Condensed Findings:
Within the context of the community and local farm and food movements, LaFarm’s greenhouse becomes an important leader for change and growth within the area. The farm’s educational, nonprofit nature as a part of the college farm movement allows for more experimental forms of energy production and development. It is due to these social allowances that the project team believes that LaFarm’s should be investing more heavily in the carbon neutrality and sustainability of their farm, as the freedoms that they are allowed create a space in which LaFarm can discover future methods of sustainable farming. In addition, LaFarm’s continuous growth and productivity–an 11% increase between 2020 and 2021 (LaFarm Annual Report 2021 · LaFarm · Lafayette College, 2022)–demonstrates a positive trend towards LaFarm’s effectiveness.
The completion of this project would affect the members of the Lafayette College community as well as the residents of surrounding areas. Primarily, the most important stakeholders are internal to Lafayette College, such as Lafayette Administration, Josh Parr, and the members of the LaFarm Advisor Board. External stakeholders, such as the local government, community members and local farms, have less control over the approval and funding of the project but still maintain strong stakes in the project success–as the greenhouse will be used in LaFarm community outreach programs and will allow for community personal usage as well.
A primary focus within the political context is optics. As a non-profit university that relies on image to attract students, Lafayette College has a greater than normal focus on how they are represented in comparison to similar universities. Universities such as Colgate University, Princeton University, and Cornell University have completed similar projects, placing them at the forefront of carbon neutrality and other topics. Lafayette College publicly states their focus on carbon neutrality in their published Climate Action Plan 2.0 (Climate Action Plan, 2022). Lafayette College has announced their plan for carbon neutrality by 2035 that starts at Lafayette’s Metzgar Athletic Fields Complex.
This project’s solution involves three sources of renewable energy sources: solar energy, geothermal technology and a biomass furnace. The major energy needs within the greenhouse are temperature regulation and electrical needs of the greenhouse. The temperature regulation of the greenhouse will be done through geothermal energy and a biomass furnace. The electrical usage of the greenhouse will be supplied via solar energy.
Figure C1. Rendering of proposed Metzgar solar array
Economically, this project will have an initial cost of approximately $65,000, with an estimated monthly saving totaling around $2820.80. With the life expectancies of biomass, geothermal and solar being 25 years, 30 years and 20 years respectively, these technologies become economically viable. The payback periods of the three technologies are much lower with biomass being repaid in 24.65 months, geothermal in 36.55 months and solar in 7 years.
Final Analysis:
The project team admits that the retrofitting of the LaFarm greenhouse with solar panels, geothermal and biofuel may seem a large correction in comparison to the rather meager comparative contribution the greenhouse has to the college’s overall carbon emissions. However, Lafayette College has pledged carbon neutrality and plans to first make the Metzgar Complex (which includes LaFarm) the first step in that plan. This greenhouse, constructed after the carbon neutrality pledge was made, stands in direct opposition to this. As stated by Lafayette College’s Office of Sustainability, “Achieving carbon neutrality is an ambitious goal, but Lafayette’s unique identity as a small liberal arts college with a robust engineering division makes the College enormously well-situated to become a recognized leader in campus sustainability.” (Climate Action Plan: Executive Summary, 2019). The project team argues that this is also true of Lafayette’s position to pioneer these technologies.
The project team argues that the opportunity allowed by the college farm movement to create innovation within the small farm movement is massive, and that Lafayette College and LaFarm’s should be focused on pushing education and innovation–including research into sustainability. As shown in above sections, there is technical and economic background on all of the topics used in this plan, as well as educational value in the implementation of such technologies at a reachable site near Lafayette.
Challenges:
There are many challenges that this project will face within the social, political and economic contexts that exist within and around Lafayette College. These larger issues are addressed within the above plan. This section will outline the larger of these challenges and explain what can be done to minimize their detrimental effects to the construction of a carbon neutral greenhouse at LaFarm.
A large challenge this project is facing is the already existing structures that Lafayette College has heavily invested in, specifically the propane heating unit and large propane tank that the college has installed for heating the greenhouse–which is not a sustainable option. These large pieces of equipment were expensive and are relatively unused and will not be utilized (or will be barely utilized) within the plan outlined in this project. This presents a challenge within the economic context, as the school is not likely to want to immediately replace this expensive equipment after installation of it. The project team believes that the benefits of carbon neutrality in terms of productivity, sustainability and image should outweigh these concerns and suggests the acquisition of donor funding.
The greenhouse is projected to actively use energy for only three months throughout the year. This small window of use, in tandem with the surrounding non-sustainable energy on the rest of campus, creates a challenge. This creates a dichotomy of importance between this project and other larger projects that are being proposed around campus. Some stakeholders have expressed that the conversion of the greenhouse into a carbon neutral structure is not important in comparison to other potential projects. This report aims to convince Lafayette College Administrators that the greenhouse, while not a primary contributor to carbon emissions, would be a good step towards carbon neutrality. The challenge of this is due to the existing sentiment against the value of the conversion of the greenhouse. The project team aims to contradict this mindset throughout our analysis of the social and political context, in which the optics of the project are discussed. In addition, the solar panel would be functional throughout the year regardless of greenhouse use, able to counteract other carbon emissions. The project team hopes that the discussion of the values and goals of Lafayette College to be a cutting edge school will encourage administrators to use the greenhouse as a symbol of commitment to carbon neutrality, rather than judging the value based on comparisons to other potential projects on campus.
Future Plans:
After the submission of this proposal to the administration of Lafayette College, this project team would no longer be directly involved in the process going forward. This does not mean the end of this project however. The carbon neutral greenhouse will not be built or even approved by the completion of this report. Detailed here is our suggestion for who should be involved in the future steps of this process, what those future steps should be, and what the continuation and realization of this project would look like.
The culmination of this project would be the construction and completion of a carbon neutral greenhouse, with the elements detailed in the technological analysis above. The construction of solar panels to handle the air distribution and automation needs and the adoption of either biofuel or geothermal energy to supplement the necessary heating elements of the greenhouse are conditions of successful completion. These elements will take time and funding for proper construction, meaning the timeline to completion will be variable and can not currently be estimated.
This report focuses on the social, political, economic and basic technological contexts surrounding the carbon neutral greenhouse project, but is not an in depth blueprint to the construction or energy needs of the alternative renewable energy sources that are outlined above. The project team proposes that this project report is passed to a future group of Environmental Science students to continue the development of the project. These Environmental Science students can take the context study done above and refine the technical solutions to increase feasibility. The Environmental Science project team can take the project through to the approval phase–in which Lafayette College has found a donor and approved construction of the carbon neutral additions.
The administration of Lafayette College would remain engaged throughout the project until completion, especially as the need for fundraising and donor acquisition become more necessary. They would first need to decide, after review of this proposal and the subsequent Environmental Science reports, that the carbon neutral greenhouse was a worthwhile investment. Then, the administration would begin reaching out and polling potential donors to acquire the funding needed for the project. If a donor is identified, the Lafayette College administration could distribute this report to give a well rounded analysis of the social, political, economic and technological contexts. The Lafayette College administration would also handle coordination with the building and planning offices of Lafayette College.
The final phase of the project would be the construction of the additional elements. This includes the solar panels, biofuel, and geothermal construction. This phase would be primarily handled by the Facilities office at Lafayette College.
To read the bibliography of this work, please follow the link here.