SOCIAL CONTEXT
Introduction
One of the main objectives of our project is to work towards the mission of the Office of Sustainability. As stated on Lafayette’s Sustainability website page, the College as a whole, with the leadership of the Office of Sustainability, is setting out to “cut global warming emissions, integrate sustainability into the curriculum, and cultivate solutions to ensure a healthier environmental future. Exploring sustainable living on campus prepares students for a life of environmental citizenship, and why it is important for higher education institutions to be proactive in terms of their roles” (Lafayette College).
Bringing biogenic fuels to Lafayette follows from three distinct sub-contexts that focus on how this effort will contribute to the mission of the College and its sustainability efforts as a community and higher education institution. We will begin by discussing Lafayette’s commitment to its Climate Action Plan, which serves the purpose of addressing the goal to reduce Lafayette College’s current levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Next, we will assess how biogenic fuels could work towards the college’s implicit goal to integrate sustainability into the curriculum by engaging students on hands-on projects that will prepare them to be active citizens in their communities. Finally, we will discuss how these projects can play a role in Lafayette’s responsibility as a higher education institution to set an example for environmental action, which requires keeping up with the efforts of peer universities who have already or are close to achieving carbon neutrality.
Biogenics’ Role in Lafayette’s Climate Action Plan
Lafayette College is taking more definitive steps towards environmental action for a number of reasons. Climate change has detrimental impacts on our environment and those effects are seen in many ways: through more intense heat waves, rising sea levels and loss of sea ice, to name a few (Climate Change Causes, A Blanket ARound the Earth, 2018) . It is generally accepted that, one of the main causes of climate change is the human activity of burning fossil fuels like coal and oil that increase the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. One response to address this program was the creation of the Paris Agreement, an effort from nations across the world to form a united global response to mitigate and control the progression of the increase in global temperature with the goal of limiting further increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century (United Nations Climate Change). Despite the decision from President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, a group of mayors, governors and business leaders came together in June of 2017 to sign the We Are Still In declaration, to signify that the United States is still committed to the united fight against the increase of global warming. Alison Byerly signed the declaration to have Lafayette College “join 140 cities, 200 colleges and 1,000 businesses in pledging to uphold the landmark accord in which 196 countries promised to try to limit the century’s global average temperature increase to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit” (Lehigh Valley Live).
When interviewed by Lehigh Valley Live about her signing of the pledge back in 2017, Byerly stated that it reinforces Lafayette’s current sustainability efforts set forth by the Lafayette Climate Action Plan. President Dan Weiss signed the Lafayette College Climate Action Plan in 2011 which outlined specific goals for the college to reach to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2021. A key component of the 2011 plan was to keep track of the College’s carbon footprint and the efforts to reduce it. However, data regarding Lafayette’s emissions have not been recorded and maintained in a “centralized location” since 2013 (Gordon, 2017). This is because before the fall of 2016, Lafayette did not have an Office of Sustainability or full-time position dedicated to managing and interpreting this data. Before 2016, the goal-tracking responsibility was given to members of a sustainability committee, consisting of Lafayette faculty, students and administrators.
The establishment of the Office of Sustainability in 2016 allowed for full-time dedication to organizing Lafayette’s energy consumption data that will give a more accurate depiction of where Lafayette stands in terms of its 2011 Climate Action Plan efforts. “‘We calculated our greenhouse gas emissions for 2014, 2015 and 2016 late last year,’ [Marie Fechik-Kirk] said. ‘Those hadn’t been calculated previously most likely because there wasn’t a sustainability office then, so it wasn’t anyone’s job to do so,” she reported to Lafayette’s newspaper in February of 2018. Since 2008, the college has reduced its emissions by about 14%, a measure which includes college transportation, heating and cooling and electricity usage, of which the latter two use the most energy. (Kelly, 2018). Now that the Office has an idea of where the College stands in terms of its emissions reduction, it can focus on the updated plan that is to be submitted in December 2018 to the Board of Trustees.
