Carbon Emissions Decrease

By Mandy Ferreira

Santa Clara University has reduced carbon emissions for the first time in four years since committing a pledge for higher standards of sustainability on campus.  

The change comes just one year after President Michael Engh, S.J., set the goal for the university to be carbon neutral by 2015.

"Our goal for the end of 2010 was to reduce our emissions 20 percent below to ‘97 levels by the end of 2010 — we got to 11 percent," said Lindsey Cromwell, director of the Office of Sustainability.  "A little bit disappointing, but we went in the right direction."

When former President Paul Locatelli, S.J., signed the American College and Universities Presidents' Climate Commitment in 2007, Santa Clara pledged to encourage the use of public transportation, begin purchasing or producing energy from renewable sources, minimize waste and construct all buildings to a minimum of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver standard.

While the university has made a number of efforts to promote sustainability, such as installing energy saving lights around campus, carbon emissions are well above the goal. Carbon emissions more than doubled from 8,659 metric tons in 2000 to 17,913 metric tons in 2009. This is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1,698 cars, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A contributing factor to the dramatic increase is the construction on campus. Since 2000, Santa Clara has seen a 40 percent increase in square footage. But because all of the new buildings are built to LEED gold standards, their energy consumption is less than older buildings — the Learning Commons is twice the size of the previous library, but uses the same amount of energy.

"We're achieving energy savings in the new buildings that are maybe 40 percent or 50 percent better than required by California law, which is amazing," said Assistant Vice President of University Operations Joe Sugg.

"Almost all of our initiatives in terms of saving energy have also saved dollars," said Sugg. "They haven't required us to spend more money on an annual basis — they've actually required us to spend less money."

The lighting retrofits that have been installed around campus are one way that the university is saving energy and money. Both the new outdoor LED lights and the indoor CFL lighting upgrades use about 40 percent less energy than the old lights.

Although Santa Clara is currently trying to track all university carbon emissions, only electricity and fuel uses, including gas for university fleets and natural gas, are included in the goal to becoming carbon neutral. Other emissions are difficult to measure, including student, faculty and staff commuting and air travel.

Carbon neutrality is not only reached through reductions in energy, but also through carbon offsets and the purchase of power from renewable sources, including solar and wind.

Even though Santa Clara has one megawatt worth of solar panel energy coming from the roofs of the Pat Malley Fitness Center and the Leavey Center, as well as on the third level of the parking structure, they were not turned on until after the emissions numbers were calculated in 2009. These panels provide about nine percent of our total electricity use and will decrease our carbon emissions significantly.

In addition to these panels, there are also solar panels and a windmill on the Facilities Building and solar hot water on Benson Memorial Center. We also purchase renewable energy from Silicon Valley Power, which decreases our emissions.

Santa Clara is hoping to increase the amount of solar on campus as well as introduce other green technologies which will reduce emissions while saving money.

The efforts to decrease emissions are not only focused on buildings and operations, but are also reliant on the behaviors of students, faculty and staff.  

"Part of that approach is the (Office of Sustainability) and working really hard with faculty, staff and students and changing the culture," said Sugg. "We think that's probably worth at least 10 percent of our potential to reduce electricity is through cultural change."

One of the major efforts to increase students' engagement in reducing emissions is the Residential Energy Challenge that takes place during winter quarter. Last year, students conserved 85,000 kilowatt hours in 10 weeks — the equivalent of how much energy Malley Fitness Center uses in six weeks.

Students can also determine their personal carbon emissions with the Bronco carbon footprint calculator, which was developed by Santa Clara students during their Environmental Ethics Fellowship with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and put on the Office of Sustainability's webpage.

"The only way we are going to get as close to climate neutrality as possible is if everyone on the campus is engaged," said Cromwell.

Contact Mandy Ferreira at mnferreira@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.