Carleton’s decision to depart from a focus on carbon neutrality hinges in part on concerns that many carbon offsets don’t deliver on the emissions reductions they promise (see “Going Greener”). But in one case, verified carbon credits are right in our midst. In December, the College announced it would buy the first-ever offsets offered by Northfield’s Community Action Center (CAC), made possible only through the vision and hard work of Carleton students.
In 2021, the CAC food shelf received 276,581 pounds of food destined for the landfill, and diverted it into three streams: 69 percent went to the CAC food shelf, 39 percent was donated to a local farmer for animal feed, and one percent was turned into compost. Of that, Carleton’s Food Recovery Network (FRN) chapter—a group of student volunteers who collect food from Cub Foods and Carleton’s dining halls for reuse—recovered 100,000 pounds.
Behind the scenes, student researchers in Carleton’s Environmental Advisory Committee set out to do some complicated math: Under the guidance of Erica Zweifel, assistant director of community impact at the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, they used the EPA’s WARM (Waste Reduction Model) tool to quantify that this 2021 work diverted the equivalent of 320 metric tons of carbon dioxide from local landfills, a calculation peer reviewed by Clarkson University, validated by the NGO Second Nature, and put up for sale by the CAC.
While the dollar value of these offsets totals less than $10,000, it’s a much-needed boost to the work of the CAC. Literally converting trash into budget relief for the nonprofit, the volunteer project also provides a first-of-its-kind proof of concept for FRN work. This student-developed protocol can now be applied to food recovery work in 2022, 2023, 2024, and into the future.
Beck Woollen ’23, now a postgraduate associate researching carbon capture in Yale Professor Noah Planavsky’s lab, helped write the protocol behind these offsets. “This program simply couldn’t function without student involvement and a strong relationship between Carleton and Northfield,” he said. “And the fact that we can invest back in the community in a way that’s beneficial for the College, the food shelf, and the community is terrific. It’s such a win-win.”