When asked about the updated plan, Fechik-Kirk placed an emphasis on maintaining the decreasing trend in carbon emissions despite the College’s expansion with the Integrated Sciences Center and the planned McCartney dorms (Kelly, 2018). A distinguishable feature of the 2018 plan is the addition of The Stone House Group (SHG), a consulting group with experience working with similar higher education institutions in their sustainability efforts such as Bates College. “We’re working hard to identify the overlap between financial sustainability and environmental sustainability,” said Larry Eighmy of the Stone House Group (Kelly, 2018). Lafayette’s Ord Steam Plant switched from #6 fuel oil to natural gas cut the College’s emissions by 9% in 2008 (Eighmy, personal communications, 2018). Though that was a crucial step towards Lafayette’s goal of carbon neutrality, it was a minor change that should have been implemented well before 2008. It is recognized that drastic measures need to be made in order for Lafayette to catch up to its peer institutions such as Middlebury and Bates that are well on their way to becoming carbon neutral if they are not already. Biogenic fuels have turned out to be very successful for these schools in cutting their emissions by over on third within a few years of making the fuel switch.Our project team is conducting a technical and economic analysis to determine whether biogenic fuels would align with the College’s goals and plans to further reduce emissions.
We have been working closely with Larry Eighmy and James Hayes of The Stone House Group to gain insight on the alternatives that they believe would be most feasible for the school to implement, as they work heavily with the Office of Sustainability and periodically update the Board of Trustees on their progress. One specific alternative that we are looking into, based on the recommendation of the Office of Sustainability and the Ord Steam Plant Supervisor Tom Pursel, is the implementation of a biomass gasification plant, which peer institution Middlebury College successfully installed in 2008. We are also conducting research on biocrude, a renewable fuel oil that is produced in Ottawa, Canada based on the input of Larry Eighmy. This project has provided us the opportunity to learn from and assist the Climate Action Plan committee and the Stone House Group in gathering information on the many potential alternatives that can help Lafayette reach its goal of heavily reducing its GHG emissions as a dedicated participant in the We Are Still In coalition.
Sustainability in Higher Education: Integration into Lafayette Curriculum
When interviewed in 2016 regarding the Fechik-Kirk’s new position of Director of Sustainability, VP of Finance Roger Demareski went into detail on why she will report to him as opposed to the facilities department. “Many sustainability directors report within a facilities organizations,” Demareski said, “because most people think of sustainability as energy conservation and recycling. So, a lot of schools house them in [the facilities department.]
“The sustainability director’s job is also to educate, and I think that’s the different piece here,” he added. “Students that come in should be educated on why these things are important, so that when they go out and make an impact on the world, that part of Lafayette has impacted them” (Morse, 2016).
An example of Lafayette students’ commitment to the college’s sustainability efforts that is inspired by Fechik-Kirk’s work is the 2018 Climate Action Plan Petition that circulated the campus early in the Fall 2018 semester. In September of 2018, Lafayette’s Society of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (SEES), Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection (LEAP), Take Back the Tap, and the Lafayette Food Recovery Network Chapter were collecting signatures for a petition for a new climate action plan. The students in these environmental groups on campus wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees expressing concern for Lafayette’s current level of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGH) on behalf of the whole Lafayette community. Lafayette student Emma Stierhoff ‘20, president of LEAP, shared with The Lafayette that the petition was inspired by her frustration that Lafayette was not reaching their full potential in terms of proactively meeting the goals set in their previous climate action plan. Below is an excerpt from the letter that eloquently explains why our project is important:
“In 2016, the school was responsible for the release of 25,338 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. As an educational institution preparing students to address real-world problems, the administration ought to set a stronger example of environmental action by further reducing College carbon emissions, and thus reducing Lafayette College’s contribution to climate change: a global shift in climate patterns that threatens environmental biodiversity and conservation, social and economic stability, and the overall well-being of all life on Earth. As the Climate Action Plan committee in partnership with the Stone House Group updates the Climate Action Plan, we wish to express our support for their plan to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions.”
According to The Lafayette, “Chair of the Board Robert Sell wrote in an email ‘[t]he presentation [by students and other presenters] was comprehensive and quite compelling,’ adding, ‘As with other important priorities of the college, the administration will now work with the appropriate parties to develop an action plan and set of actions to be pursued.’ The plan will be brought before the board again later this semester” (Tropp, 2018).
Moving forward with the Climate Action Plan allows various student groups throughout all academic disciplines and extracurricular organizations to engage in hands-on projects that help the College move forward step by step to reaching its goal of reducing its carbon emissions. Through these experiences of connecting with different people such as the Office of Sustainability, the Stone House Group, and the Steam Plant Supervisor, the College is developing environmentally-conscious citizens that are prepared to address real-world problems and ignite meaningful change in their communities upon graduation. According to Vice President of Finance and Administration Roger Demareski, the finalized new climate action plan is being presented to the board of trustees at the end of December, where our research on biogenic fuels may be presented by the Stone House Group (Lafayette Newspaper, October 2018).
