As knowledge of the risks posed by greenhouse gases on the world’s environment becomes more widespread, companies and organizations have instituted initiatives hoping to reduce the amount of chemicals released into the earth’s atmosphere, including carbon monoxide and methane.
To assist in this effort, the University’s Office of Sustainability recently purchased 615 metric tons of verified emissions reductions — a type of carbon energy credit — to offset and neutralize the EMU’s greenhouse gas emissions during the school’s last fiscal year. The EMU’s carbon emissions totaled nearly 496 metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, close to 24 times more than the average U.S. household produces annually.
The energy credits were purchased through the Climate Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit organization that helps to fund various statewide renewable energy programs. The organization used the University’s transaction to fund initiatives by Lochmead Dairy in Junction City.
“We wanted to do a project that was close enough so that faculty and staff could visit and learn about it, and we felt the Junction City project that offsets carbon emissions at the Lochmead Dairy farm was the best candidate,” said Steve Mital, the University’s Office of Sustainability director.
As a part of its energy efficiency efforts, the company recently unveiled its own $1.5 million methane digester in December to capture methane from the waste of the farm’s 750 cows and convert it into biogas.
Stephanie Gibson, the general manager of Lochmead Dairy, said the biogas is then converted into electricity, which can be used to power homes and businesses throughout the community.
Aurora Martin, a Climate Trust portfolio associate, said the methane digester will generate enough electricity to power about 200 homes each year.
In addition to this project, Gibson said Lochmead Dairy is taking on other energy-saving initiatives, including attempts to install solar panels on most of its warehouses and change roughly 75 percent of the company’s lighting systems to sensor lighting.
“It all comes down to a family belief in doing right to our environment and the people that have yet to enter into this world, because, in the end, financially, there’s not a whole lot of incentive and there’s not a whole lot of support,” Gibson said. “You just have to believe in it.”
Although Mital declined to provide the exact price that the University paid for the carbon credits, he said it is a way for the University to further energy efficiency and environmentally responsible practices as the institution continues to work to reduce greenhouse gases.
“I think that what this arises from the recognition that climate change is real and that it’s caused by greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, and that the University is a contributor to that,” Mital said. “We’re doing a lot of things — mostly on our own campus — to reduce our emissions, but we recognize that many of those things will take years to fully enact, whereas a small contribution — relative to the University’s total annual budget — to projects that have an immediate benefit is something that we also want to support.”
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