DICKINSON COLLEGE

Planning Climate Action: A Practicum Course

Neil Leary, DirectorCenter for Sustainability Education

Dickinson College

DICKINSON COLLEGE

SUST 301: Practicum in Sustainability

• Goal – gain practical skills for creating a sustainable society

• Use campus or community as a living lab• Group or individual project– Identify & analyze a problem of sustainable

planning or management– Develop & communicate solutions

• Can be offered by any department

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SUST 301: Practicum in Sustainability

• Crystalized Pedagogy, Environmental Studies, spring 2009.

• Going Green at Dickinson, Int’l Business & Management, fall 2009

• Reducing Dickinson’s Carbon Footprint (spring 2011)

• Living Well, Designing a Sustainable Residence Hall, Policy Studies, fall 2012

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Spring 2011 offering: Reducing Dickinson’s Carbon Footprint

Community Partners:• President’s Commission on Environmental

Sustainability (PCES)• Office of Facilities Management

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Charges from PCES

• Evaluate progress toward GHG reduction targets;

• Assess adequacy of our Climate Action Plan;

• Review institutional structures & procedures;

• Identify & analyze additional measures;

• Develop & present recommendations.

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Climate Action Plan Targets

• 2020– 25% GHG reduction from

2008– Offset balance to be

climate neutral

• 2030– 75% GHG reduction– Offset balance to be

climate neutral

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How are we doing? Not so good.

2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 2028 20300

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

GHG Emissions Projections

BAUCPCAP

Years

GHG

Emiss

ions

(MTe

CO2)

Path we want to follow

Path we are following

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Course components

• Reading & writing assignments• Clean Air Cool Planet calculator• Financial project analysis• Guest speakers• Site visits w/ facilities staff• Course project• Presentations– In class, to campus community, to PCES

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Readings

• Rappaport & Creighton, Degrees that Matter

• Simpson, Cool Campus! How to guide for college & university climate action planning, AASHE

• EPA, Energy Star Building Upgrade Manual

• Multiple climate action plans

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Task Groups

• GHG trends, projections and targets• Lighting & supplemental loads• HVAC systems• Cogeneration & renewables• Space utilization & new buildings• Transportation• Carbon offsets• CAP implementation

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Key recommendations to PCES• Oversight, accountability

– Interim targets– Larger role for PCES

• Integrate CAP into decision making• Culture change

– Communication– Energy monitoring

• Explore and pursue options for– Energy conservation– Renewables & cogeneration

• Optimize space utilization– Net-zero for any new buildings

• Local carbon offsets• Dedicated fund for Climate Action Plan

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Outcomes for students

• Produced work of which they are proud and and that is impacting the college positively.

• Learned how to develop & support recommendations with analysis.

• Gained skills in team work• Gained appreciation of the complexities of organizational

behavior and institutional change.• Gained respect for the professionalism and technical

knowledge of facilities staff.• Know that climate change is real and know how to take

action to slow it.

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Pitfalls• Different expectations about what a practicum experience

should be.– “Why aren’t we doing something?”– “Why are we reading about climate change and global ghg emissions?”

• Frustration with lack of technical knowledge.– “We don’t have the technical competency to make recommendations

about HVAC systems.”– “We can’t understand what Whitey says.”– “When we tell facilities staff our ideas, they say ‘done that’, ‘tried that’,

‘that won’t work’.”• Discomfort w/ taking responsibility for own learning.

– “What do you mean you want me to talk to outside experts? Who do you want me to talk to?”

– “The real world is messy. This is too hard.”

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Impacts on the college

• PCES agreed to oversee CAP implementation, monitor progress.

• CAP targets now commonly discussed in context of major capital projects.– Facilities Office investigating feasibility of net-zero ghg

emissions for new building projects.• Facilities Office and CSE to investigate and pilot

real-time energy monitoring.• Reviewing options for financing CAP projects,

including a Green Revolving Fund.

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What are they doing now?• Lauren Bruns: starting up a campus bike co-op• Anthony Silverman: launched Idea Fund, a revolving green fund• Tim Damon: member PCES; steering committee of Dickinson SAVES;

will attend COP 17 in Durban• Matt Gibbs: worked on sustainability plan for Logan Airport• Rich Lauvai: works in Biodiesel Shop• Megan Moody: sustainability intern; steering committee of

Dickinson SAVES• Sam Parker: manages Biodiesel Shop; board member of Idea Fund;

will attend COP 17 in Durban• Brett Shollenberger: just hired by GreenerU• Amanda Stevens: WRI staff, works on shale gas