Keeping Up With Peer Universities in Reaching Carbon Neutrality
While the operational sustainability of the college and the planet remain as the primary concern and motive for this project, maintaining a competitive edge against the college’s peer institutions is also of great importance. With an increasingly more sustainably minded prospective student and faculty applicant pool, Lafayette must, if not for the planet, become a leader in building an ‘eco-friendly’ campus in order to attract and retain talent in an ultra-competitive small liberal arts college environment. Thus, this project will examine the sustainability initiatives at peer institutions, particularly Middlebury College and Bates College, as well as the student involvement in those projects in order to evaluate the current standing of Lafayette College against its competitors and areas for improvement.
Middlebury College, located in Middlebury, Vermont, attained carbon neutrality in December of 2016. This ambitious goal, which began in 2007, was achieved by balancing the amount of carbon emissions released with reductions, efficiencies and an amount equivalent to the remainder by sequestration or offset More specifically, Middlebury College achieved their neutrality goal through four primary means; converting their primary fuel source for heating, cooling, and powering from No. 6 fuel oil to biomass gasification, partnering in three solar projects 1.1 megawatts and retirement of associated renewable energy credits, efficiency and conservation projects reducing electricity demand by 4.5 million kWh, and conserving 2,100 acres of forestland by giving this land to the Vermont Land Trust through an easement (How Middlebury College Achieved Carbon Neutrality in 2016, 2016). While Middlebury did begin their path to carbon neutrality a decade before Lafayette, they did begin at a higher level of yearly carbon emissions; baseline emissions were 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2007 at Middlebury and in 2017 Lafayette’s baseline emissions were 24,092 metric tons (The Stone House Group, 2018).
Because this project is focused specifically on reducing carbon emissions through Lafayette’s steam plant, it is worth highlighting that Middlebury completed the construction of their biomass gasification plant in 2008, eight years before Lafayette began to revise its Climate Action Plan to include changing the current steam plant’s power source. However, it is also worth noting that Middlebury did not begin using natural gas as an additional power source until 2016 (because it was not available until that year), years after Lafayette began using natural gas (How Middlebury College Achieved Carbon Neutrality in 2016, 2016).
Bates College, located in Lewiston, Maine, is on track to reach carbon neutrality in 2020. In a similar approach to Middlebury, Bates has targeted energy efficiency measures and switching to wood-based liquid fuel in their central steam plant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, eighty percent of Bates’ waste steam avoids landfill by recycling or composting and their Coastal Research Center is powered entirely by solar panels. These efforts have decreased carbon emissions by ninety percent since the beginning of their efforts to reduce emissions in 2001 (Sustainability at Bates). Again, it is worth highlighting that Bates’ efforts to attain carbon neutrality began long before Lafayette’s. Very generally, Lafayette lags behind two important peer institutions in the length of time and progress they have made towards reducing carbon emissions.
However, Lafayette currently and historically have been competitive in their engagement of students campus sustainability initiatives and projects. Hands-on learning is a valuable asset in any discipline and Bates College and Middlebury college have also recognized the importance of including students in the daunting task of carbon neutrality. At Bates, students helped to plan an install the solar array at their coastal research facility and have a robust EcoRep program. At Middlebury, the carbon neutrality efforts presented many student research opportunities, from the time that the plan was developed to the achievement of carbon neutrality. Furthermore, this report is based heavily on student research performed at Middlebury and Bates, which was instrumental for the success of their programs.
Conclusion
Assessing the economic implications of bringing biogenic fuels to campus, specifically a biomass gasification plant or Renewable Fuel Oil, is a part of the large Climate Action Plant. This plan, which has seen input from Lafayette’s students, faculty, Office of Sustainability, and an external consulting group, is aimed at a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. While this is a lofty goal, Lafayette’s peer institutions, namely Middlebury College and Bates College, have either already reached carbon neutrality or will reach carbon neutrality in the near future. Reducing harmful emissions is important first and foremost for environmental reasons, but doing so will also afford Lafayette students with unique learning and leadership opportunities.
To continue on to the Political Context section of the report, click here: Political Context (Biogenics)