Today is blog action day, and the topic is global climate change. The idea seems to be that if lots of people blog about the same topic on the same day, we'll reach a wider audience. So, I'm going to use this opportunity to get the word out about one thing that Davidson is doing to tread a little more lightly on the planet.

More than one quarter of Davidson's greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of natural gas to make steam, which is piped all over campus to heat buildings and hot water. There is a network of pipes that connects most "up the hill" buildings with the central boiler plant, which is in the basement of the College laundry. That tall smoke stack you've always wondered about is for releasing excess steam when we have made more steam than we need.

And excess steam is part of the problem. We have 3 boilers, 2 large and 1 medium. They are most efficient when they are operating at capacity. Unfortunately, that capacity might be creating more steam than we need, thus burning natural gas unnecessarily.

Additionally, the boilers, which have diligently served this campus since 1964, take up to 4 hours to produce the steam. That means that someone has to estimate how much heat and hot water we will need 4 hours from now, and tell the boilers to make that much. If it's too much, we're burning extra gas. If it's too little, you might wind up with a cold shower.

It just so happens that the folks that run our boilers are very good at their jobs. Thankfully, we rarely have significant shortages or surpluses of steam. But the fact remains that our 1964 system is less efficient than those on the market today.

To combat these issues, Davidson has undertaken a major renovation to its central boiler plant. Two of the three boilers are being replaced with several smaller, high-efficiency boilers. Smaller boilers means that we can use a combination of boilers to meet our needs, thus reducing waste. Also, these boilers only take 20 minutes to make steam, so estimating the steam demand of campus will be much less of a problem.

It is estimated that this renovation will decrease the boilers use of natural gas by an estimated 20%. That will yield at least a 3.8% reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. Not only that, we are installing a steam turbine that will be able to turn extra steam into electricity that can be used, instead of letting off the steam through the smoke stack.

3.8% may not sound like much, but it's one slice of the pie out of the way. Now if I could just get students to take shorter showers, then we'd really make some progress... ;-)

Michael Levi, the David M. Rubenstein for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke last night as the first in the Bank of America lecture series. His expertise is in the intersection of energy, climate change, and national security.

First, some interesting facts about global energy use:

• 85% of Iran's government budget is from oil sales.
• An MIT study estimates that if we continue on, business as usual, global temperatures will rise 9.4 degrees F in the next 100 years.
• 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity. 80% of them are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• It is estimated that to maintain business as usual energy use in the US, we need to invest $26 trillion in our energy system.
• The US accounts for 21% of the world's energy consumption. We only account for 5% of the world's population.
• 83% of the energy use increases that will occur in the next 10 years will come from developing nations.

Levi identified three main areas of the energy debate: security, climate, poverty. The first, security, is mostly a function of our foreign dependence on oil and other energy resources. The main issue, according to Levi, is that even if we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, another country will probably pick up our slack. So, the countries that we don't want to give our money to will get it somewhere else.

In terms of solving the climate crisis, Levi recommends a portfolio approach that includes nuclear, carbon capture and storage, renewables and biofuels, efficiency, and perhaps even technologies that we haven't developed yet.

And finally, the poverty issue really comes down to the fact that there are 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 per day, and most of them don't have access to electricity. Without electricity, many people spend a large part of their day collecting wood, which leaves little time for education or making a living. Additionally, electricity is a fundamental component of healthcare from powering doctor's tools to refrigerating medicines. Thus, without electricity, raising people out of poverty becomes extremely difficult. 

It is clear that there is no one answer, but the only solution that has positive outcomes for security, climate, and poverty is energy efficiency. If energy efficient technologies were available everywhere, global oil consumption would go down and greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced. Not only that, one efficient lightbulb will go a lot farther in a poor community than a single incandescent.

So go home and change out your light bulbs, install a programmable thermostat, and re-weather strip your doors!

The Sustainable Living blog has just gotten a little more colorful! I finally figured out how to use the fun little icons that College Communications developed for the blog. I managed to add them to the previous posts, but here's what they stand for, as a reference:

Student Involvement

Davidson Initiatives

Alternative Energy

Campus Facilities

So I was thinking...what if everyone in the US switched to a hybrid car or SUV? I know it's a little crazy, and there are all sorts of issues with that, but let's just assume that it's possible for a minute.

