Exploratory Group Will Propose Carbon Reduction Initiative

Author: Josh Carson

Last October, Community Council charged the Carbon Reduction Initiative (CRI) working group with the task of establishing a plan to reduce the College's carbon dioxide emissions. The working group is now ready to present their findings to the Community and Environmental Councils this week.
Led by Director of Environmental Affairs Nan Jenks-Jay and Vice President for Administration and Treasurer Bob Huth, the CRI working group is composed of student representatives from each commons, faculty advisors and staff and administrators involved in all aspects of running the College. The group will propose strategies for the College to lower carbon emissions to 10 percent below the 1990 levels by the year 2020.
The creation of the CRI working group has been an evolutionary process that began three years ago in the Environmental Council (EC). Since then, students and faculty have traveled around the country to other institutions to determine whether a carbon reduction initiative would be feasible at Middlebury. Attending conferences and bringing in outside speakers has led to a better understanding and greater concern for the current global problem.
The College formally responded to this challenge two years ago when the EC established a subcommittee to investigate the possibility of making Middlebury College carbon neutral. Doug Dagan '03 completed an emissions inventory of carbon dioxide emitted by the College over the last 10 years. This promoted further interest across campus and led the Community Council to commission the CRI working group.
The CRI has two goals as stated by the EC: to evaluate data from the College's recent carbon emissions and to create a menu of carbon reduction options in order to create a specific carbon reduction plan for Middlebury College.
The data comes from Dagan's emissions inventory and the extensive report written by the Carbon Neutral Winter Term class whose goal it was to "explore the available and emerging technologies and economic instruments that would allow the College to achieve a net emissions rate of carbon dioxide equal to zero," according to Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Lori DelNegro who taught the class with Assistant Professor of Economics Jonathan Isham. The class released a final report documenting its findings which were used extensively by the CRI working group.
The CRI working group has now created a progress report, which it will present to the Community and Environmental Councils, recommending various strategies the College can adopt to reduce its emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. The recommendations will range from education and outreach to infrastructure changes at Middlebury like purchasing a more efficient boiler and burning cleaner oil.
In the proposal to the Community Council, the group also recommends that it be charged with "identifying a specific carbon reduction goal for the College and developing a specific carbon reduction plan that outlines the steps necessary to achieve said goal".
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically during the 20th century. Since climate change is closely related to increased carbon dioxide levels, many environmentalists are concerned.
McKibben notes that "humans are threatening to take the temperature of the planet to a spot where it hasn't been for hundreds of millions of years, and only rapid carbon reduction can head it off."