Green Living Tips 02.22.10
Climate Change and Higher Education
 Climate change has taken center stage in global diplomacy. Many countries are debating legislation that would regulate entities on required reductions in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over time. Importantly, the category of regulated entities will likely include higher education institutions, especially those that have their own power plant to generate heat and/or electricity.
Major reductions in GH emissions from campuses are possible by developing renewable sources of energy for the generation of electricity, by creating “smart electrical grids” in campus buildings, and by transforming the campus transportation fleet to low carbon.
Smart Electrical Grids and Buildings. In the United States, the electrification, lighting, heating and cooling of buildings accounts for around 40 percent of all CO2 emissions.Although efforts to create more sustainable buildings are under way—for example, new construction both the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) will be Silver or Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified - increased attention to design alone will not be sufficient. Rather, what is needed is the deployment of embedded sensors providing better real-time energy management so that the building occupants can adjust their behavior, and so that smart autonomous management systems can be created to decrease lighting, power, and cooling demands.
Source: Educause Review Magazine
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