for their environmental stewardship and pledged the University\u2019s full commitment toward developing a more sustainable community. UConn is a member of the independent, non-profit Mansfield Downtown Partnership, along with the town of Mansfield, local business owners, and members of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a university, we are committed partners to the town of Mansfield,\u201d said Choi. \u201cDuring the past several years, we\u2019ve instituted programs like a fuel cell microgrid that powers UConn\u2019s Depot Campus. We recently started a water reclamation plant that recycles a half million gallons of water a day. We also have a new major in environmental studies so our students can become leaders in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese programs, we believe, are critical not only for putting into practice our belief in environmental stewardship but for making a difference for future generations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/a>
Cynthia van Zelm, executive director of the Mansfield Downtown Partnership. UConn is a member of the partnership, along with the town of Mansfield, local business owners, and members of the community. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cynthia van Zelm, executive director of the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, said sustainability was a key part of the Storrs Center project from the very beginning. Eventually, the new Storrs Center will include an \u201cintermodal transportation center\u201d that will provide stops for UConn, local, and regional buses, and a prominent bike storage and locker program. The transportation center will \u201cadd to the tradition in Mansfield to provide accessible alternative modes of transportation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking forward to the next stage of the Storrs Center that will continue to promote an economic and environmentally sustainable downtown for residents and visitors to enjoy,\u201d van Zelm added.<\/p>\n

Esty stressed that the Storrs Center project and others like it are not strictly about electric vehicles, natural gas vehicles, or other new technologies that protect the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about choice,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about flexibility. It\u2019s about what we call mobility. And that\u2019s the ability for some people to walk here, some people to drive here, some people to take a shuttle bus. It\u2019s really ensuring that in the future we don\u2019t have the kind of dependency on a car that we had in the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEEP Commissioner Dan Esty described the new Storrs Center as a model of smart growth development during a visit on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":76121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-76149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 16:17:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76173,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149\/revisions\/76173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/76121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76149"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=76149"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=76149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}