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通过减少温室气体排放, reducing its energy consumption and cleaning up its energy supply with renewable sources such as solar and wind power, 澳门葡京博彩软件正在兑现其到2030年实现碳中和的承诺.

应对气候变化需要全社会共同努力. Across campus, faculty, students and staff are investigating and testing innovative ideas around climate science, engineering, public health, policy and design—all in an effort to move the college—and the world—toward a clean, healthy and equitable energy future.

The Basics

Carbon neutrality

Achieving net zero carbon emissions by sequestering or offsetting the equivalent amount of carbon or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as we release.

Renewable energy sources

自然产生并不断补充的资源,如太阳和风.

Non-renewable sources

从不可再生能源向全球经济转型, such as coal and natural gas, 利用可再生能源对减缓气候变化至关重要.

Geothermal Energy

In summer 2022, Smith began work on an innovative geothermal campus energy project that will reduce the college’s carbon emissions by an eye-popping 90%, 让学院在2030年前实现碳中和.

“这是澳门葡京博彩软件公司历史上最大的资本项目,” says David DeSwert, 财务和行政副总裁. “It will represent somewhere between 35% and 40% of our capital expenditures over the next 10 years.”

除此之外,这项工作完全符合学院的使命和愿景. “We knew it was important for Smith to take action on this because we believe that what we do in our campus operations reflects our values and what we’re teaching our students in the classroom,” DeSwert says.

The geothermal energy project may be the most concrete evidence of Smith’s commitment to sustainability, but it’s just one of many ways Smith uses its resources to live up to its stated values, DeSwert says. “We’ve also taken actions in our endowment to divest from investments in fossil-fuel-specific [asset] managers,” he says. “我们相信采取全面的方法来实践我们所宣扬的.”

戴维斯中心旁边新铺设的配电管道

Our Commitments

Smith joined 第二天性(气候领导网络) by signing the Carbon Commitment. In doing so, the college pledged to create a climate action plan that included a “target date for achieving carbon neutrality as soon as possible.澳门葡京博彩软件的可持续发展和气候行动管理计划(SCAMP), released in 2010, outlined various strategies and technologies to investigate to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

In 2015, 凯瑟琳·麦卡特尼总统成立了气候变化研究小组, made up of staff, faculty, trustees, alums and students, tasked with facilitating a campuswide examination of how Smith could most effectively respond to the challenge of global climate change. 该研究小组的工作在2017年达到高潮,形成了一套 recommendations and priorities 提供学术课程,校园规划和运营.

In December 2020, President McCartney underscored Smith’s persisting commitment by joining the “All In” movement on climate action signed by thousands of institutions, states and countries.

图表显示了澳门葡京博彩软件的碳排放量.

Big Moves for Sustainability

Research, teaching and leadership at Smith—and the students who internalize these ideas and live them out beyond graduation—are designed to make waves in the fight against climate change.

Learn More

Current Initiatives

2016年,我们完成了澳门葡京博彩软件校园脱碳研究. As a result, 该学院制定了改造现有供暖系统的方案, cooling, 电力系统从化石燃料天然气到可再生能源.

Smith has conducted geological, engineering, and financial analyses to refine this plan. This work has been informed by student and faculty research on state and federal policies, 新英格兰地区的可再生能源, 围绕可再生技术不断发展的科学, battery storage, and much more.

As of 2021, the college is in design and implementation of a new renewably-powered district energy system. 该系统将在未来9年内实施.

测试这块土地的潜力
探讨校园地热换热的可行性, 在野外房屋附近的地面上钻了一个测试钻孔来评估土壤, hydraulic characteristics, 以及校园下面的热响应.  Then, 在野外小屋安装了一台热泵,并与钻孔相连, 它提供加热和冷却 ground-source heat exchange.

Fleet
The college has around 86 vehicles to support operations, academics, research, and student work. 截至2021年,其中四辆是混合动力或全电动汽车.  教师和学生的研究,如 Carbon Neutrality Should Not Be the End Goal: Lessons for Institutional Climate Action From U.S. Higher Education and Electrifying Landscape Management 是否在指导未来的车队电气化战略和目标.  