Currently, there are 135,399,945 cars and 105,774,112 "trucks" (SUVs and pickup trucks) on the road. At 22 mpg and 17.5 mpg, respectively, travelling an average of 12,000 miles per year, these vehicles use 146.4 billion gallons of gas, emitting 1.4 billion tons of CO2 equivalent.*

Hybrids, on the other hand, get about 50 mpg, and hybrid SUVs run around 30 mpg. At 12,000 miles per year, they would use only 74.8 gallons of gas, and emit only 725.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year. This is a difference of 694 tons of CO2e!

What does that mean, exactly?

694 tons CO2e is equivalent to:

• 12% of total US greenhouse gas emissions**
• Taking 126 million cars off the road entirely, that's over half of the US fleet.***
• Taking almost 94 million homes off the grid.****
• Producing 49.4 BILLION cases of Fat Tire beer. That's enough beer to sustain Davidson's campus for about 25 million years.*****

Even though it is borderline absurd to even consider what would happen if everyone drove a hybrid, it's kind of cool. Who knows, if you drive one, maybe your friend will buy one...and then their friend...and then their friend...before you know it we'll all be doing it.

*All fuel efficiency and milage statistics are from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Emissions standards can be found at the US EPA.
**US greenhouse gas emissions are about 5,752,289 thousand metric tons CO2e according to Wikipedia.
***According to the US EPA, passenger cars emit about 5.5 tons CO2e per year.
****Guess what? Data from the US EPA.
*****Based on this estimate of the carbon emissions of Fat Tire Beer.

These are the projects that I've heard about this week that right now I can only dream about. Hopefully soon we can make some of them a reality...I know some of these may not ever happen. Let me know what you think!

• Sustainability champions awards--for those power houses of sustainability who have made this movement what it is
• A strategic plan for the year--what do I/we want to get accomplished?
• A greener athletics department--so many ways to go with this one
• "Listening Tour"--meeting with campus big wigs to talk about sustainability and what they'd like to see happen
• Course credit--for any number of sustainability research projects
• Sustainability training--on all kinds of topics from installing rain gardens to doing energy audits
• Ecological Preserve inventory--record the abundance and diversity of flora and fauna so we can advocate for its preservation
• Focus the Nation--teach-ins, concerts, panel discussions, etc
• Sustainability summit--bring together as many faculty, staff, and students as we can for a major sustainability brainstorming session, the ultimate goal being mini action plans for each department on campus to be implemented by the folks in that department
• "LEED" dorm rooms--a certification program for students who make efforts to have green dorm rooms
• More bike racks
• Student driving habits survey--how many students drive to class, why do they do it, and what would make them stop?
• Bike share--like our current community bike system but with better accountability
• Green RA/Hall Counselor dorm rooms--to set an example for their residents
• Viral advertising--let's get a ton of coal, put it in a truck bed, park it on campus and tell people what that is equivalent to and how many of those Davidson uses per day
• Student survey--what behaviors are you willing to change, why haven't you changed them already, and what will make them change?
• Green teams--SWAT team style, infiltrate the buildings on campus to check for efficient lighting, power strips, etc. Come up with a list of areas that need work and get the changes made.
• Visit Warren Wilson--they are hosting day long tours of their campus, especially for students. Let's go learn!
• Better Green Grants program--faculty/staff mentors for each project, small grants for easy-to-implement projects
• Student employees--focusing on 4 areas: outreach, communication, data collection, research
• Living learning labs--Commons garden, compost, biodiesel, local food promoters
• Senior class gift--to create a sustainability fund to make Green Grants bigger and better
• Themed alumni giving/major gifts--put big projects on a list and make it available to alumni, just in case someone is feeling generous
• SolTrain--a trailer that has a 1kW solar PV array on it with a battery to power outdoor events like concerts and movies (the name belongs to Pomona)
• Sustainability map--a self-guided walking tour of our sustainability initiatives
• Community service projects--installing rain gardens, doing energy upgrades in low-income neighborhoods, etc.

Something pique your interest? Email me!

