Transcript Western Town Hall Meeting Topic: Sustainability

WESTERN TOWN HALL
MEETING
TOPIC: SUSTAINABILITY
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
3:30pm-4:30pm
Room ARC-200
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE AND
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS CLIMATE
COMMITMENT
 www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org
 “An
effort to address global warming by
garnering institutional commitments to
neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to
accelerate the research and educational
efforts of higher education to equip society to
re-stabilize the earth’s climate.”
THE COMMITMENT:

Major aspects and deadlines:
a). Within one year of signing, complete a comprehensive inventory of
all greenhouse gas emissions and update the inventory every
other year thereafter.
b). Within two years after signing, develop an institutional action plan
for becoming climate neutral, which will include:
- Target data for achieving climate neutrality as soon as possible.
- Interim targets for goals and actions that will lead to climate
neutrality.
- Actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of
the curriculum and other educational experience for all
students.
- Actions to expand research or other efforts necessary to achieve
climate neutrality.
- Mechanisms for tracking progress on actions and goals.
c). Two or more tangible actions to reduce greenhouse gases must be
addressed while the more comprehensive plan is being
developed.
WESTERN’S PROGRESS AND
TANGIBLE ACTIONS


Tangible Action 1: Establish a policy that all new campus
construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green
Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent.

The Facility Development Policy--sustainable facilities and LEED

Lunda Center

Residence Hall
Tangible Action 2: Adopt an energy-efficient appliance
purchasing policy requiring purchase of ENERGY STAR
certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist:

ENERGY STAR--procurement policy

Computers changed to flat panels and programmed to shut off at night=
$30,000 in savings
WESTERN’S PROGRESS AND TANGIBLE
ACTIONS CONTINUED

Tangible Action 3: Establish a policy of offsetting all greenhouse
gas emissions generated by air travel paid for by the institution.


No good measuring system
Tangible Action 4: Encourage use of and provide access to public
transportation for all faculty, staff, students and visitors to the
institution.

Free MTU passes to all faculty, staff, and students

Biking and walking to campus are encouraged

Charging for parking spaces
WESTERN’S PROGRESS AND TANGIBLE
ACTIONS CONTINUED


Tangible Action 5: Within one year of signing, begin
purchasing or producing at least 15% of the institution’s
electricity consumption from renewable sources.

Angelo Dam Project --Sparta Campus

Cashton Wind Project

New Student Government Sustainability Fund
Tangible Action 6: Establish a policy or committee that
supports climate and sustainability shareholder proposals
at companies where our institution’s endowment is
invested.

Western addresses this through procurement by attempting to select
vendors who have sustainable attributes and practices.
WESTERN’S PROGRESS AND TANGIBLE
ACTIONS CONTINUED
 Tangible
Action 7: Participate in the Waste
Minimization component of the national
RecycleMania competition, and adopt 3 or more
associated measures to reduce waste.

Participate in RecycleMania (2010)

Recycling Committee

Plastics 1 &2, paper, aluminum, steel, tin, and glass can
be recycled

Confidential papers --shredded and recycled
WHAT IS “CLIMATE NEUTRALITY?”
 Climate
neutrality means having no net
greenhouse gas emissions. This can be
achieved by minimizing greenhouse gas
emissions as much as possible, and using
carbon offsets or other measures to mitigate
the remaining emissions.
WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT?
A carbon footprint is, “the total set of greenhouse gas
emissions caused directly and indirectly by an
individual, organization, event, or product.” (UK
Carbon Trust 2008).
 Online, you can calculate various carbon footprints at
sites such as: www.carbonfootprint.com,
www.terrapass.com, www.footprintnetwork.org, and
many others.
 How it works: You add in factors such as size of your
living accommodations, commuting choices, food
choices (meat and local), air travel, waste generation,
and the like.

WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT? CONT.
Carbon footprint calculators generally tell you how
many tons of carbon your lifestyle produces per year,
how many planets we would need if everyone lived
like you, and how many acres of land you would need
to support your lifestyle.
 For example: I live in a 500 sq. ft. apartment, use my
car rarely, live modestly, buy somewhat locally
produced food, eat mostly produce, poultry and fish,
and enjoy weekend entertainment. My footprint is:
8.1 tons of carbon per year, it would take 3.8 planets
to support everyone on my lifestyle, and I would need
17 acres of arable land to support myself.
(FootPrintNetwork and CarbonFootprint). The
average US citizen’s footprint is 23 tons.

WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT? CONT.

The average carbon footprint for a family of four
living in one house with two automobiles is 16.2 tons
of CO2 per person per year. It would take 4.8 planets
per person to support the entire world population at
this standard of living. 21.5 global acres per person is
needed to feed each person at this standard of living
as well (CarbonFootprint and FootPrintNetwork).
WHAT IS WESTERN’S FOOTPRINT?
Still
to be determined.
SUSTAINABILITY NAVIGATION
SESSION RESULTS
Johnson Controls Inc. hosted a Sustainability
Navigation Session on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at
Western Technical College.
 There were 38 participants, composed of staff,
faculty, students, and a few community members.
 Participants went through Visioning and Objectives,
a Needs Assessment, a Practices Assessment, and
Idea Generation.
 The purpose was to find out what environmental,
economic, and social practices and needs the college
has, and how Western can use this information for
future planning.