Commuting
Smith, located in a fairly rural setting, 附近是否有其他交通方式,包括公共汽车, rideshare, and bikeshare programs.  While the carbon emissions associated with commuting for students is almost non-existent because we are a residential college, 超过90%的教职员工独自开车上下班. We are evaluating our parking and alternative transport incentive programs to see how we can increase use of zero-emissions transportation.  

Academic-related travel
In 2018, students Cara Dietz ‘18, Eliana Gevelber ‘18, and Gray Li ‘18, evaluated Smith’s purchasing records to estimate the carbon emissions associated with the supply chain of goods and services we purchase as a college, also known as Scope 3 emissions.  他们的研究发现,教员乘飞机旅行, staff, and students, 由学院支付的费用占我们第三类碳排放量的近20%.  这还不包括与大学相关的学生自费旅行.  虽然澳门葡京博彩软件并没有积极减少大学资助的旅行, we will use the lessons learned within the pandemic about remote work and convening to encourage faculty and staff to pause and get creative before they fly.

Smith has been 实施减少废物的策略 on campus for decades.

While recycling, 堆肥和再利用材料已成为常态, 最近已经形成了几项独特的倡议.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NEW INITIATIVES

In the spring of 2018 the Committee on Sustainability selected $70 per MTCO2e as the internalized cost of carbon emissions, or proxy carbon price, to help guide major capital budget management and other decision-making processes at Smith College. 2018年,凯瑟琳·麦卡特尼总统也签署了 高等教育碳定价认可倡议 来展示澳门葡京博彩软件对碳定价的支持.

领养是由布里安娜·帕克18年的荣誉论文通知的 澳门葡京博彩软件代理碳价格策略设计, advised by Alex Barron (ES&P), Susan Sayre (Economics) and Dano Weisbord (Executive Director of Campus Sustainability and Campus Planning). Parker’s thesis won a national 校园可持续发展研究大奖 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in 2018. Parker's work also laid the foundation for a collaborative paper published in the peer reviewed journal Elementa.

澳门葡京博彩软件的学术论文探讨碳代理定价

视频-碳定价工具包概述

澳门葡京博彩软件公司的建筑上有七个太阳能电池阵列:福特大厅, 室内田径和网球设施, the Campus Center, McConnell Hall, 西街67号(澳门葡京博彩软件拥有的公寓楼), 麦克利什野外站的贝克特尔环境教室, 以及儿童早期发展中心. 

Together, 福特大厅和ITT工厂的系统产生大约550个,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year equaling roughly 2% of our campus electricity consumption.

Co-op Power Project
2017年春季,澳门葡京博彩软件与 Co-op Power's Community Solar 为当地非营利组织开发当地太阳能融资模式的团队. Under this structure, 对房地产感兴趣的当地投资者投资于当地的非营利性太阳能项目, helping to use the solar tax incentives and bring down the overall costs for nonprofits. 非营利组织本身没有资格享受这些税收优惠. 这种创新模式为非营利组织节省了太阳能的成本. 澳门葡京博彩软件是第一个非营利组织 通过这个项目的试点阶段签约.

Student Highlight:

埃莉诺·安达奇的17年荣誉项目为澳门葡京博彩软件设计光伏阵列

In 2018, Smith, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire and Williams  colleges formed a collaborative called the New England College Renewable Partnership (NECRP) that contracted for 46,000 megawatt hours per year of  electricity created at a new solar power facility to be built in Farmington, Maine. This agreement is the first example of a collaborative purchase of solar energy in New England higher education, 也是美国最早的多学院合作项目之一. Project details can be found on the website that Smith student Larissa Holland '20 developed as part of her special studies on the Farmington Solar Project.

该项目可满足28%的校园用电需求, 我们所有的范围2排放(购买的电力), 哪些占我们总碳排放量的10%.

Smith has been 致力于寻找可持续的餐饮选择 for some time now. Seeking out local farms and using plant-based alternatives wherever possible are two such ways that have gained momentum in recent years. 即使没有从菜单中删除特定的项目, 澳门葡京博彩软件计划到2024年将红肉的消费量减少15%.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RECENT MEASURES

制冷剂在澳门葡京博彩软件公司的排放中所占比例不到1%. Emissions from refrigerant releases occur infrequently at Smith and happen during some maintenance processes and when there is equipment failure. As a practice the campus already tries to minimize these types of releases and moves to less harmful refrigerants, such as 410, 在设备更换期间可用.  当设备退役时,我们回收所有制冷剂.