Carbon Neutral by 2030

By decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions, 减少能源消耗，用太阳能和风能等可再生能源清洁能源供应, Smith is making good on its promise to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Acting against climate change is a community-wide endeavor. Across campus, faculty, 学生和工作人员正在调查和测试有关气候科学的创新想法, 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

通过隔离或抵消我们释放的等量碳或温室气体(GHG)排放，实现净零碳排放.

Renewable energy sources

Naturally-occurring and constantly replenished sources, such as sun and wind.

Non-renewable sources

Transitioning the global economy from non-renewable sources, such as coal and natural gas, to renewable sources is critical for mitigating climate change.

Geothermal Energy

In summer 2022, 澳门葡京博彩软件开始着手一项创新的校园地热能源项目，该项目将使学院的碳排放量减少令人瞠目的90%, allowing the college to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Learn More About the Project Geothermal Project Timeline

“It’s the largest capital project in Smith’s history,” says David DeSwert, vice president for finance and administration. “在未来10年，它将占我们资本支出的35%至40%.”

Beyond that, the work fully aligns with the college’s mission and vision. “我们知道对澳门葡京博彩软件来说采取行动很重要，因为我们相信我们在校园运营中所做的事情反映了我们的价值观，以及我们在课堂上教给学生的东西,” DeSwert says.

地热能项目可能是澳门葡京博彩软件致力于可持续发展的最具体证据, 但这只是澳门葡京博彩软件利用其资源实现其既定价值的众多方式之一, DeSwert says. “我们还在捐赠基金中采取了行动，从化石燃料(资产)管理公司的投资中撤资,” he says. “We believe in taking a comprehensive approach to practice what we preach.”

Newly laid distribution pipes next to the Davis Center

Our Commitments

Smith joined Second Nature (The Climate Leadership Network) by signing the Carbon Commitment. In doing so, 该学院承诺制定一项气候行动计划，其中包括“尽快实现碳中和的目标日期”.” Smith’s Sustainability and Climate Action Management Plan (SCAMP), released in 2010, 概述了到2030年实现碳中和的各种战略和技术.

In 2015, President Kathleen McCartney formed a Study Group on Climate Change (SGCC), made up of staff, faculty, trustees, alums and students, tasked with facilitating a campuswide examination 澳门葡京博彩软件如何才能最有效地应对全球气候变化的挑战. The study group’s work culminated in 2017 with a set of recommendations and priorities for academic offerings, campus programming and operations.

2020年12月，麦卡特尼总统通过加入联合国教科文组织，强调了澳门葡京博彩软件的坚持 “All In” 由数千个机构、州和国家签署的气候行动运动.

A chart showing Smith's carbon emissions.

Big Moves for Sustainability

Research, 澳门葡京博彩软件的教学和领导——以及那些将这些思想内化并在毕业后将其付诸实践的学生——旨在在对抗气候变化的斗争中掀起波澜.

Learn More

Current Initiatives

In 2016, we completed the Smith College Campus Decarbonization Study. As a result, the college charted a course to convert the existing heating, cooling, and electricity system from fossil fuel gas to renewable electric sources.

澳门葡京博彩软件进行了地质、工程和财务分析，以完善这一计划. 这项工作是由学生和教师对州和联邦政策的研究提供的, renewable sources in the New England region, evolving science around renewable technologies, battery storage, and much more.

As of 2021, 该学院正在设计和实施一种新的可再生能源区域能源系统. The system will be implemented over the course of the next 9 years.

Testing the Ground for its Potential
To investigate the viability of geothermal heat exchange for our campus, a test borehole was drilled in the ground near the Field House to evaluate the soil, hydraulic characteristics, and thermal response under our campus.  Then, a heat pump was installed in the Field House and connected to the borehole, which provided heating and cooling through ground-source heat exchange.

Fleet
学院有大约86辆车来支持运营、学术、研究和学生工作. As of 2021, four of those were hybrid or all-electric vehicles.  Faculty and student research such as 碳中和不应成为最终目标:美国对机构气候行动的经验教训.S. Higher Education and Electrifying Landscape Management are guiding future fleet electrification strategies and goals.  

