For Robyn and Isaac especially!

We were wondering exactly how you calculated the offset for the Waste-to-Energy program. It says "To calculate the offset of Veolia Environmental services Waste-to-Energy program, figures for the campus' tons of garbage were collected and were first input into the CACPCCC as if the waste were disposed of into a landfill instead of through the program...This value was then again put into the CACPCCC to generate carbon emissions generated within the Waste-to-Energy program." As far as inputing these goes, can you perform a calculation in solely one area of the calculator without having any other data in there? Thanks!

Class Log 2/10/2010

Is it possible for someone to be connected to a place and not feel a responsibility towards it and the surrounding world? We began today's discussion by reading from Kolbert, page 60, and discussing how little people in America today tend to notice the world around them. There are certainly exceptions, such as the Citizen Science Center at Beaver Creek Reserve, but the spread of cities has made it really difficult for people to make connections with specific places, as has been common at other times and places.

From there, we dove into the transportation section of 2008 CNT report.

ACUPCC, UWEC, the CNT, and Me

Today, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich presented on a variety of topics. Most important of these was the reasons that he signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The Chancellor saw that the ACUPCC's goals for sustainability coincided with university visions for the future and current initiatives already in place. Opportunities, such as the construction of a new Davies Center, the desire to decrease energy consumption, increased faculty-student collaborative research projects, and increasing awareness of the Clean Commute Initiative (CCI) were among some of the reasons that were cited this morning. Chancellor Levin-Stankevich briefly mentioned the financial aspects as well as a means to help change student, faculty, and staff behavior on the UW-Eau Claire campus.

This multi-disciplinary collaborative effort to quantify the carbon emissions from campus is a great experience. It is an opportunity for you to bring your experiences from your respective disciplines in order to tackle this relevant societal issue. Achieving carbon neutrality, as our Chancellor has pledged, is a delicate process. This was illustrated by the wide range of visitors we had today in class. Dr. Jim Boulter, Dr. Kim Pierson, Dr. Jim Phillips, and Lynn Peterson are among the dozens of people on our campus collaborating to make this happen.

With that being said, I wanted to share a bit about my experience with the Carbon Neutral Team (CNT) and our document you were handed today in class. As a member of the first team to calculate the carbon emissions inventory for our campus, I experienced first hand some of the problems and rewards that are in your future over the next fifteen weeks.