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Students are becoming increasingly concerned about global warming's impact on the earth's future climate. The first step to improve the situation is to quantify humans' impact by conducting a CO2 inventory. Some Austin Community College students are doing just that, starting at the South Austin Campus, to see how much carbon ACC campuses produce.
ACC is one of the few institutions in Texas that is conducting a CO2 inventory along with the University of Texas at Austin. However, unlike UT, ACC's inventory is being compiled and led by its students.
The Recycling and Sustainability committee is supporting this effort by creating a subcommittee headed by students with the support of the ACC Facilities Department and Bonnie Blam, a consultant from Zephyr Environmental Corp.
The subcommittee will collect trash, sewage, chemical, electricical, paper, water, and natural gas usages at the South Austin Campus, since it was constructed in 2006. They will also calculate the energy used by ACC's vehicle fleet and campus police cars.
An ACC Transportation Survey, which is on the ACC homepage under "News and Announcements" will be used to estimate student's and staff's energy usages commuting to and from campuses.
After the data is collected, the subcommittee will then present its findings, along with an action plan to lower ACC's carbon footprint, in a presentation and report at an ACC Board of Trustees meeting at the end of the spring semester, according to Justin Gadd, the chair of the CO2 subcommittee.
Christine Chapman, Riverside Campus vice president of the ACC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa said, "As a child, my family was not concerned with their impact on the environment. When I was a teenager, I loaded up our flatbed truck full of paper I was going to recycle. My mother ordered me to throw the paper in the trash, not to recycle it. Ever since then, I have tried to live sustainably whenever possible."
As a whole, the CO2 inventory subcommittee is a research group that will make recommendations on how ACC can reduce its carbon output. Recommendations may include changing soaps and cleaners, to ways that trash and electrical usages could be reduced. However, the individual members have more ambitious goals.
"This is a great opportunity for students to learn how to make and present a carbon inventory. [ACC's students] are fortunate that ACC's administration is interested in creating a carbon inventory. This gives students the ability to learn a marketable skill that will be very important in the future," said Justin Gadd.
Gadd hopes that the "CO2 inventory persuades ACC's President Dr. Kinslow to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment." The ACUPCC sets a plan for higher education institutions to reduce carbon emissions. Signing institutions include Huston-Tillotson University and Alamo Community Colleges System, as well as 512 colleges and universities nationwide.
Dr. Kinslow, ACC's president stated in a meeting that "several ACC students approached me last year to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. I told them to come back with some more information and data. I'm very interested to see the results of the CO2 carbon inventory."
There are still openings for interested students to participate in the subcommittee. Meetings will be held in the multipurpose room at South Austin Campus on Fridays until the end of the fall semester.
"ACC's administration is giving students lots of support to promote recycling and sustainability on ACC campuses," said Christine Chapman. "Everyone I talked to is excited about the project It's progressing full-steam ahead."
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