Want to help Union cut its carbon dioxide emissions? Don’t eat beef on Mondays, drive less, plant trees on campus or turn down the thermostat.
That’s what students in Jeffrey D. Corbin’s Environmental Studies class recommend as a result of being challenged to figure out how the College can shrink its carbon footprint.
According to student research, Union emitted between 19,500 and 28,000 metric tons of the greenhouse gas last year – the equivalent of the carbon dioxide released by 7,100 tailpipes during a typical year of driving.
“Last year’s students cataloged the emissions,” said Corbin, assistant professor of biology. “This year’s students looked at six different areas of Union’s operations – dining, purchasing, student travel, faculty travel, waste and recycling, and energy consumption – and set goals to reduce emissions in those areas.”
Their suggestions, across all areas, amount to a 13 percent cut. As a result, Corbin said, “We hope to reduce Union’s emissions 13 percent by 2010.”
Seventy-four percent of the target reduction would come from paring campus energy consumption. Jyoti Bankapur ’09 and Kate Murphy ’10 believe this can be accomplished easily by using hand dryers instead of paper towels, turning down thermostats in dorms and installing more efficient vending machines.
“There are 27 vending machines on campus now, and if we replace them with Energy Star machines, they’ll use 50 percent less energy,” said Bankapur, who joined her classmates at a poster presentation at the F.W. Olin Center Wednesday. “These machines would, over their lifetimes, save a total of $9,000.”
Cooling the dorms, the students say, is an even easier way to make a difference.
“We’re talking about turning thermostats down three degrees, so it’s not much,” Murphy said. “And besides, 90 percent of the students want the temperature lowered. It’s hot in the dorms.”
Another significant and relatively hassle-free way to meet the “13-by-2010” goal is no-beef Mondays.
“If we replace beef with chicken one day of the week, we decrease the total carbon emissions from dining from 590.9 tons to 521.8 tons,” Erin Delman ’12 said.
“Cows are big methane producers, and then there’s all the energy and fuel that’s used in slaughtering, processing and shipping,” Rachel Guralnick ’11 added, explaining why cows are so costly in terms of carbon. “Also, grazing land forces deforestation.”
Gurlanick and her classmates are excited about their suggestions because they’ll be taken seriously. In 2007, President Stephen C. Ainlay signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which formally commits Union to reducing and eventually eliminating its global warming emissions.
“The students know this is real,” Corbin said. “They’re used to helping make Union greener.”
To learn more about the College’s green initiatives, visit U Sustain here.