UC Students Offset Carbon Emissions

This is an article from the May 12th edition of The News Record about students planting trees in Sharonville to reduce the university's carbon footprint:

http://media.www.newsrecord.org/media/storage/paper693/news/2008/05/12/News/Students.Offset.Carbon.Emissions-3369045.shtml

NYTIMES Front Page

See this article about university students becoming more commited to sustainable living and reducing GHGs and what they are doing about it --

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/education/26green.html?ex=1369540800&en=7281078d1bde0fa2&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

This was on the front page of the New York Times yesterday!

University Quote

I just came across the following quote and thought it was really powerful. Universities can make a difference!

“You have 4,000 universities in the country spending $190 billion on goods and services (in 2001) annually. That’s greater than the GDP of all but 20 nations. If schools were practicing renewable energy and buying environmentally sound products, it would have a huge impact.”
—Anthony Cortese, President, Second Nature

Check out Higher Education in a Warming World for more.

How to talk to global warming skeptics

This seems to be a good and well organized set of info you can use to counter the nay-sayers to global warming.

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

Local Food Here Locally

Announcing the...
Central Ohio River Valley (CORV) Local Foods Initiative Eat Local Food Guide released for the 2008 Growing SeasonThe Central Ohio River Valley Local Foods Initiative (CORV) releases the 2008 Eat Local Food Guide featuring 63 local farms and 30 local farmers' markets this weekend. The guide will be debuted at Findlay Market on Saturday May 17th and Sunday May 18th and featured at the Enright Ridge Urban Eco Village Home and Garden Tour on Sunday the 18th."Eating locally grown and produced food has so many benefits - our food dollars stay in our local economy, I get to know the person growing my food and be sure the conditions in which it was raised. When I buy local food I support the health of the environment and of my family. This guide makes it easier to connect with local food sources", says Susan Miller-Stigler food guide contributer.The Central Ohio River Valley Local Foods Initiative is a grassroots effort to connect local community members with local farmers and fresh, healthy, local food. In this age of fast food, factory farms, and huge grocery stores that treat food as a mere commodity, we envision a vibrant, ecologically friendly, sustainable local food economy that treats food as a gift of the land. The project had its start when individuals passionate about local foods connected at an event at Imago Earth Center. The project is funded by a grant from Community Friends Meeting (Cincinnati) and other sponsors. Enright Ridge Urban Eco-Village is serving as the project's mentor.For a copy of the Central Ohio River Valley Eat Local Guide visitFindlay Market or Enright Ridge Urban Eco-Village this weekend orcontact Susan Miller-Stigler at 513-300-6832 orsusan@EatLocalcorv.org.Contact: Deborah JordanCentral Ohio River Valley (CORV) Local Foods Initiative513-251-2558deborah@EatLocalcorv.org

some good web resources

To calculate carbon emissions for different travel types (you can ignore the offsetting part):
http://www.nativeenergy.com/

Locally-produced and organics Farm to College program:
http://farmtocollege.org/

books on University Sustainability at UC Libraries

I would check these out or order them, but my library account is frozen (blush).
Can anyone else request them so we can use them as references for the document?
There's even one specifically on transportation issues.


Toor, Will
Transportation and sustainable campus communities : issues, examples, solutions / Will Toor, Spenser Havlick
Washington, D.C. : Island Press, c2004

Sustainability on campus : stories and strategies for change / edited by Peggy F. Barlett and Geoffrey W. Chase
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2004

M'Gonigle, R. Michael
Planet U : sustaining the world, reinventing the university / Michael M'Gonigle & Justine Starke ; illustrated by Briony Penn
Gabriola Island, BC : New Society Publishers, c2006

Creighton, Sarah Hammond
Greening the ivory tower : improving the environmental track record of universities, colleges and other institutions / Sarah Hammond Creighton
Cambridge, Mass : MIT Press, c1998

Univ. of Florida starts "Think Before You Ink" campaign

The University of Florida recently launched "Think Before You Ink," a campaign to reduce the amount of pages faculty, students, and staff print and/or copy on campus. The campaign has three separate parts: Save the Paper, Print to Web, and Printer Certification. Save the Paper is designed to reduce the waste and inefficiency associated with campus photocopies and printouts. Print to Web, which is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks, will encourage the use of the Internet and e-mail for distribution of items including newsletters and class materials. This initiative also calls for careful review of magazines, brochures and other written materials, to determine which publications may be candidates for conversion to Web or electronic format. Printer Certification, which is also scheduled to launch in the coming weeks, will require printers to be certified based on pricing, service, quality and sustainability practices. The Think Before You Ink campaign has also created the UF Green Team, a first-point-of-contact for any questions regarding sustainability. The Green Team will be comprised of volunteers from the various campus colleges and units, and will be trained in various sustainability practices.

