UNC aims for carbon neutrality

UNC’s new Climate Action Plan, a road map released Tuesday that seeks to make the school carbon-neutral by 2050, presents short-term solutions that reduce emissions and save money.

UNC's Climate Action Plan strategies for reducing its carbon footprint

1. Reduce commerical mail. Reduce the amount of junk mail or undeliverable mail sent to campus.

2. Increase use of composting. Extend composting to additional campus dining facilities.

3. Increase computer efficiency. Make double-sided printing the default for campus printers. Manage computer sleep and standby modes for campus computers.

4. Increase fuel efficiency. Increase fuel efficiency of campus fleet based on federal standards.

In the long run, however, the plan might cost the University more. Administrators said they are willing to depart from the plan if new technology and government policies would reduce estimated costs.

The University submitted the 14-page plan to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which provides universities a framework to reduce carbon emissions.

A carbon-neutral institution balances the amount of carbon it produces with the amount it saves.

The plan lays out 17 short-term solutions to reduce emissions to the same level they were in 2000 within 11 years, starting this year.

The University has already begun implementing many of these short-term solutions, said Cindy Shea, director of the Sustainability Office, who worked on the plan.

Most of the short-term strategies will save the University money, said Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for campus services and chairwoman of the central committee that devised the plan.

Solutions include making double-sided printing the default setting for campus printers, improving the energy efficiency of computer labs, reducing the amount of junk mail sent to campus and improving teleconferencing facilities.

These 17 measures should be sufficient to allow the University to reach its 2000 level of emissions by 2020, said Conor Farese, chairman of student government’s environmental affairs committee.

“The near-term goals are really well-structured to meet that first benchmark,” he said.

But members of the project team said long-term strategies to make the campus carbon-neutral by 2050 are more expensive, though feasible. Many of these include switching UNC’s main energy source away from coal.

“There are alternatives that we have looked at that we know we can go with, but we’re leaving the door open for new inventions,” Elfland said.

Photos by DTH photographers Andrew Johnson, Joseph Paquette and Rosemary Wynn.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.