Key points
Since February of 2018, Ithaca College has purchased 100% of its electricity from Green-e national wind farms
The switch moves IC closer to its 2050 goal of becoming carbon neutral
The college has not divested from fossil fuel companies
Drastic Difference
After making key changes, Ithaca College has slashed its carbon emissions by 35% after switching to completely renewable electric sources. Over the past two months, the college has purchased all of its electricity from Green-e certified wind farms.
In August of 2017, Ithaca College President Shirley Collado requested an assessment of the college’s progress towards its 2009 Climate Action Plan. A team from the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability (OEMS) recommended the changes to Collado, which she approved.
IC will receive its electricity exclusively from nationally certified wind farms. Photo Courtesy: Energynews.us
Overall, the college will rid itself of almost 7,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. As a result however, costs will increase by about 1.5%, around $35,000.
Greener Goals
The school’s goals stretch far beyond electricity. By 2050, the college wants to reach climate neutrality. Climate neutrality is achieved when the net carbon emissions is zero. Electricity covers a little more than a third of that goal.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol breaks down carbon emissions into three “scopes.”
Scope one deals with emissions directly coming from the college, such as fossils fuels burned for heating and operation of motor vehicles.
The move to renewable electricity falls under scope two, which deals exclusively with electrical emissions, which the college has cut down to zero.
Scope three deals with emissions indirectly related to the school. The gas used by students and faculty to get to the college fall under this category.
Greg Lischke, Director of Energy Management and Sustainability at Ithaca College, says the next step is cutting down on scope one emissions.
“Right now we’re at about 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, which I don’t see going away anytime soon,” Lischke said. “There are many geothermal opportunities and I think we can do it. But one of the problems we’re running into is a lot of these buildings have failing infrastructures that need to be replaced.”
Despite the changes, IC still has over 60% of its emissions to reduce before becoming climate neutral. Photo Courtesy: Edgesmartcard.com
Infrastructure doesn’t directly affect the carbon footprint. But if a building’s infrastructure completely fails, the college will be forced to bring in large maintenance vehicles that will burn several tons of fossil fuels. Lischke said to avoid this, the college has to take action before the problem balloons into something of that scale.
Some emissions are unavoidable, and that’s okay because carbon neutrality doesn’t mean all emissions have to be at zero. If the emissions are above zero however, the college must compensate by either offsetting that same amount so that it totals out to zero or by buying enough carbon credits to balance out their emissions. Lischke warns not to rely heavily on the latter.
“If Ithaca College wanted to get to zero in scope three we’d have to write a check to a carbon bank but we’d have to be careful,” Lischke said.
Since November of 2016, almost 10% of the college’s electricity has come from a solar farm. That 10% will now be used to offset some of the college’s scope three emissions.
The contracts the school has with the wind farms are secure through 2020, and both sides expect the contracts to be renewed.
New York State in Sync
IC is not alone in its quest to become emission free. New York State expects to invest up to $1.5 billion in renewable energy. Governor Andrew Cuomo said he wants 50% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030. SUNY is on board as well, recently joining the University Climate Change Coalition (UC3). UC3 is a collection of North American Universities dedicated to helping local communities become carbon free.
IC has used a template laid out by SUNY and UC3 to forward its own plans. In the future, a large scale renewable energy plant is expected to be sprout up in New York State. The facility will be big enough to power several schools, with IC potentially on that list. Lischke says if this happens, not only will the school’s 2050 goal become more feasible, but it will give IC all the more reason to divest from fossil fuel companies.
“I think we can accelerate [the 2050 goal] with the proper support,” Lischke said. “I don’t know if that means 2040 or 2035 but it’s not going to come at zero dollars, so the school and Collado have to be on board.”