Colin High: 2009 Eco-Hero

By Claudia Kern

Last year our congregation participated in the UU Ministry for Earth initiative to honor congregational Eco-Heroes by recognizing the life-long environmental commitment of Bill Martin.

This year Colin High was recognized at our Earth Day service as our newest eco-hero. He is an environmental consultant, specializing in renewable energy, climate protection, and sustainability. For many years he taught environmental science at Dartmouth College and Columbia University. He worked with his colleague Jim Hornig to build the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth until it became a Department in the 1990’s. During that time, he also developed foreign study programs in Environmental Studies in Kenya and in Russia.

In the 1980’s, Colin co-founded Resource Systems Group, Inc, an environmental and transportation consulting company in White River Junction, VT. The company has grown from a group of three to over thirty employees in several branches. In 2008, Colin became a Lead Verifier for the National Carbon Registry, and his company was one of the first to become a Carbon Reporter in the new program designed to report and verify greenhouse gas emissions in the Cap and Trade system.

In the UUCUV, Colin helped found our Green Sanctuary and is a keen participant and leader in activities such as facilitating discussion courses, doing energy audits, weatherizing the Meeting House, and building the Spirit in Nature Path, not to mention giving wonderful Earth Day sermons. In our District and through participation in UU Ministry for Earth projects, Colin has also been an active participant in denominational green faith activities. Without his input, UU General Assembly would not be a green event, and his help was invaluable in passing the powerful Statement of Conscience on Climate Change.

He is a founding board member of Vermont Interfaith Power and Light, and this year he is helping found the New Hampshire Interfaith Power and Light.

At his former home in Lyme, NH, he planted and maintained an organic apple orchard–an almost impossible feat. With his wife, Mardy, he moved to Enfield in 2005, to a green, energy-efficient home which they designed and built. Colin is also a member of the Enfield Shaker Museum’s preservation committee, where he is working in very innovative ways to weatherize the Great Stone Dwelling, making it more sustainable and better able to welcome overnight visitors year round.

Colin has a tremendous capacity for original thinking. He recently wrote a white paper that shows how the cost of using renewable energy to generate electricity has long been seriously overestimated, and that paper is beginning to change minds in the US Department of Energy, for which he consults.

Often working late into the night at his computer to finish a grant application, a piece of work, or even a sermon, he is a model of dedication. Colin is ever eager to engage in conversations about “turning the ship� to avert catastrophic climate change, generously giving his time and energy to people and organizations that need help of the green kind. His hope and passion for leaving a viable planet to the next generation are an inspiration to all of us.

UUCUV has nominated Colin for the annual UU Ministry for Earth Guardian of the Future Award that is announced every year at General Assembly.