Caltech on Path To Decarbonize

Caltech students planting a tree on Earth Day, 2014 (File Photo – ColoradoBlvd.net).

Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum has endorsed recommendations by the Caltech Sustainability Advisory Council to decarbonize the Institute’s purchase and production of electricity.

By News Desk

Under a plan approved by Rosenbaum earlier this fall, Caltech intends to source largely carbon-free electricity.

Simultaneously, a detailed engineering study will evaluate a potential transition from natural gas to electricity to power the campus heating system. That transition and the carbon-free-power purchase could reduce by more than 85 percent the greenhouse gas emissions produced on campus and in the electricity Caltech buys.

Caltech Provost, and council co-chair, David Tirrell said:

These meaningful plans are possible because of advances in renewable energy research and years of preparation on campus. The council’s work and its recommendations are important steps that translate Caltech’s commitment to sustainability into practice.”

“The recommendations provide clear direction for moving forward,” says John Onderdonk, chief sustainability officer, assistant vice president for facilities operations and services, and a sustainability council member. “There is plenty of work to do, but Caltech’s energy future is beginning to take shape,” he says.

Source: Caltech. Read the full story at this link.