Our final report outlining the six emissions reduction projects we addressed and our recommendations for climate action strategy:

• From Inventory to Action: “Next Best Steps” (34 pages, pdf).

Our final recommendations about the role of greenhouse gas offset purchasing in emissions reduction strategy:

• Offsetting Greenhouse Gas Emissions (24 pages, pdf).

One page summaries of each of the six projects:
Conservation

• Virtual Conferencing and Campus Education
• Green Building Renovation

Low Carbon Solutions

• Power Plant Carbon Capture and Sequestration
• Methane Capture at the Old Montlake Landfill

Offsets

• GHG Offsets

Additional Impacts

• Climate Friendly Investing

For the complete final reports of each individual research project, click here. 
(Note that the final report on offsetting emissions is linked above)

Read below for a brief overview of this project.

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Scope:

The primary goal of this project, and of the SCP, is to help reduce GHG emissions from the Seattle area.  The UW Climate Keystone project team is investigating potential actions – next best steps – that the UW could take to reduce campus related GHG emissions.  As UW is a leader in the Seattle community in addressing global climate change, many of the lessons learned by investigating UW’s next best steps will be translated and delivered to the SCP to be used by its partner businesses and institutions.

 

The objective is not to produce a comprehensive set of recommendations, but rather to investigate projects that have been identified as holding promise and provide more insights into their feasibility and potential impacts.  Additionally this project will help identify useful tools that can be used in future climate action planning to assess and choose among various GHG emissions reduction options.

Final Deliverables:

1) Recommendations for near-term projects that could be undertaken to reduce UW’s GHG emissions.

2) A toolkit of lessons learned at UW as they are applicable to other SCP partners.

 

Next Best Steps:

There are 6 distinct projects that were undertaken in the winter quarter.  The keystone team focused on GHG Offsets and 11 independent study students worked on 5 additional projects.  These “next best steps” came from analysis of UW’s GHG Inventory, and discussions with Roel Hammerschlag (GHG Inventory Author), John Chapman (Director of UW Facilities), and Stephanie Harrington, (Director of the UW Earth Initiative, UW’s SCP Representative).

 

• Power Plant Carbon Sequestration Feasibility Analysis:
  • Investigate the geologic, technical and economic feasibility of carbon sequestration technologies for UW’s natural gas burning power plant.
• Green Building Renovation
  • Explore possible green building renovations for Safeco Tower as a case study.
• Methane Capture at the Old Montlake Landfill
  • Research the technical and economic feasibility of capture and combustion of methane being emitted from the decommissioned landfill located under the E1 Parking Lot.
• Virtual Conferencing and Campus Education
  • Create resources to educate faculty, staff and students about the GHG impacts of air travel and ways that individuals can mitigate these impacts, including through the use of virtual conferencing.
• Climate Friendly Investing
  • Analyze why and how UW could engage in Climate Friendly Investing and what impact this activity might have on climate change.
• GHG Offsets
  • Investigate the scientific validity and economics of purchasing GHG Offsets, Renewable Energy Tags, and investing in the Chicago Climate Exchange as a Public University.

 

For more detail on these projects, including final presentation slides and reports, follow the “UW’s Next Best Steps” link.  The Climate Friendly Investing project will continue independently in the spring quarter.  The remainder of the projects will be assessed to determine which hold the most promise for near-term implementation based on climate impacts and university needs.

 

Project Background

• Among leaders in the private sector, the climate change debate has shifted from why is global warming happening to how can it be addressed.
• The soon-to-be public inventory of emissions at the University of Washington elucidates helpful background information, data, and analysis.  It also provides context for prioritizing next steps as UW evaluates future GHG emission cuts and offset options.
• As a member of the Seattle Climate Partnership and a recent signatory to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment the UW has agreed to work on reducing climate impacts as an institution.  The University will now be moving toward creating a comprehensive climate action plan.  We as the UW Climate Keystone team hope to contribute valuable background research to this effort to help move more rapidly toward implementation of emissions reductions activities.