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By decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions, 减少能源消耗,用太阳能和风能等可再生能源清洁能源供应, 澳门葡京博彩软件 is making good on its promise to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Acting against climate change is a community-wide endeavor. 穿过校园, 教师, 学生和工作人员正在调查和测试有关气候科学的创新想法, 工程, 公共卫生, 政策和设计——所有这些都是为了推动大学和世界走向清洁, 健康和公平的能源未来.

最基本的

碳中和

通过隔离或抵消我们释放的等量碳或温室气体(GHG)排放,实现净零碳排放.

可再生能源

Naturally-occurring 和 constantly replenished sources, such as sun 和 wind.

不可再生资源

Transitioning the global economy from non-renewable sources, 比如煤和天然气, to renewable sources is critical for mitigating climate change.

地热能源

2022年夏天, 澳门葡京博彩软件开始着手一项创新的校园地热能源项目,该项目将使学院的碳排放量减少令人瞠目的90%, allowing the college to become carbon neutral by 2030.

“It’s the largest capital project in 澳门葡京博彩软件’s history,David DeSwert说, vice president for finance 和 administration. “在未来10年,它将占我们资本支出的35%至40%.”

Beyond that, the work fully aligns with the college’s mission 和 vision. “我们知道对澳门葡京博彩软件来说采取行动很重要,因为我们相信我们在校园运营中所做的事情反映了我们的价值观,以及我们在课堂上教给学生的东西,德斯沃特说.

地热能项目可能是澳门葡京博彩软件致力于可持续发展的最具体证据, 但这只是澳门葡京博彩软件利用其资源实现其既定价值的众多方式之一, DeSwert说. “我们还在捐赠基金中采取了行动,从化石燃料(资产)管理公司的投资中撤资,他说. “We believe in taking a comprehensive approach to practice what we preach.”

Newly laid distribution pipes next to the Davis Center

我们的承诺

澳门葡京博彩软件加入 Second Nature (The Climate Leadership Network) 通过签署碳排放承诺. 这样做的时候, 该学院承诺制定一项气候行动计划,其中包括“尽快实现碳中和的目标日期”.” 澳门葡京博彩软件’s Sustainability 和 气候行动 Management Plan (流氓), 2010年发布, 概述了到2030年实现碳中和的各种战略和技术.

In 2015, President Kathleen McCartney formed a Study Group on Climate Change (SGCC), 由员工组成, 教师, 受托人, 校友和学生, 负责促进 campuswide考试 澳门葡京博彩软件如何才能最有效地应对全球气候变化的挑战. The study group’s work culminated in 2017 with a set of 建议和优先事项 for academic offerings, campus programming 和 operations.

2020年12月,麦卡特尼总统通过加入联合国教科文组织,强调了澳门葡京博彩软件的坚持 “所有的” 由数千个机构、州和国家签署的气候行动运动.

A chart showing 澳门葡京博彩软件's carbon emissions.

可持续发展的重大举措

研究, 澳门葡京博彩软件的教学和领导——以及那些将这些思想内化并在毕业后将其付诸实践的学生——旨在在对抗气候变化的斗争中掀起波澜.

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当前的计划

In 2016, we completed the 澳门葡京博彩软件 Campus Decarbonization Study. 结果是, the college charted a course to convert the existing heating, 冷却, 和 electricity system from fossil fuel gas to renewable electric sources.

澳门葡京博彩软件进行了地质、工程和财务分析,以完善这一计划. 这项工作是由学生和教师对州和联邦政策的研究提供的, renewable sources in the New Engl和 region, evolving science around renewable technologies, 电池存储, 还有更多.

截至2021年, 该学院正在设计和实施一种新的可再生能源区域能源系统. The system will be implemented over the course of the next 9 years.

Testing the Ground for its Potential
To investigate the viability of geothermal heat exchange for our campus, a test borehole was drilled in the ground near the Field House to evaluate the soil, 水力特性, 和 thermal response under our campus.  然后, a heat pump was installed in the Field House 和 connected to the borehole, which provided heating 和 冷却 through 地源热交换.

舰队
学院有大约86辆车来支持运营、学术、研究和学生工作. 截至2021年, four of those were hybrid or all-electric vehicles.  教师 和 student research such as 碳中和不应成为最终目标:美国对机构气候行动的经验教训.S. 高等教育景观电气化管理 are guiding future fleet electrification strategies 和 goals.  

通勤
澳门葡京博彩软件, 位于一个相当乡村的环境中, is nearby a variety of alternative transportation options including bus, rideshare, 还有自行车共享项目.  而与学生通勤相关的碳排放几乎不存在,因为我们是一所住宿学院, over 90% of 工作人员 和 教师 drive alone to 和 from work. 我们正在评估我们的停车和替代交通激励计划,看看我们如何能增加零排放交通的使用.  

