by Dano Weisbord, Environmental Sustainability Director, Smith College

(This article appears in the June, 2010 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Smith College recently installed a 29 kilowatt photo-voltaic (PV) array on our Campus Center. We developed this project using a power purchase agreement (PPA).  The PPA is an increasingly common model for developing renewable energy projects because it requires no up-front capital. Our Campus Center project is great, but given the amount of power we produce, it is more a demonstration than a significant new source of renewable power for campus. I am glad it is small-scale because we learned some critical lessons about PPAs that would lead us to do things differently the next time around. First, we learned that most PPAs include terms that would make it unethical for us to count as “carbon free” the electricity produced.  Second, we learned how we might develop a PPA that would reduce the sacrifices to our carbon emission reduction efforts.

by Don Ryan, Vice President for Policy, Second Nature

College and university presidents are stepping up to provide leadership on national transportation policy through Second Nature’s 15-member task force, which just released itsrecommendations to Congress and the Obama Administration. At a Congressional Briefing on April 28, three presidents drew on their institutions’ firsthand experience to highlight the task force’s recommendations: Jamillah Moore of Los Angeles City College, George Dennison of the The University of Montana, and Wim Wiewel of Portland State University.

Higher Education Sector is Crucial to Progress

In the past, higher education as a sector has not recognized its stake in national transportation policy. In fact, colleges and universities cannot achieve deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions without major changes in federal policy. At the same time, these institutions are crucial to national progress because they serve as test beds for piloting and evaluating innovative transportation strategies and developing new clean technologies.

These institutions are crucial to national progress. They serve as test beds for piloting and evaluating innovative transportation strategies and developing new clean technologies.

Recommendations to Congress

Winona LaDuke spoke this afternoon at the 2nd UNCF Green Building Learning Institute about how tribal colleges and communities are working to create a equitable and just economy.  In order to build their resilience and self-reliance they are training technicians and renewable energy installers, putting up wind turbines and solar panels, and building healthy, efficient buildings.

At the same time they are fighting to protect themselves from a future destabilized by a continuation of the dirty energy economy by working to stop new coal plants that degrade the land and aquifers where the mining occurs, contribute to climate disruption, and create localized pollution problems like mercury in lakes and fish.

While she didn’t use the term, she touched on many of the core concepts ofecological economics – internalizing the true costs of our activities, recognizing the interrelationship, interdependence, and inseparability of human and natural systems, etc.

Winona may be best known as Vice Presidential candidate on the Ralph Nader ticket in the 1996 and 2000 elections, but she is along time rural development economist and advocate. Currently she serves as executive director of Honor the Earth, based in Minnesota that works to break the geographic and political isolation of Native communities and to increase financial resources for organizing and change.

by Tymon Lodder, Western Regional Director, The Climate Registry

(This article appears in the May, 2010 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Reporting your greenhouse gas emissions in a consistent, rigorous and transparent fashion has never been able to yield so many benefits as it does today. With the ability to identify significant cost savings opportunities, meet pending greenhouse gas regulations at both the State and Federal level, and understand your supply chain impacts, taking the added step to publicly report and verify your inventory positions your organization to take a leadership role in a carbon constrained world.  The Climate Registry is a non-profit organization that operates the only North American voluntary GHG registry. Governed by states, provinces, territories and tribes, The Climate Registry helps hundreds of public and private organizations measure, report and reduce their carbon emissions with integrity.  We offer a variety of services and membership options to position our members to meet the challenges ahead.

Currently 18 universities participate in the Registry, including the University of California System and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. (Click to read case studies.)