Ithaca College has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), a pledge to produce a plan (by September 2009) for the campus to go “carbon neutral” by completely mitigating our greenhouse gas emissions. Signed by 582 colleges and universities across the country, the pledge commits us to model ways to eliminate global warming emissions and provide the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.
This session of the Physics Café will frame Ithaca College's efforts to achieve climate neutrality. Stan Wrzeski will review the process by which Ithaca College will sort through it's options, delineating key trade-offs that will be part of the discussion. Low-carbon technologies and strategies employed on other campuses will be explored for their potential in Ithaca.
Stan Wrzeski manages the interdisciplinary team of consultants helping Ithaca College develop a plan to achieve carbon neutrality. He has three decades of industry experience in the public sector, private sector and academe, packaging numerous broad public/private partnerships to explore state-of-the-art design and technology innovations. As a building scientist, he’s had one foot in the architectural realm and the other in engineering. Both educator and entrepreneur, he works the interstitial spaces among professions, effecting cross-disciplinary collaborations that are critical to the evolving field of sustainable design. Stan is also a member of the team helping Cornell University develop its climate action plan.
Achieving Carbon Neutrality: It is our choices
that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities
