Category: Transportation

SOPE (Students Organized for the Protection of the Environment) announced this past week the start of a new transportation option for Carleton students. In addition to the existing Yellow Bikes program, which provides and maintains bicycles for free, on-campus use, the Green Bikes program will allow students to take the bikes off-campus. Each of the four bikes is equipped with a milk crate to help students ride downtown for groceries or other errands. The program is open to all students. To borrow a green bike, go to Campus Activities. You will be given keys and a lock and you will be expected to return the bike in a timely manner. The initiative is sponsored by SOPE with assistance from the Yellow Bikes Club and the Campus Activities Office, in hopes that students will choose to travel between campus and downtown Northfield by bicycle rather than by car. The program will also make going into town more convenient for students in general. (Thanks to Ray McGaughey)

It is clear that air travel is a significant contributor to global climate change. Studies indicate that aviation is currently responsible for 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions and air travel is only becoming more and popular. In 1999, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that air plane greenhouse gas emissions will increase tenfold between 1992 and 2050. Traveling 2,000 miles in an airplane emits approximately the same amount of carbon dioxide as driving 1,900 miles in a mid-sized car. However, Greenhouse gases emitted from airplanes have particularly damaging effects because of the altitude at which gases are released.

These disheartening numbers may compel you to look into purchasing carbon offsets along with your next plane ticket. Fortunately, there are currently dozens of companies through which individuals or organizations can neutralize their carbon emissions from flying. Such offsets can take multiple forms: investing in renewable energy (such as wind, biomass or solar), energy-efficiency projects (such as compact fluorescent lights, refrigerators) or biological sequestration (such as planting trees that will uptake carbon). There is a range of quality and standards amongst carbon offset companies, yet, there is currently no universal regulatory body governing the way in which companies use consumers’ money. As such, it is up to consumers of these voluntary offsets to do their homework and ask lots of questions before choosing a company that they believe will most effectively offset their carbon emissions. When making this decision for yourself, you may want to check out company websites and send a few e-mails to find the answer to some of the following questions:

Is the carbon-offset company a non-profit or not? What percentage of their sales go towards operating costs? You may feel that you’re getting the most bang for your buck if a high percentage of your money is going directly towards offset projects. Non-profits generally put more money directly towards projects (as opposed to operating costs). However, it is not entirely clear how different companies define “project implementation” funds versus operating cost funds.

What sorts of projects do they invest in? Renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects avoid emissions, whereas as sequestration projects absorb emissions that have already entered the atmosphere. Sequestration projects generally deal with the land use. This can be a little bit of a bargain as it can be difficult to predict what sort of diseases or human activity will plague a forest in the future.

If the company is investing in projects that would be carried out regardless of your financial support or receives renewable energy credits for a project, in addition to selling you offsets, then you are not actually offsetting your emissions. Such a company would not be worth your money.

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KRLX, Carleton’s student-run radio station, has recently initiated a rideshare program. The system, which is in its infancy, allows students who need rides or who can provide rides to various concerts to sign up on a sheet outside of the KRLX studio (in the basement of Sayles-Hill Campus Center). Students can leave their name, email address, the date and the artist of the concert, and whether they’re looking for or providing a ride, and other students can contact them. While this is a great way to give students opportunities for transportation that they may not otherwise have, it also makes sense from an environmental perspective. Limiting the number of vehicles necessary to go between Northfield and the Twin Cities can minimize the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our music-loving ways.

After several years of discussion and planning, the ENTS Department and the Environmental Advisory Committee have unleashed some wild new creatures upon Carleton’s campus: Sustainability Assistants! Charged with the task of working with staff and students to bring a better understanding and implementation of sustainability to the Carleton community, these four students work one-on-one with heads of Dining Services, Facilities, Grounds, and Intercultural Life and are assigned to be resources for individual dorms. And now, introductions:

Becky Dernbach is working with the Office of Intercultural Life on social and cultural sustainability. She is very concerned that American environmentalism is often seen, and with good reason, as a privileged movement, so she is thrilled, though daunted, to take on the seemingly insurmountable task of trying to mend that chasm at Carleton this year. Building bridges, making connections, and hopefully inciting compassionate revolution are among her goals for the year. Becky is the sustainability assistant for Burton, Davis, and Sevy.

As the Sustainability Assistant focusing on Carbon Neutrality and Energy, Eliza Berry is working with Rob Lamppa, the Director of Energy Management in Facilities. This term, she hopes to publish a Code of Sustainable Conduct for all members of the Carleton community that will list easy ways in which students, faculty and staff can support sustainability in their daily lives. She is also researching the energy saving capability of the “Vending Misers” that have been proposed for the Sustainability Revolving Fund. “Vending Misers” are small devices that use motion detectors to put vending machines into a hibernation mode when there is no one around (such as late at night), thus hopefully cutting energy costs. Eliza has been really excited to learn all that that Facilities is doing to help create a greener campus. She is the Sustainability Assistant for Musser and Watson.

Katie Blanchard loves food and is therefore perfectly placed as the Sustainability Assistant with Joe Winegardner in Dining Services. She is currently working to increase awareness about the new Carleton Composts program and get it off to a good, efficient start. Additionally, she will be promoting local foods that are served in the Dining Halls and general understanding about all that it takes to serve thousands and thousands of meals every week at Carleton. Katie dreams of a Carleton Community Farm and Fair Trade bananas in the Dining Halls. She is the Sustainability Assistant to Goodhue and Evans.

As an STA working with Buildings and Grounds in the Facilities Department, Laura Oxtoby will be looking into chemical use on campus (lawn maintenance and snow removal are examples), helping to expand and improve Carleton’s composting program, and exploring the feasibility of clean energy maintenance equipment. She is especially excited to work on is landscaping at Carleton. Thinking about physical spaces and considering ways that outdoor areas can serve different purposes (enhance campus beauty, provide habitat for local wildlife, reduce runoff) is incredibly important to living more sustainably as a community. She loves sustainability because it’s a holistic, healthy mindset that inspires us to think of others and to think ahead. Laura is the Sustainability Assistant for Meyers and Nourse.

Together, the Sustainability Assistants are hoping to improved communication between faculty, staff, administration and student organizations about sustainability issues and projects.

A recent study undertaken by a researcher at Purdue University has found that in one Midwestern county, parking spaces outnumber residents three to one. Using software based upon aerial photographs, researcher Bryan Pijanowski has discovered that parking spaces are taking over Tippecanoe County in Indiana. This study has important environmental ramifications that connect to pollution, land use, and even global warming.

Even at Carleton, there is a lot of land dedicated to parking. Last year, on a Friday during convocation, student volunteers counted 588 vehicles on campus, roughly one car for every three students on campus. Furthermore, last year there were 455 student permits issued, along with 1,178 faculty/staff permits.

Parking stress has been a critical issue on campus and the demand for more parking spaces does not come without its costs. You wouldn’t think it when you look at them, but parking lots are hotspots of environmental degradation. Certainly, on a most basic level, parking lots mean less space for plants and animals to inhabit, but the environmental impacts of parking go much deeper.

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In a study released this week, the Texas Transportation Institute found that congestion is getting worse for American commuters. The study reports that Americans spent 4.2 billion hours in traffic congestion in 2005. This figure corresponds to an annual delay of 38 hours for the average peak-hour commuter, almost a full week of work (or vacation). Additionally, these delays led to 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel. According to EPA calculators, this means that over 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide is emitted annually due to urban congestion in the U.S., a number roughly equal to the entire carbon dioxide emissions of Peru, Ecuador, or Cuba.

To read the full report, click here.