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« Trunk Show | Main | Capital Trembles as TCPR Hires Seibert » February 20, 2007UT Promises to Go Green
It's not just an environmental pledge - it also commits the university to "integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience." I was unable to find a UT press release announcing its promise to go green, though signatories to the pledge also promise to make the related "action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available." Update: Maryland blogger Brian Griffiths notes that when public universities sign up for the green promise, it's going to cost taxpayers. Posted in Environmentalism
Comments
I've seen these kind of things in the UK where people claim to reduce their carbon emissions by 70% or more. Usually they do a few things with lights and AC and via some clever accounting Voila! UT will continue to buy power from TVA which is heavily coal fired and have goods delivered by outside vendors etc. Posted by: Dave Moelling at February 21, 2007 8:34 AMWell, I just hope they're eliminating meat in the school cafeteria! Posted by: Eric Scheie at February 21, 2007 8:38 AMI'll miss the orange. Posted by: Some Seppo at February 21, 2007 8:47 AMCongratulations University of Tennessee. Now we need to ask ourselves how to get the millions of individuals living in developing nations around the world to recognize the importance of environmental proection. Andrew Pass All you need to know about this is listed on the ACUP Climate Committment webpage entitled "Solutions". Check it out. Posted by: Mike Anderson at February 21, 2007 9:11 AMHow can carbon emissions be cut to zero without getting rid of the people who continue to breathe? Don't you have to shut the university down in order to approach the goal? Posted by: Geoff Keyes at February 21, 2007 9:23 AMTo hell with eliminating carbon emissions. We all know it's the methane emitted by cows that is the problem. Posted by: News 2 Me at February 21, 2007 9:38 AMPssst. Hey Buddy. Want to buy some carbon offsets? Seriously, I'm sure there's a way to cut it to zero, theoretically, and substantially zero, in practice. But just because you can't get to zero doesn't make the goal a frivolous objective. This is a long term commitment, just as the energy efficiency effort of the 70's - 90's was and it will take many years to complete. Let's just be sure it is done, wisely. We will see how wisely it starts when the Solutions page, linked in a previous comment, has something on it. If there is any allusion to using carbon offsets we'll know the games have begun. Posted by: Dusty at February 21, 2007 10:15 AMNotice to students, Don't breathe, Don't drink carbonated drinks and by all means Don't smoke. Posted by: Milt at February 21, 2007 10:24 AMBubbling C02 and the nitrogen oxide emissions from coal plants into waste-water canals seeded with high yield algae can easily mitigate 25% of TVAs fossil emissions and perform municipal tertiary waste water treatment at the same time. The result: clean air; clean water and an algae biomass that (by using almost-free off-peak electricity from the co-gen plant next door) is easily refined into biodiesel and ethanol to replace oil-based fossil fuels. The algae by-product IS the ultimate feed stock for biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol because: 1) the transportation costs are eliminated by taking advantage of the algae flow through the canals as is the excessive land use requirements of other feedstocks. 2) the nutrient/fertilizer costs are handled with municipal waste water; with the biomass acting as a purification process 3) and the waste CO2, nitrogen oxides, and heat from the electric plant encourage fast growth throughout the year. It's all a matter of synergy in combining existing technologies in a cost effective manner.
Possibly all students and faculty will be required to wear new plant-based clothes to absorb their carbon emissions. Either way I foresee an increase in alumni-begging. It's for the children/planet. Posted by: tom c at February 21, 2007 10:57 AMI wonder what could have been saved had they not replaced all of the light-switch covers with new, plastic ones that say, "UT Goes Green"? (or perhaps even used stickers, instead of entirely new plates?) Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 11:16 AMLeave it to Universities to believe that their Going Green will make any difference in the temperature/s on the earth's surface. Sounds like another "feel good" idea; "We Are The World" solved the food problem in Ethiopia didn't it? Posted by: John at February 21, 2007 7:54 PMYou can bet the only green seen at UT will be coming out of the pockets of the students and the parents of students. Enough to make us see more Alabama red like the carpet in former UT president Shumaker's office. Posted by: Rick Forman at February 21, 2007 9:40 PMPost a comment
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The University of Tennessee is the first and so far the only Tennessee college or university to sign the 