SUSTAINABILITY NAVIGATION SESSIONS
CONT.

Western’s “Top 10” Sustainability Needs (Based on needs assessment):

1. Reduce energy usage across all operations

2. Obtain adequate funding for sustainability projects

3. Increase the use of energy from renewable sources

4. Provide effective occupant training on energy and environmental issues

5. Increase the level of waste recycling

6. Reduce the impact of energy cost volatility

7. Increase use of energy-efficient building systems and equipment

8. Reduce operating costs across the organization

9. Attract new customers through sustainability initiatives

10. Reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions
SUSTAINABILITY NAVIGATION SESSIONS

Western’s “Top 10” Sustainability Practices (Based on practices assessment):

1. Energy and Environmental Education Program

2. Distributed Power Generation

3. Employee Sustainability Communications Program

4. Sustainability Marketing and Public Relations

5. Sustainability Funding Grants and Initiatives

6. Renewable Energy Systems Design and Operation

7. Recycling Program

8. Demand-side Energy Management

9. Sustainability Strategic Planning

10. Green Products and Services
IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES-RELATIVE IMPACT
(BASED ON STATISTICAL MODEL)
SUSTAINABILITY NAVIGATION SESSIONS
 Recommendations & Next Steps:
• Review needs and practices data for opportunity to:
• Corroborate information already gathered
• Prioritize goals that are identified based on cross-functional feedback
gained from Sustainability Workshop
• Fold into an overall sustainability plan
• Address Barriers to Success
• Acknowledge barriers in your Sustainability Plan
• Determine which can be overcome and create plans or task force to do it
• Identify which barriers are more systemic and will need to be managed
to minimize their impact on the success of your Plan implementation
• Turn Plan into Action
• Assemble implementation teams that own various high priority goals in
the plan and assign completion timeline
RECYCLING COMMITTEE

Co-chairs– Julie Dahl & Cindy Kartman

Members: Dennis Deml
Kay Kastenschmidt
Shannon Havlik
Erica Black
Steven Meger
Pete Bemis
Mark Harris
RECYCLING COMMITTEE
RECYCLING COMMITTEE
Phase ONE
Begin with Staff & Faculty Participation and Our
Work Areas
 Phase TWO
Focus on Student Participation and Classroom
Areas
 Phase THREE
Start to Examine More Areas; Contracts with
Vendors, College-wide Purchases, etc.

RECYCLING COMMITTEE

New Website: http://www.westerntc.edu/green

Has information about Western’s sustainable
initiatives, Recycling Green Team resources, Frog
Blog, classes, etc.
RECYCLING COMMITTEE

New Bin Labels!

Co-Mingled labels are blue with materials listed that
are acceptable.

Paper labels are green with materials listed that are
acceptable.

Blue and green “NO” signs list what is not acceptable.

It’s Easy Being Green frog on all labels.
RECYCLING COMMITTEE
On average, Western (La Crosse Campus) has been
generating 286,960 pounds of trash per year. This
equates to about 1,550 adult males, or 0.71 blue
whales!
 On a happier note, Western has been recycling an
average of 40,760 pounds of cardboard and paper,
and 4,540 pounds of co-mingled material per year.
 We can do better!

WESTERN’S GREEN ENERGY
INITIATIVES
Cashton
Greens Wind Farm Project
Angelo Dam Hydroelectric Turbine
(Sparta Campus)
CASHTON GREENS WIND FARM PROJECT
Partnering with Cooperative Regions of Organic
Producer Pools (CROPP) and Gundersen Lutheran
 Two 2.5 Megawatt (MW) turbines to be placed in the
Cashton Greens Business Park, near Organic Valley’s
Distribution Center

Cashton Greens Wind Farm
Cashton Green Wind Facility
(Two 2.5MW Furlaender Turbines)
Installation Cost
$
11,222,720
$
$
14,454,000
0.09
1,300,860
Operations/Maintenance - Local
Operations/Maintenance - Factory Basic
Electric Usage
Insurance
Leasehold Expense
Admin./Financial Management
Repair Reserves
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
60,000
2,000
32,000
15,000
5,000
100,000
214,000
Net Revenue
$
1,086,860
Revenue
kWh/yr
PPA Rate ($/kWh)
Electric Revenue - Annual
Expenses*
* does not factor in depreciation or financing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxOYwWu7Xcc
ANGELO DAM PROJECT
The Angelo Dam will be retrofitted for a
hydroelectric turbine
 The dam is located near Western’s Sparta Campus
 The turbine will be able to supply up to 948,500
kilowatt hours of renewable electricity per year,
which is more than enough to power the Sparta
Campus
 Excess electricity will be sold back to the power grid
 The project will allow Western to meet its renewable
energy goals for the Presidents Climate Commitment

Angelo Dam
Angelo Dam
(205kW Kaplan Turbine)
Installation Cost
$
1,000,000
kWh/yr
PPA Rate ($/kWh)
Electric Revenue - Annual
$
$
948,500
0.088
83,468
Green Renewal Energy Certificate (REC)
$
22,041
Total Annual Revenue
$
105,509
Revenue
PROGRAMMING
Western is striving for across-the-curriculum
sustainability involvement.
 Classes will be asked to address sustainability and
make students more aware of Western’s efforts and
environmentally conscious practices and issues.
 In the future, Western seeks to offer courses and
programs related to renewable energies and “green”
technologies.
