Archive for the ‘Climate change’ Category:
New Carbon Protocol Targets Universities
Yesterday, American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an organization of nearly 600 leading colleges and universities, released its own carbon protocol. Don’t we have enough of those, you might ask? There’s the Chicago Climate Exchange, the Voluntary Carbon Standard, CDM, the Gold Standard, Green-e, and the California Climate Action Registry has their climate action reserve. The thing is, all of these protocols just serve to make us all more confused, right? This protocol takes a different approach, offering university offset buyers a practical solution to the quandary of which offsets to buy.
The signatories of the ACUPCC agree to pursue climate neutrality in campus operations and incorporate climate and sustainability issues into the educational experience for all students. A key component of this pledge is a climate action plan, including annual carbon inventories and regular public reporting on progress toward climate neutrality.
ACUPCC decided to take a new spin on the carbon protocol mania. They have created a set of guidelines specifically for universities to help their member organizations to make good decisions if and when they buy offsets. It covers all those things carbon junkies know to worry about: (whether those offsets are real, verifiable, additional, and permanent), but the goal of the protocol is to make it easier for university buyers to make the right choice. What a concept.
Says Georges Dyer, Senior Fellow at Second Nature, “the fact of the matter is, offsets are something some schools will use to meet goals. Our intent with this protocol is to help schools figure out how to use offsets in their carbon neutrality plan, which principals to abide by when purchasing offsets, and what to avoid and how to engage in the market.â€
The protocol was developed by a sixteen member Working Group, chaired by David Hales, President of College of the Atlantic. The design process also included experts from dozens of offset-related organizations, including the Center for Resource Solutions, the Offset Quality Initiative, Second Nature and members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
FMI visit: www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org
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Doing Business in a Green Office Building
For a growing number of people, sustainable living means endeavoring as ecopreneurs for organizations with missions they believe in while working in a “green office†space that incorporates green or sustainable design. Typically, “green design†addresses energy efficiency, preservation of resources and the minimization of detrimental effects of construction - if not also improving the health and well-being of the local community as a whole. Some ecopreneurs might work from a home green office, like me, while others find it necessary to gather in office spaces that are, in various ways, ecologically sound and healthier for all.
In State College, Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to tour the 2,400 square feet Matson & Associates Eco-Building, home to three ecopreneurial enterprises: Matson & Associates, an environmental assessment services company, often engaged to provide “expert witness†testimonials on some of the most timely waste processes issues; Envinity, a green building and home energy audit consultancy; and Matson Biofuels, a company developing a more ecological and non-toxic approach to making biodiesel called Green Biodiesel. For all three of these triple bottom line green enterprises, it’s not just what you create with your product or service — but where you work to create it.
As one of the first examples of green architecture and integrated energy efficient design in State College, the Matson & Associates Eco-Building received the Energy Star certification as a residential office in 2007. The Energy Star certification designates buildings that use 30 percent or less energy than similar code compliant buildings. As an added bonus, the construction cost of this green building was no greater than that for a conventional one.