Introduction
In behalf of its commitment to mitigate climate change the Harvard University is fostering its schools, employees and students to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. “As an initial step in pursuit of its long term goal, Harvard committed to an immediate goal of reducing its net GHG emissions resulting from existing operations and future growth by 30% relative to its 2006 baseline by 2016” (“Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal,” 2013). The Green Harvard Initiative, together with the Harvard’s Office of Sustainability and the Environmental Health & Safety Department have taken the lead to promote and implement initiatives related to GHG emissions reduction.
According to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework, such
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Due to its size, some Harvard facilities also need to comply with different regulatory reporting requirements, such as the Massachusetts GHG Reporting regulation for facilities emitting more than 5,000 MTCDE (Macrae, 2016). Again, data scrutiny and data management are essential to present cohesion on those diverse reports.
Last but not least, besides data quality and quantity availability, many variables may still hinder the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of energy conservation measures (ECMs).
The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of specific ECMs deployed in Harvard’s buildings based on the data provided by the university.
Definition of Boundary
The ECM projects means to benefit the Harvard goal of 30% reduction in absolute emissions in 2016 according to the 2006 GHG emissions baseline (“Our plan”, 2014). The Harvard’s Office of Sustainability and the Environmental Health & Safety Department have selected 15 projects to be further analyzed by this study. These projects were pre-selected based on the best quality of the data available.
Most of the selected projects were based on electricity related savings involving light/lamps technology improvement and/or occupancy sensors implementation. Other projects were related to compressors and refrigerators improvement. However, on a first evaluation, it was concluded that most of the projects could not be considered for evaluation of effectiveness due to the lack of data
William Shakespeare's tragic play, Macbeth shows the gradual descent of the character Macbeth into the moral abyss. Macbeth's yearning for power draws him to the murder of King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family. It is difficult to understand how a courageous, gentle man such as Macbeth, could be involved in such villainous activities. In truth, it was the witches and Lady Macbeth that transformed into evil Macbeth's natural desire for control and authority. The play, Macbeth clearly illustrates that wicked intention must, in the end, produce wicked action.
Global climate change is more than just raising the concentration of GHG’s in the atmosphere, it’s a serious health threat. Dr. Howard Koh, of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, has stated that global warming is a threat to human health because of an increase in respiratory and allergy aggravation,
Carbon emissions are changing the planet for the worse. Energy production (mostly coal) is producing a one third of the US 's global warming emissions. Renewable sources produce little to zero percent. The balance of coal and renewable energy in the U.S. needs to be evened out with renewable techniques. Statistics from the Union of Concerned Scientist’s “Benefits of Renewable Energy Use” show that most renewable resources emit less than one pound of CO2E/kWh. These have significantly less of a carbon footprint than coal, which emits 1.4 to 3.6 lbs. CO2E/kWh or natural gas, which emits .6 to 2 lbs. CO2E/kWh. This impressive difference of carbon emissions between renewable and fossil fuel is the key to caring for our environment. A 2009 USC study found that if 25 percent of the US 's
In 2013, the Obama Administration issued the Climate Action Plan to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 % reduction below 2005 levels by 2020. This plan’s three objectives were carbon reduction, strengthening capacity for climate change response, and leading international cooperation for climate change crisis (White House, 2013). To reduce the
The Annapolis city government has aimed to reduce emissions by 75% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). In order to achieve these goals, the city government has committed to reducing energy usage by 10% in public facilities by 2017 and 15% by 2020 (Savidge 2010). The city government also plans to achieve 25% of their energy from renewable sources as well as providing greener and more energy efficient upgrades to public facilities and city transportation (Savidge 2010). The Annapolis community has aimed to reduce emissions by 50% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). The community has been and will continue to actively encourage locals to purchase green and renewable energy, use alternative forms of transportation, increase recycling and reduce trash production, and to preform energy efficiency upgrades (Savidge 2010). Such efficiency upgrades could take place in the form of financing home energy improvements, energy efficient mortgages, energy smart schools, or zero interest loans for energy conservation and “green energy projects (Roseland 2012).” Mark Roseland published a paper on sustainability “solutions for citizens and their governments” that outlines the benefits that simple energy efficient upgrades can achieve (Roseland 2012). He states examples where residents can save over $1000 each year on oil, gas, and electric bills while reducing their emissions through local
Studies show that education, training, and incentives are causing university students to become more concerned with their environment and the environment of the next generation (Levy and Dilwali, 2000). Providing the opportunity to live in a sustainably built environment has become an important differentiating factor among universities around the world and is becoming increasingly important to students in terms of both how they adopt sustainable practices and their choice of a university. The majority of students and their parents are making acceptance decisions based on a university’s environmental commitment (Princeton Review, 2012). If the University of Central Arkansas would raise the facility fee, then the higher percentage rates
Grinnell College students, faculty, and staff have, for years, tried to make Grinnell College and its community more sustainable. Whether it has been through sourcing food grown locally and without fossil-fuel based fertilizers, advocating for LEED-certified buildings that conserve energy and water, or altering the College’s energy profile through the implementation of large-scale wind turbines, the College has focused on reducing harmful emissions while preserving standard of living (BMUB 2014).
