Carbon Neutrality at Purdue

At Purdue University, six academic departments spanning the natural and social sciences and linked through the Purdue Climate Change Research Center (PCCRC) are taking steps to address and reduce the university’s emissions of carbon dioxide through a new course: Carbon Neutrality at Purdue (CN@P). The objective of the course is to calculate and then develop a management plan to reduce Purdue’s “carbon footprint”. This footprint represents the annual amount of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide emitted both directly and indirectly to meet the energy and material demands of Purdue University.

The motivation for creating this course was simple: The most recent IPCC report acknowledges what the vast majority of climate scientists have known for decades: that there is a “very high confidence that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming”. This “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level” (IPCC FAR Summary for Policymakers).

While the conclusions of the IPCC report are not new to most scientists working in the field of climate change, a widespread and growing interest in developing practical strategies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (the acknowledged driver of anthropogenic climate change) has only recently emerged.

As a research institution with significant strengths in key areas of climate, environmental, and the social sciences, Purdue is well-prepared and uniquely able to take advantage of this emerging interest and to take the lead in addressing practical solutions to reducing its own net carbon emissions. Since any viable and robust solutions must necessarily account for both the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of implementation, the faculty of the PCCRC decided to create a course which pools the interdisciplinary talent and resources of students (graduate and undergraduate) and faculty from fields which span the required areas of expertise. Thus was born Carbon Neutrality at Purdue.

The first step in the process of developing practical solutions for emissions reduction was to determine just how much carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) Purdue annually emits. As a one semester course, both the faculty and students of CN@P acknowledged that certain approximations would have to be made for the sake of expediency if our objectives of calculating, analyzing, and making suggestions to reduce Purdue’s carbon footprint were to be met within the duration of the course. We therefore divided the footprint into six “sectors” – areas of activity which we believed would capture the majority of Purdue’s direct and indirect carbon emissions. These sectors were: energy generated at Purdue’s on-campus power plant, additional energy purchased by Purdue, building construction and renovation, consumable materials, university-associated travel and transportation, and sequestration provided by Purdue’s Tippecanoe County land holdings.

When the emissions of the individual sectors were combined, we discovered that Purdue is annually responsible for the emission of approximately 191,000 metric tons (~420 million pounds) of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. (For comparison, burning a gallon of gasoline emits a little more than five pounds of carbon.) CO2 has been increasing in concentration since the Industrial Revolution due to the ubiquitous use of fossil fuels to power a progressively more industrialized global economy, and is primarily responsible for the anthropogenic climate change observed over the past 150 years.

Although Purdue’s footprint is admittedly large, it is a drop in the bucket compared to global annual carbon emissions. The goal of this class is therefore not to significantly affect the amount of climate warming through our individual actions but rather to set a precedent for other major organizations. As a preeminent engineering, science, and technology research institution, Purdue is uniquely positioned to provide and implement robust and practical solutions to the problem of rising CO2 emissions.

We are focusing our efforts to suggest means to reduce Purdue’s carbon footprint that are not only environmentally sound, but economically feasible as well. To be truly “carbon neutral,” Purdue would have to emit no net carbon, either by utilizing only carbon-free energy sources such as wind or solar power or by offsetting our own emissions by reducing emissions elsewhere. However, our primary focus in this first semester of CN@P is reducing our carbon emissions locally through a reduction in energy consumption.

Ideas for carbon emissions reduction have included optimizing existing buildings for better energy efficiency, enacting University policies to encourage energy conservation by individuals and departments, and exploring the use of less carbon-intense energy generation technologies. In a time of volatile and increasing energy prices, a reduction in the university’s energy consumption through the adoption of conservation measures will increase both the financial security and well-being of Purdue.

The majority of the effort during this first incarnation of CN@P was spent to accurately calculate Purdue’s carbon footprint. While we have also addressed potential conservation measures, these suggestions are preliminary, and it is our sincere hope that this course will be offered again in coming semesters to explore in more depth strategies to make Purdue truly carbon neutral.

Megan W. and Katie S.
10 April 2007