The workshop was given by Leith Sharp of Harvard University and Julie Newman of Yale University, who have each been involved in sustainability for more than a decade. The focus was on how to define the relationships between the earth, individual organizations, and infrasturcture. They are working on a framework to do that, and this is the first of several workshopping sessions they will have to further refine the theory.

The workshop really helped me identify where Davidson is in the process of becoming a truly sustainable institution. We have accomplished a lot of the initial "baby steps" that are needed to get sustainability started--it's on President Ross' agenda, we have partners in multiple departments, and we've implemented some successful projects.

In fact, we're actually on the brink of the second "level" of the framework, where there is a significant expansion of the people involved, a proliferation of projects, an increase in sustainability policies, and a broad commitment across the whole campus. So what do we need to get there?

1. True sustainability: Superficial greening may look good, but it won't get us where we want to go.
2. Engaged individuals: Community members who have internalized the problem and their role in it. They need to feel empowered to take action, to feel supported in those action, and to feel confident that those actions will have rewards.
3. Implementation: A process to undertake a new activity, from its inception all the way through to implementation and monitoring.
4. Institutionalization: A process to take those activities and make them a part of the College, independent of individuals. We need policies, frameworks, and fixed agenda items.
5. Evaluation & reform: What is in the way of our progress, and how do we overcome those things?

Well, now I have a list...off I go!

The opening keynote address of the Greening of the Campus Conference in Indianapolis, IN was given by Jerome Ringo, the first African American to chair a major conservation advocacy organization. As the president of Apollo Alliance, he speaks for environmental justice, renewable energy, and green jobs. He opened with Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" video.

He also gave us a few interesting tidbits, like "2/3 of African Americans live within 30 miles of a landfill," and "poor people spend more on electricity, up to 50% of their income, than rich people, because rich people build efficient homes."

But most of his talk was about hope for the future, about what we can do to make a change. Most of that focused on the need to create green jobs. He made it clear that pursuing clean energy goals would create these jobs. The problem is education and training people for these jobs. There are especially good opportunities in community colleges and technical schools.

He was energetic, positive, and even inspiring. This is the kind of message we need--the facts paired with real solutions and a message of hope. As Jerome so wonderfully pointed out, 'we're not just treehuggers--we believe it is our moral obligation to restore and protect this planet for our children's children's future. This is our time. This is our opportunity.'

When I left Davidson on Saturday morning, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by work. I quickly traded those feelings in favor of the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. While winding through lush evergreen forest, windows down, watching my hybrid generate electricity on the downhills, I saw the following billboard:

"Yes, coal. Clean, carbon neutral coal."

Shortly after that I passed an enormous facility with several football fields worth of 50-foot piles of coal. Oh, the irony.

Now I'm not saying that "clean coal" is impossible, or that coal cannot be a part of the solution to the global energy crisis, but carbon neutral coal? Really?

Let's put up some truthful clean energy billboards...

This week I am attending the Greening of the Campus Conference in Indianapolis, IN. I decided to take the motor pool Toyota Prius hybrid, which I consider pretty exciting. Less than an hour into my drive I realized it was more than exciting.

For those unfamiliar with hybrids, they have a gasoline engine that is augmented by an electric engine that also acts as a generator. So sometimes the engine runs on gasoline, and other times it runs on the electric engine. The electric engine also generates electricity when the car is moving (especially during braking), so it doesn't need to be plugged in when you get home. The Prius also optimizes every part of the car, using lightweight materials, more efficient tires, and a smaller (read: more efficient) engine.

My favorite part about the car is the real-time feedback on whether the car is generating or using electricity, the current fuel efficiency (in mpg), and the average fuel efficiency for that tank of gas. I took this as a personal challenge to achieve the highest mpg for my trip that I could.

At first I was having some trouble, but I quickly figured out that if I stayed between 65 and 70 miles per hour I could stay around 50 mpg. So, I set up cruise control on settled in for a long drive. All in all, here's how I fared:

Davidson, NC to Indianapolis, IN (via Columbus, OH), 588 miles: 54.6 mpg, 10.75 gallons

Here's how my personal vehicle (Subaru Outback) would have fared on the same trip: 30 mpg, 19.6 gallons

Well, I'm completely sold, and excited to make it back to Davidson on just 11 more gallons of gas.