http://ufcn.urel.ufl.edu/ink/

Princeton Review to add green rating of colleges

The Princeton Review recently announced that it will publish a green rating in future editions of its annual college guide starting with the 2009 issue which will be released this summer. The decision came after 63 percent of the 10,300 respondents to the 2008 College Hopes & Worries Survey said that they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment and that it might impact their decision to apply to or attend the school.” A full 23 percent said this information would "strongly" or "very much" contribute to decisions about which schools to apply to or attend. The rating that colleges receive will be based on how environmentally responsible a school's policies are, how healthy and sustainable the campus quality of life is, and how well a school prepares its students to make informed and environmentally responsible lifestyle decisions after college. The rating will be on a scale of 60 to 99 points. The Princeton Review developed the rating in conjunction with ecoAmerica, a non-profit environmental research organization.

Forbes list of 10 greenest colleges

Forbes Magazine recently published an article on "America's Greenest Colleges." According to the article, the 10 greenest campuses are: Carleton College (MN), College of the Atlantic (ME), Dartmouth College (NH), Harvard University (MA), Middlebury College (VT), New York University, University Of California-Santa Cruz, University Of Pennsylvania, University Of Vermont, and University Of Washington. The list is comprised of higher achievers in the Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card and the EPA Green Power Partnership's list of the top campus purchasers of renewable energy credits.

http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/05/02/college-harvard-uvm-biz-energy-cx_bw_0502greenu.html

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative

Link to the GHG Protocol project, which created the most widely used international accounting tool fro government and business leaders the understand and quanity GHG emissions.


http://www.ghgprotocol.org/about-ghgp

Harvard's estimation of GHG by university use

According to Harvard's study of 2006 data the GHG emissions by type of campus building use:


Chem lab 25.48%
Residential 21.43%
Bio lab 10.94%
Office 8.8%
Assembly 7.42%
Athletic 6.2%
Multi purpose lab 5.5%
Physical lab 4%
classrooms 2.01%
libary 1.78%
support 2.6%
Studio 1.07%


Go to http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/resources/documents/FASGHGReduction.pdf
to backtrack for sources of this data.

conventional energy use in buildings

According to USEPA studies this is the typical break down of energy use in buildings:


space heating 29%
lighting 22%
office equipment 13%
ventilation 11%
cooling 7%
water heating 4%
refridgeration 3%
other 11%

USEPA GHG calculator

This will take you to the USEPA pages that descries the calculations used to determine GHG emmision reductions........

http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/refs.html

Update on Climate Change and US Policy

This is a recent set of remarks by the UnderSecretary for Democracy and Global Affiars in the State Department about Climate Change and Sustainability.

http://www.state.gov/g/rls/rm/104353.htm

Brazil wants to join OPEC

This is an interesting article from the German news source Der Spiegel. It's not directly relevant to UC, but it provides an interesting perspective on alternative fuels. 

"Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva wants to get his country into OPEC -- a move that could lower the price of oil worldwide. With a booming biofuel business alongside new oil reserves, Brazil is poised to become a global energy leader."

Click here to read the story.

DAAP wins Pitch In event

Seven of UC's colleges took part in Pitch In. This event was held through the month of April, and recyclables were collected and weighed twice per week.

The College of DAAP took first place, with each person recycling slightly more than 2,300 pounds of materials, or almost 16 pounds per individual. DAAP beat the colleges of Engineering, Law, Business, Arts & Sciences, as well as CCM and CECH. 

Click here to read more

University of Buffalo (SUNY) Climate Protection Report

This is the link to the University of Buffalo Green Climate Action Report.

http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/environment/UBGreenReport.pdf


This is the report that the Environmental Studies students are using as a model for their work. It does give some good explanations of the links of the university to climate change.

A Shift in the Debate over Global Warming

A Shift in the Debate over Global Warming by Andrew Revkin, April 6, 2008, New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/weekinreview/06revkin.html?ex=1365220800&en=669057620551c2ba&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink