Introduction (Transp)

Background:

Up to 15 percent of global emissions are directly as a result of transportation processes using fossil fuels. (World Resources Institute, 2018) Looking to statistics based purely upon United States data it shows that roughly 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions originate from the transportation sector. (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2019) That is nearly twice the global percentage. This high percentage of greenhouse gas emissions makes the transportation sector one of the top overall contributors to climate change. 

Climate change is a daunting task that lays right ahead of us and one person will not be able to overcome this obstacle on their own. Instead it will take a team effort from every person and group doing what they can to fight against this problem. An example of this is individual institutions of higher learning banding together and creating their own climate action plans to address their environmental footprint in the coming years. “In early 2008 Lafayette College President Dan Weiss signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Through this commitment, the College pledged to take action to achieve carbon neutrality.” (Lafayette College News, 2019) 

  In 2019 Lafayette College developed and passed an updated plan referring to it as the “Climate Action Plan 2.0”. In this iteration of the climate action plan the school has pushed farther into how they plan to approach the next few years on the college’s path to achieving carbon neutrality. The school has outlined a new commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035 moving up the date by over a decade from the first climate action plan’s approximations. (Lafayette College Office of Sustainability, 2019) A crucial piece of this plan is left rather underdeveloped from the rest of it. That piece is how the college plans on reducing the emissions from the transportation sector here at Lafayette College.

Though underdeveloped, the college has outlined a concern for the levels of greenhouse gas emissions here at Lafayette within the transportation sector. While a popular area of study for other sustainability projects at the school is the Lafayette Shuttle or Lanta Bus Route our group chose to focus in on the college’s everyday vehicle fleet. The current vehicle fleet here at Lafayette is large and has a mixture of different vehicles from varying years, manufactures, and models. Some general details and descriptions of the fleet are as follows. The fleet consists of a total of 109 licensed vehicles. The vehicles range in age from being purchased in the past 12 months up being purchased in the year 1995, roughly two and a half decades ago. It is great that we are able to take care of our vehicles and make them last but the emissions and fuel economy standards from the late 1990s are lacking in comparison to the environmental standards pushed forth in recent years. In addition, the brands making up the school fleet are american companies such as Ford and GMC, known for having worse environmental standards than their foreign specifically asian counterparts such as Nissan and Toyota. In addition the models of vehicles within the Lafayette Fleet are primarily trucks, vans, and SUVs which large sizes and heavy weights often parallel poor fuel economy. Over one third of the 109 vehicles within the fleet are 10 plus years old. Almost all of these vehicles [37 total]  can be classified as reaching the end of their economic useful life in 2020. Replacing all 109 vehicles at one time is unrealistic and most likely irresponsible as the school has not yet built out large plans for how to fully integrate electric vehicles. But starting with a smaller portion of the 37 vehicles could be an appropriate “test case” for the school to see the positive environmental impacts of the switch to electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

How are we going to do it?

Our teams goal was to explore the implementation of a system that truly reduces the emissions from the transportation sector opposed to just shifting them to another location. For this reason, the basic idea of purchasing electric cars was not a sufficient goal to reach. Instead our team felt as if our real goal throughout this project was to build a closed system that has no reliance on fossil fuels. With no reliance on fossil fuels we would have reduced emissions seemingly instantly. We pursued this through exploring methods of alternative energy production that can sustainably power car chargers which in turn can charge electric vehicles with clean energy.

Our solution is the designing and implementation of a system that utilizes a three pronged approach to emissions reduction. First, we plan to use alternative energy production in the form of a solar canopy to provide clean renewable energy to the project. Second, we plan to implement car chargers that can act as a method to transfer the clean energy from production in the solar canopy to the action of charging vehicles. Therefore, the third and final “prong” of our plan is to implement electric vehicles to ensure less emissions are produced from the act of driving.

Challenges:

As a group we face numerous challenges with this project. As previously mentioned our project is a multipronged approach combining solar canopies, electric charging stations, and electric vehicles to create a system with no emissions from fossil fuels. Each part of our system is a complex solution in its own right and comes with a hefty price tag. The project is an expensive endeavor and so we must find reasons to justify the cost. Our second challenge is to find individuals and groups to pass our work off to now that we have reached the end of our time working on this project. Similarly, the third challenge that has constantly been on our radar is how we will stand to develop guidelines and legislation for future efforts within this subject field. We want to ensure other groups such as the office of sustainability are able to pick up where we left off and continue to work in this important field.

 

Overcoming these challenges is an ongoing difficult task but with appropriate planning and communication we believe they are all in the realm of possibility. To address the first challenge of high costs, the key is going to be research and data analysis. Often the way numbers and costs are presented have an impact on how they are received. Our project is going to be expensive and that is inevitable but, through research and analysis we can look at the possible benefits of the project through tax credits and grants which in turn will reduce the cost to a more manageable level.The other challenges are also pivotal in the continued work on the project. It is important to find consulting parties and or professionals who can work with us in order to create plans and legislation that fit into the mold of the project that we have begun envisioning. These parties are not necessarily expensive consulting firms but rather individuals and groups that are present here at Lafayette. Professors are a resource that we look to include in this process as we try and piece together how this technological system of electric cars, charging stations, and solar canopies will function in practice. In addition to that possibly the most important part of this project is to lay a foundation for similar efforts in sustainability going forward. This project can serve as a case study and baseline for developing further initiatives to increase the sustainability of our campus through systems such as emissions reduction and renewable energy.

The FIVE sections of focus:

Our report will begin with a look at the varying social contexts that will influence the direction and overall scope of our project. These contexts explore several pivotal factors to the success of the project including social dynamics and the stakeholders associated with the project. Our group’s solutions look at not only the idea of electric cars and plug in hybrids to replace the college fleet but also more importantly complicated technologies associated with renewable energies and how to turn those into viable charging energies. This combination of solutions has the possibility to impact the greater Lafayette community and surrounding areas through access to clean charging stations that reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel emissions. The administration will be the main stakeholder throughout this project as they have set the groundwork in the Climate Action Plan 2.0 for what they wish to see as far as emissions reductions from the transportation sector in coming years. This dedication and commitment from the school has allowed us the opportunity to focus and support our work with direct evidence from the school that what we are working on is a priority here at Lafayette.

Following our analysis of the social contexts throughout our project we turned to the political and policy based contexts next. In this section we look more closely at the roles that our major stakeholders play in electrifying the fleet of college owned vehicles as well as taking a further dive into the existing policies outlined within the colleges Climate Action Plan 2.0. In order to get a grasp on how the college and our greater society has reached the point we are currently in we must analyze methods that have laid the foundation for our current efforts. Throughout our project we are looking to enhance the conversation about electric vehicles and alternative energy charging station on campus hoping to redefine and build out specifics on how the college can continue to reduce emissions and make the transportation sector more sustainable for years to come.

The section following the political portion of our report will be the economic context analysis. There will be two distinct sections in this portion. The first will analyze the non market value economic impacts the project holds. These could include a better reputation and higher ranking among the elite liberal arts institutions. The second part is more focused along the lines of tangible numerical figures. This is where we will break down the numbers and look at the financial feasibility of this project. Electric vehicles, plug in hybrids, charging stations, and alternative energies such as solar carports all come with a price tag, therefore it is crucial we lay a foundational understanding of what the economic impact of this project would be for the school. This context will include more than just price tags though because the implementation of these new technological systems come with certain tax benefits such as credits and write offs from both federal and state governments which need to be taken into account.

Analyzing the technical components of this project cannot be overlooked as it will play a key role in many of the decisions as far as what vehicles are the most suitable replacements, what charging stations we should implement, and how to generate clean renewable energy for usage by the charging stations. There will be significant technical analysis in order to ensure that the whole system is able to work interchangeably. We are also studying the technical contexts in relation to how we can possibly quantify the total amount of emissions reduction that electric vehicles will contribute to the college. Implementing charging stations and solar canopies for charging will require technical knowledge and consultations that will be explained in depth farther along in the report.

The environmental portion of this report is an all encompassing part that cannot be overlooked in any way. Our whole basis for this project is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicle fleet here at Lafayette College in order to make the schools transportation sector more sustainable in the future. Throughout our research we have found that emissions is a leading cause of manmade climate change and so our project is directly related to the expectations regarding Lafayette’s sustainability in the future. One piece of our project that we are analyzing the most throughout our environmental context is our focus on solar power to provide energy for the charging stations on campus. If we implement charging stations that are simply connected to the electric grid we are doing very little in the grand scheme of reducing emissions. We are simply shifting the location of the emissions instead of truly reducing their occurence. This context will allow us to ensure our project is being completed in a way that is true to its idea of having a positive environmental impact.

The next part that we will discuss is the Social Context for our project