UM carbon impact inventoried

The University of Montana’s first-ever campus greenhouse gas inventory found that UM emitted 42,690 metric tons of carbon dioxide at its two Missoula campuses in 2007 and its emissions have increased in the last seven years.
The study is part of a larger campus-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In February 2007, President George Dennison became a signatory of the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment.
Phil Condon, an environmental studies professor and faculty adviser to the group of students who conducted the survey, said UM was one of the first 100 institutions to sign the ACUPCC, which now includes over 600 member institutions.

One requirement of membership in the ACUPCC is the carbon emission study, which is available on UM’s Web site.
“It’s very easy to talk about being green or sustainable, but until you can quantify that, it’s really just rhetoric,” said Jessie Davie, ASUM’s sustainability coordinator. “Now we can track any changes, whether they are positive or negative.”
Davie, an environmental studies graduate student, spearheaded the 38-page study, which takes into account UM’s central campus as well as the College of
Technology. She started collecting data in October 2007 and continued through last May.
Data dating back to 2000 was plugged into special software called the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Climate Calculator, which calculated UM’s emissions.
The report found that UM’s emissions came from three main sources: on-campus steam production (36 percent), transportation (32 percent), and purchased electricity (31 percent).
Over 20 recommendations for decreasing emissions came from the report, including continued improvement of UM’s steam tunnel system, installing temperature controls for all campus buildings, appointing energy monitors for every building, pursuing energy alternatives like wind energy and increasing the size of UM’s bus fleet.
“One encouraging thing that we did see was that even though commuter emissions were pretty high, we’re doing pretty well compared to other schools. So that’s kind of unique to Missoula,” Davie said.
The numbers aren’t completely accurate or all-encompassing. The carbon impact of Grizzly Athletics was not included due to the overwhelming task of collecting and tracking that data.
Also, upstream emissions, which include student travel to and from their hometowns, were not included.
“It’s not a wholly accurate accounting system. It’s the best we can do at this time,” Davie said.
Now the University will use this inventory to create a comprehensive climate action plan that will set tangible targets for reducing future emissions,
Davie said. 
“The end goal is to achieve carbon neutrality, but in the interim we need to be setting achievable reduction goals,” she said.
Condon said the University must concentrate on stemming the increase in emissions before focusing on stabilizing or decreasing them.
The action plan, which is slated for completion by Sept. 15, 2009, will be available online when it’s finished. Condon said the information would be made public “so that it has some accountability built into it.”
“We have recommended to the president and vice president that they founder a larger mechanism to (help with) this project because it’s a major undertaking,”
Condon said. “It takes full campus input.”
UM’s efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions play into Gov. Schweitzer’s 20X10 Initiative, which was established in January of this year.
Schweitzer is directing all state agencies to reduce their energy use by 20 percent by the end of 2010.