Univ. Senate to consider sweeping emissions plan

Later this month, the University Senate will vote on the Climate Action Plan, a strategy almost two years in the making that aims to eliminate the university's carbon footprint by 2050.

Approval from the university's most important legislative body would be a symbol of campus support, although the plan will likely be implemented regardless of the senate's vote, said Joanna Calabrese, a student sustainability activist who served on the working group that drafted the measure.

By reducing power use, solid waste output and transportation pollution, the plan calls for the university to reduce its more than 320,000 metric tons of annual carbon  output by 12 percent in 2012 before reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century.

"I think we would follow the plan regardless," Calabrese said. "But it looks bad for us [if the Senate rejects it]."

The university has already formed a 13-person sustainability council including students and upper-level administrators to put the plan into motion. The plan's only source of funding is the green fee — $4 per student per year that will increase by $2 annually until it reaches $12 per student. The council is seeking other revenue sources to tackle the larger reforms; ideas include taking a percentage of department budgets and garnering state and federal grants.

In 2005, campus power use accounted for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the plan, the university would reduce energy use by about 60,000 megawatt hours by 2050 through a variety of actions, including retrofitting buildings and educating the campus community about environmentally friendly habits.

At the same time, the university would increase the percentage of its energy that comes from renewable resources to 62 percent by 2025 and 93 percent by 2050. Currently, none of the university's energy comes from renewable sources, according to the most recent energy audit in 2005.

Solid waste accounts for only 2 percent of campus emissions, but the plan calls for its output to be reduced to put a "'greener' touch on campus activities." To this end, the university should create a campus-wide recycling plan and reduce the number of disposable food products sold on campus, according to the plan.

After completing the plan in early April, the university's Office of Sustainability asked for comments from the campus community for four weeks before drafting a new version in August. Calabrese said many of the changes were minor grammatical issues.

"The students had specific recommendations, but none of those things were actually changed, which was kind of a letdown for us," Calabrese said, adding the plan was a step in the right direction but that more needs to be done.

"I have similar sentiments about our plan as I do about the national energy bill," she said. "I think that it's a really good first step, and it means a lot. It influences public opinion in a really good way."

But, she said, its goals are not overly ambitious — the statewide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Act calls for emissions to be reduced by 25 percent by 2020.

The plan will need to be able to adapt, said Office of Sustainability Director Scott Lupin at a Senate Executive Committee meeting yesterday, where the blueprint was moved to the senate floor for their Sept. 16 meeting.

Changes in technology and government regulation will allow the university to revise its goals, he said.

"In the end what we have is a document that is a living document," Lupin said. "What we have here is a 40-year strategic plan. We know the plan has to change."

cox@umdbk.com