Academic-related旅行
In 2018, 学生Cara Dietz ' 18, 18岁的埃莉安娜, 还有18岁的格雷, 评估了澳门葡京博彩软件的采购记录,以估计与我们作为一所大学购买的商品和服务的供应链相关的碳排放量, 也被称为第三类排放.  Their research found that air travel by 教师, 工作人员, 和学生, paid for by the college accounts for almost 20% of our Scope 3 carbon emissions.  This does not account for student-funded travel associated with college.  While 澳门葡京博彩软件 is not actively working to reduce college-funded travel, 我们将利用疫情期间关于远程工作和召集会议的经验教训,鼓励教职员工在起飞前停下来,发挥创造力.

澳门葡京博彩软件一直在 implementing strategies for reducing waste 在校园里呆了几十年.

而回收, composting 和 reusing materials has become the norm, several unique initiatives have taken shape recently.

了解更多关于新计划的信息

2018年春季,可持续发展委员会选择每百万吨二氧化碳当量70美元作为碳排放的内部化成本, 或者代理碳价格, 帮助指导澳门葡京博彩软件的主要资本预算管理和其他决策过程. In 2018, President Kathleen McCartney also signed the 高等教育 Carbon Pricing Endorsement Initiative to demonstrate 澳门葡京博彩软件’s support for carbon pricing.

The adoption was informed by Breanna Parker's ’18 honors thesis called Designing a Proxy Carbon Price Strategy for 澳门葡京博彩软件,由亚历克斯•巴伦(Alex Barron)担任顾问&P), Susan Sayre(经济学)和Dano Weisbord(校园可持续发展和校园规划执行董事). 帕克的论文赢得了全国奖 Campus Sustainability 研究 Award 高等教育可持续发展促进协会于2018年颁发的. 帕克的工作也为发表在同行评议期刊上的一篇合作论文奠定了基础 Elementa.

澳门葡京博彩软件 academic papers exploring carbon proxy pricing

Video - overview of carbon pricing toolkit

澳门葡京博彩软件 has seven solar arrays on it’s buildings: Ford Hall, the Indoor Track 和 Tennis (ITT) Facility, 校园中心, 麦康奈尔大厅, 67 West Street (a 澳门葡京博彩软件-owned apartment building), the Bechtel Environmental Classroom at the 麦克利什野外站, 和 the Center for Early Childhood Development. 

在一起, the systems on Ford Hall 和 the ITT facility produce about 550,大约相当于我们校园用电量的2%.

合作电力项目
In Spring 2017, 澳门葡京博彩软件 partnered with the 合作社电力公司的社区太阳能公司 team to develop a local solar financing model for local nonprofits. 在这种结构下, local investors with real estate interests invest in local nonprofit solar projects, 帮助利用太阳能税收优惠,降低非营利组织的总体成本. Nonprofits don't qualify for those tax incentives on their own. This innovative model brings the cost savings of solar to the nonprofit community. 澳门葡京博彩软件 was the first nonprofit to sign on through the pilot phase of this program.

学生强调:

Eleanor Adachi's '17 honor project "Designing a photovoltaic array for 澳门葡京博彩软件"

In 2018, 澳门葡京博彩软件, 阿默斯特, 鲍登, 汉普郡学院和威廉姆斯学院组成了一个名为新英格兰学院可再生伙伴关系(NECRP)的合作项目,签约了46年,将在法明顿建造的新太阳能发电设施每年将产生1000万兆瓦时的电力, 缅因州. 该协议是新英格兰高等教育合作购买太阳能的第一个例子, 和 one of the first such multi-college collaborations in the United States. 项目细节可以在网站上找到,该网站是澳门葡京博彩软件的学生拉里萨·霍兰德20岁开发的,作为她对 法明顿太阳能项目.

The project supplies 28% of the campus electricity needs, all of our scope 2 emissions (purchased electricity), which are 10% of our total carbon emissions.

澳门葡京博彩软件一直在 committed to sourcing sustainable dining options 一段时间以来. 寻找当地农场和尽可能使用植物性替代品是近年来获得势头的两种方法. Even without removing specific items from the menu, 澳门葡京博彩软件 is on track to cut the consumption of red meat by 15% by 2024.

了解有关最新措施的更多信息

制冷剂 make up less than 1% of 澳门葡京博彩软件’s emissions profile. 制冷剂释放排放在澳门葡京博彩软件工厂很少发生,只在某些维护过程和设备故障时发生. 作为一种实践,校园已经试图减少这些类型的释放,并转向危害较小的制冷剂, 比如410, when available during equipment replacements.  We reclaim all refrigerants when equipment is decommissioned.