At the start of this year, the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) gathered and asked ourselves the question: “What campus issue do we tackle this year?” And rather than speculating on what issue we thought was most important, we went out and asked the student body! We surveyed 606 students asking them, “What broad campus sustainability issue do you care most about?” offering 5 possible responses: waste reduction, sustainable food, sustainable education, water management, and climate change mitigation.
Out of the 606 surveyed, the number one reply, gathering 31% (191 students) was climate change mitigation. Students on this campus made it clear that fighting climate change was the most important thing to them, and rightfully so! Climate change is the greatest threat that the planet has faced in our species’ existence, and if not adequately addressed, it will completely alter life on this planet.
Results from SSC's survey of the student body
Before we could know how to best address this issue, we needed to know what UMD had already done to fight climate change. So we dove deep into climate action history at UMD! Here is a quick recap of what we found:
2002: UMD switches from a coal-fired power plant to the current natural gas power plant, reducing emissions 53,000 metric tons of GHGs each year
2007: UMD becomes a charter signatory of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment, pledging to become carbon neutral by 2050!
2008: UMD conducts its first assessment of total campus carbon emissions.
2009: UMD Senate enacts the Climate Action Plan (CAP), a 40 year strategy to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, describing 40+ strategies to achieve that goal.
2012: UMD meets its first climate action plan goal, 15% emissions reductions.
2014: President Loh enacts the President’s Energy Initiatives to:
Reduce electricity use on campus 20% by 2020
Off-set new greenhouse gas emissions from our new construction by designing new buildings to strict energy-efficiency standards and using energy from renewable sources.
We will eliminate carbon emissions from purchased electricity by 2020 by purchasing only from renewable sources
2015: UMD has annually reduced an average of 6,395 metric tons of GHGs over the past 6 years and is currently 18% below the baseline emissions level, and supposed to be 25% below by the end of the year.
Also, UMD has become nationally recognized as a sustainable University, as the Sierra Club has ranked us the 13th “greenest school” in the country for two consecutive years, and the Princeton Review has listed us on their “Green Schools Guide” for 5 consecutive years! In short, Maryland has made a lot of progress on climate action in the past 10 years, and we’ve got a lot to be proud of. But, we were certain there was room for improvement, so we kept looking...
Next, SSC looked at the specific sources of emissions on UMD’s campus over the past 10 years. Emissions can be generally put into three main categories:
Energy Generation: On campus, we use a lot of energy (268,104 kw of electricity in 2013) and we get that energy from two sources:
Purchased Electricity: we buy 50% of our energy from the grid just like other Maryland customers
Natural Gas Power Plant: we produce 50% of our energy by operating a natural gas driven power plant on campus
Commuting and Air Travel: this accounts for all staff, faculty and students commuting to campus, all campus vehicles, and air travel for study abroad, athletics, and other business
Other: this portion of emissions is very minimal, and consists of things like solid waste, refrigeration, and agriculture.
Of those three sources, we looked at how they have changed over the past 10 years, and we discovered that while most things are trending downwards, our number one source of carbon emissions - the on-campus natural gas power plant - had stayed nearly the same and has actually increased slightly. The power plant is a Cogeneration Heat and Power Plant (CHP), meaning it creates both electricity for power and steam for heat. In 2005 the power plant emitted 123,511 metric tons of CO2, representing 38% of our emissions, and this past year it emitted 125,425 metric tons, representing 45% of our emissions. So, despite our overall success with climate action, we have thus far entirely failed to address the campus' number one source of carbon emissions, and number one obstacle to carbon neutrality!
The on-campus natural gas power plant located next to Ritchie Colloseum.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to reducing the CHP’s emissions. The Climate Action Plan (CAP) suggests that we switch to a biofuel-powered CHP, increase on-campus renewable energy generation, and utilize hydro and nuclear power to address the issue. These options have not been extensively explored, and yet the CAP lists them as accounting for over half of the emissions reductions the university needs to achieve its 2025 goal of 60% reductions! Already, we are likely not going to achieve our goal of 25% reductions by 2015, and without action to address our reliance on the CHP, we certainly will not meet the subsequent goals, either.
So: how can we address the CHP? Well, in 2019, the 20 year operating lease with the CHP ends, posing the question—where do we go from there, and how? The answer:
CARBON NEUTRAL POWER GENERATION BY 2025.
What does carbon neutral power mean? Well, as mentioned previously, the University gets its power from two sources, by purchasing electricity from the grid, and by purchasing natural gas and burning it on campus. Last year, President Loh committed to purchasing only renewable electricity from the grid by the year 2020, leaving only the electricity from the power plant as coming from dirty sources. So, in order to have carbon neutral power by 2025, we need to figure out an alternative to the CHP.
At other schools, they are already thinking about moving beyond fossil fuel power. The University System of California, composed of 10 college campuses and 238,700 students, has committed to being carbon neutral by the year 2025. They too have a challenging road ahead, and their President, Janet Napolitano, is bravely committed to figuring out the solution to this issue. She has established a Global Climate Leadership Council comprised of students, staff and faculty and world class scientists from inside and outside of the UC System in order to achieve their goal. The UC System isn’t alone in setting ambitious carbon neutrality goals. Arizona State University recently committed to achieving carbon neutrality from power and operations by 2025, and American University is aiming for 2020. In order for UMD to continue to be recognized as a leader in sustainability and to meet our CAP goals, we must be as aggressive as UC and ASU. We need to establish our own climate leadership council, utilizing the best and brightest of this University and beyond, and dive deeply into the issue of carbon neutral power generation. Through this council’s research, we can develop a strategic plan to achieve carbon neutral power generation by the year 2025.
The time to establish this council is now: the research they conduct and the recommendations they provide will inform how UMD renews the CHP contract and hence dictate our climate future. That is why the Student Government Association unanimously passed a resolution urging the development of this council, and the subsequent release of a comprehensive strategic plan for carbon neutral power generation by the year 2025. We have request that this strategic plan be announced to the campus at the start of the Fall 2016 semester.
The University’s 2008 Strategic Plan states, “We will be a campus that is a model for the sustainability of its environment, and we will be a university that seeks solutions to the world’s most challenging and vexing problems.” Now is the opportune time to act on that statement, and to establish this very important and necessary council.
But, if UMD is ever going to achieve carbon neutrality it will require not only infrastructural changes to the University, but behavioral changes as well. The entire UMD community needs to embrace sustainability and dedicate itself to living with as minimal an impact on the environment as possible. So, rather than just asking the University to change, we’re also asking the campus community - faculty, staff, students, prospective students, and CP residents - to change, too! How are we asking them to change?
For one month we are asking all members of the UMD community to consider how the actions they take relate to climate change, and to alter those actions to be as sustainable as possible. Though, the actions taken during this month are only a small step forward, and only the beginning of what is necessary, they demonstrate that the UMD community is committed to growing with the University towards a sustainable future. Currently, over 500 members of the community have taken the pledge, and that number continues to grow each day.
So, spread the word: UMD needs carbon neutral power by 2025, but we also need a community that is dedicated to sustainability each and every day. Sign the pledge today, and help UMD take the most signifcant step to fight climate change in its history.
PS - here is the letter that we sent to the University Sustainability Council regarding the goal for carbon neutral power by 2025.