Before conducting the LCC analysis for the firm's facilities, an evaluation of the entire set of alternative systems is required. In this situation, lifetime energy and maintenance costs take a greater
By utilising these schemes a total reduction of 408.9 gha and 0.1 planets is achieved. While this is a modest reduction these strategies, when implemented on a university wide scale, could dramatically reduce the overall footprint of the university and aid in meeting the ‘One Planet 2030’ Goal.
I hope this proposal will assist the reader in understanding our Earth’s critical condition and ways even an individual can attribute to the betterment of our environment.
There is an issue on this planet that will define this generation. The issue is climate change. Global warming. A world on the collapse as our oceans are acidified, our air polluted, our forests disappearing, and human rights issues getting worse. It seems that people are not aware of how big climate change actually is. It’s not something that only takes place on the ice caps or in the forests on the far corners of the world. This is an issue that happens here, and now. It’s real. It’s happening.
Take a deep breath and imagine it is Sunday morning. The birds are chirping, the air is crisp with freshness, and the sun is radiating at a perfect temperature of 62 degrees. The coast is a 6-minute drive away, and this is the perfect day to take a short journey to the rocky shore and splash in the water. However, there is one problem, an action such as driving to the beach front will almost certainly contribute to the destructive effects of climate change. Due to this claim, is it then morally obligatory to not go on this Sunday morning drive in an effort to prevent greenhouse gas emissions?
Inventory analysis is the data collection portion of a LCA and includes a quantified list of all inputs and outputs involving the entire life cycle of the concerned system. LCI involves estimating the energy and materials consumed by the system, the energy efficiency of the system’s components, and the emissions to air, land, and water by variant processes and components of the system. The process of data collection is the most time-consuming and resource-intensive step of the LCA. The reuse of data from other studies can simplify the work; however, assuring the data are representative is essential. LCI can be utilized to discover improvement opportunities and determine life cycle stages that present the most and least detrimental impacts [4].
The issue is simple and rather obvious; climate change is real and a problem. With a changing climate comes rising sea levels, hotter days, and stronger and wilder storms, and long painful droughts. What most people can’t seem to agree on is whether or not human activity is playing some role in it. From media outlets to internet forums, the debate is being fought on all fronts. Most of these arguments, however, are just personal opinions and poorly-made observations from the comfort of a gas-guzzling SUV. Honestly, it doesn’t take a genius to look up a legitimate scientific paper and see the data for yourself. Human activity is influencing the global climate in a negative way, with plenty of evidence to prove it and very little disagreement in the scientific community.
Climate change could be described as any process that causes adjustment to climate system be it a volcanic eruption to a change in the solar activity. Today, however, the phrase is most often used as climate change caused by humans. Climate change is also used commonly with another phrase – "global warming" – reflecting scientific observations of strong warming trends over the past century or so. Indicators like rising sea levels, retreating snow cover and glaciers, longer growing seasons and shifting wildlife has alarmed scientific community unanimously agreeing that the earth has warmed in the last century. Experts however are of the opinion that climate change is a more accurate phrase than global warming as the latter is just one component affecting the larger climate systems of the earth.