Ad Hoc Committee on the OSU Carbon Commitment

Voting members present: Roberto Albertani, Marlys Amundson, Lety Cavazos, Tess Collins, Ed Dever, Grace Doleschel, Jon Dorbolo, Jillian Gregg, Kim Hannigan-Downs, Keith Jayawickrama, Leela Magdaleno, Cinnamon Moffet, Shelly Signs, Brandon Trelstad, Beth Filar Williams
Voting members absent: Jeff Gautschi, Gary Miller, Jacob Putney, Marianne Vydra
Guests present: Maddie Moyano
Notes taken by: Keith Jayawickrama

 

3:00-3:05 – Welcome, brief self-introductions

Previous meeting (October 6) minutes approved

3:05-3:20 – Working group reports. We spent little time on this since the reports were available to read.

• Conservation, Efficiency & Transportation  
• Education and Curriculum  

The support document has been in Box for a while. Trying to get links on Sustainability office page.

• Reporting and Communications

FY 2020 Carbon Emissions Report – Lety

Emissions dropping about 15,000 tons to 121,000 tonnes, mostly due to the pandemic. Campus footprint actually grew slightly to 11.0 million sq. feet, so tons per thousand square feet and tons per FTE also dropped. Biggest drops were in air travel (12.1 M fewer air miles) and purchased electricity (11.6 million kWh). Refrigerants went up 1,064 tons after 0 in 2019: this represents heating and cooling systems and reporting is sporadic.

The 15,000-ton decrease was from measures taken in the March-June time frame. We can expect decreases for FY21 as well since some restrictions have continued from the July 1 time onward.

Cogeneration did not go down much. We were getting out of the heating season by the time leadership imposed pandemic measures, so the co-generation did not change much.  We use all the electricity the co-gen plant generates, then buy the rest from PP&L, so cogeneration production stays fairly stable.

Jon: what this has shown that it is possible to reduce GHGs (whatever the cause). When C3 was established, some said the goal of reducing GHGs was unachievable. 

Brandon – agreed, this has been a case study. He thinks we won’t go back to the pre-pandemic inefficiencies in energy use. We will have different heating and cooling regimes in off-peak hours (say 11 PM at night) vs. normal business hours.

Keith: we will need senior leadership to back up such steps, since there are likely to be complaints by some (building is too hot \ too cold \ too dark during off-peak hours). Brandon: we can point to the $ savings in utilities (millions of $) which make it possible to avoid layoffs etc.

Roberto: Due to the pandemic we have learned to make some significant changes, such as running international conferences from our homes (via remote platforms)!

How does OSU GHG emissions compare with other peer institutions? We are OK, they will be listed in the report

Will put the FY 2020 report in C3 Box folder once the numbers are finalized.

Sensors in the library get an estimate of how many people are in the building, this could be one method to link heating\cooling etc. to building occupancy. It is possible to have an app on people’s phone as well but that would depend on co-operation from building users.

A few universities charge units (Departments, Colleges) for energy. OSU does not, so there is a disconnect between occupants and the payer (central admin). There are various scenarios to implementing such a system here, including starting with a baseline from the last few years (in order that units with old, inefficient buildings are not punished compared to others with new, low-energy-use buildings). Thus, improvements in a unit would reduce energy costs, while negligence would increase costs. There was some interest in OSU going down this path, but also concerns raised that pushing this solution (changing a long-established status quo) could result in animosity and friction and take attention away from a shared goal of reducing emissions.

C3 Membership

Faculty Senate admin is contacting Science and Education for reps. Not sure what will happen for ROTC. Grace is willing to be rep for ASOSU. May have a possible Graduate Student representative.

C3-Forum

We reviewed and discussed the outline.

Deans and Department Heads have a lot of leeway in the way money is spent, strategic plans, business plans. Please invite \ cajole \ persuade your unit head to attend the Forum if at all possible!

Maddie has investigated, and (sadly) only 2 Colleges and 3 Departments have any language about Carbon emissions. Check the strategic plans and try to influence them the next time they are reviewed!

Thinking of follow-up after the Forum: should we come up with draft language for Strategic Plans, to make it easier for units to incorporate such language if they wish to? Could that be a workgroup in C3? Add that as an agenda item for the January meeting

In terms of emissions reduction action by units, not a lot of movement since Ed Feser sent a message \ request to Unit Leaders in December 2019.

Shelly has set up the webinar, message will go out on “OSU Today” soon.

Sustainability Office has provided graphics to be used in marketing the Forum.

Co-hosts for Facebook events – Sustainability Office will be one. Contact your local publicity person (College or Department) and if they are willing to be a co-host, let Shelly know.

Please get the word out (personal contacts, Departmental newsletters, College newsletters)

ASOSU is not working over the winter break, so please send information on the Forum presentation to Grace before that.

Forum plan was approved!

Brandon suggested a further prep meeting for the Forum, and a dress rehearsal before the webinar.

Other news or business

C3 CET workgroup meeting on details of energy use, planning, finance etc. Dec 15-18. Brandon will send out a Doodle poll.

Next C3 meeting date (week of November 30 - December 4?)

Thursday 28^th January 2021 at 300 PM

 

Adjourned at 4:28 PM