Commuting
Smith, located in a fairly rural setting, is nearby a variety of alternative transportation options including bus, rideshare, and bikeshare programs.  而与学生通勤相关的碳排放几乎不存在，因为我们是一所住宿学院, over 90% of staff and faculty drive alone to and from work. 我们正在评估我们的停车和替代交通激励计划，看看我们如何能增加零排放交通的使用.  

Academic-related travel
In 2018, students Cara Dietz ‘18, Eliana Gevelber ‘18, and Gray Li ‘18, 评估了澳门葡京博彩软件的采购记录，以估计与我们作为一所大学购买的商品和服务的供应链相关的碳排放量, also known as Scope 3 emissions.  Their research found that air travel by faculty, staff, and students, paid for by the college accounts for almost 20% of our Scope 3 carbon emissions.  This does not account for student-funded travel associated with college.  While Smith is not actively working to reduce college-funded travel, 我们将利用疫情期间关于远程工作和召集会议的经验教训，鼓励教职员工在起飞前停下来，发挥创造力.

Smith has been implementing strategies for reducing waste on campus for decades.

While recycling, composting and reusing materials has become the norm, several unique initiatives have taken shape recently.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NEW INITIATIVES

2018年春季，可持续发展委员会选择每百万吨二氧化碳当量70美元作为碳排放的内部化成本, or proxy carbon price, 帮助指导澳门葡京博彩软件的主要资本预算管理和其他决策过程. In 2018, President Kathleen McCartney also signed the Higher Education Carbon Pricing Endorsement Initiative to demonstrate Smith College’s support for carbon pricing.

The adoption was informed by Breanna Parker's ’18 honors thesis called Designing a Proxy Carbon Price Strategy for Smith College, advised by Alex Barron (ES&P), Susan Sayre(经济学)和Dano Weisbord(校园可持续发展和校园规划执行董事). Parker’s thesis won a national Campus Sustainability Research Award 高等教育可持续发展促进协会于2018年颁发的. 帕克的工作也为发表在同行评议期刊上的一篇合作论文奠定了基础 Elementa.

Smith academic papers exploring carbon proxy pricing

Video - overview of carbon pricing toolkit

Smith has seven solar arrays on it’s buildings: Ford Hall, the Indoor Track and Tennis (ITT) Facility, the Campus Center, McConnell Hall, 67 West Street (a Smith-owned apartment building), the Bechtel Environmental Classroom at the MacLeish Field Station, and the Center for Early Childhood Development. 

Together, the systems on Ford Hall and the ITT facility produce about 550,大约相当于我们校园用电量的2%.

Co-op Power Project
In Spring 2017, Smith College partnered with the Co-op Power's Community Solar team to develop a local solar financing model for local nonprofits. 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, 帮助利用太阳能税收优惠，降低非营利组织的总体成本. Nonprofits don't qualify for those tax incentives on their own. This innovative model brings the cost savings of solar to the nonprofit community. Smith College was the first nonprofit to sign on through the pilot phase of this program.

Student Highlight:

Eleanor Adachi's '17 honor project "Designing a photovoltaic array for Smith College"

In 2018, Smith, Amherst, Bowdoin, 汉普郡学院和威廉姆斯学院组成了一个名为新英格兰学院可再生伙伴关系(NECRP)的合作项目，签约了46年,将在法明顿建造的新太阳能发电设施每年将产生1000万兆瓦时的电力, Maine. 该协议是新英格兰高等教育合作购买太阳能的第一个例子, and one of the first such multi-college collaborations in the United States. 项目细节可以在网站上找到，该网站是澳门葡京博彩软件的学生拉里萨·霍兰德20岁开发的，作为她对 Farmington Solar Project.

The project supplies 28% of the campus electricity needs, all of our scope 2 emissions (purchased electricity), which are 10% of our total carbon emissions.

Smith has been committed to sourcing sustainable dining options for some time now. 寻找当地农场和尽可能使用植物性替代品是近年来获得势头的两种方法. Even without removing specific items from the menu, Smith is on track to cut the consumption of red meat by 15% by 2024.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RECENT MEASURES

Refrigerants make up less than 1% of Smith’s emissions profile. 制冷剂释放排放在澳门葡京博彩软件工厂很少发生，只在某些维护过程和设备故障时发生. 作为一种实践，校园已经试图减少这些类型的释放，并转向危害较小的制冷剂, such as 410, when available during equipment replacements.  We reclaim all refrigerants when equipment is decommissioned.