Browsing by Subject "Greenhouse gas emissions"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    A Sustainability Plan for American Tobacco Campus
    (2011-04-29) Lareau, Courtney; Rankin, Kimberlee; Tucker, Bunny
    American Tobacco Campus (ATC) Management has committed to understanding the environmental impact of their campus and making strategic improvements, while reducing operational costs. This Masters Project focused on determining ATC’s environmental impacts by collecting baseline data on the three key impact areas designated by ATC Management: energy use, water consumption, and waste generation. Initial reduction goals were then established and strategies were developed to achieve reductions that would help ATC Management make progress toward achieving these goals. Tenant and employee engagement were additional factors considered in strategic initiatives. This Sustainability Plan for American Tobacco Campus represents an initial assessment of ATC’s environmental performance.
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    An Environmental Analysis of Proposed Efficiency Improvements for the Edwin L. Jones Cancer Research Building
    (2010-04-27T00:30:46Z) Benonis, Christopher
    In the fall of 2009 Duke University initiated an energy audit of the Edwin L. Jones Cancer Research Building. The audit recommended a series of potential efficiency improvements, using energy cost reductions as the primary decision criteria. This project investigates the potential impact of proposed improvements on Duke’s climate neutrality goals by quantifying the associated greenhouse gas reductions. The project also evaluates mechanisms for pricing these benefits and prioritizing other campus facilities for future audits. Project results indicate that implementing the proposed Jones Building improvements could reduce total non-transportation campus emissions by approximately 1% and that similar improvements to all campus research facilities could reduce emissions by more than 10%.
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    Evaluating Avoided Carbon Emission Benefits at the Santa Rita Jail
    (2013-04-26) Lai, Judy
    The Santa Rita Jail, located in the city of Dublin, California, is the 5th largest county jail in the country. The site encompasses approximately 45 ha and the main buildings cover a million square feet. It operates year-round and has stringent requirements for reliable power. To this end, the microgrid and distributed energy resources scientists and researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been involved in the Chevron Energy Services lead project to convert the various onsite distributed generation (DG) technologies at the Jail into a true microgrid. Currently, the Jail’s technologies include large-scale batteries, photovoltaics (PVs), fuel cells (FCs), and wind turbines. Several research papers and reports have already analyzed and described the performance, bill savings, and return on investment of the equipment individually or together as a microgrid. This document reports the results of the effort at quantifying the value of avoided carbon emissions by analyzing the PV and FC performance and energy data from 2007 to 2011. Using California’s recent cap and trade allowance auction settlement prices, estimates of the avoided value of carbon emissions from PV and FC during the 5-year period are presented and compared to the counter-factual emissions had the Jail purchased all of its electricity from the local utility. The estimated value of avoided emissions is between $116,000 and $177,000.
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    PARCMAN: National Parks Carbon Management Tool. Background, Guidelines and Methodology.
    (2008-04-25T16:44:13Z) Guy, Carol J.
    National parks have a responsibility to determine and reduce their carbon footprint, given the growing threat of climate change and their unique role as custodians of US natural and cultural resources. However, conducting a carbon footprint analysis can be an overwhelming task due to resource constraints and an information overload. Multiple established protocols exist to assist with greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting initiatives. However, no discussion or comparison of these protocols exists in the literature. Therefore, I conducted an analysis of four prominent GHG inventory protocols to determine the most appropriate for use in national parks. I examined the comprehensiveness, usability, transparency and applicability of the IPCC 2006 Guidelines, GHG Protocol Initiative Corporate Standard, EPA Climate Leaders Guidelines, and Climate Friendly Parks program relative to GHG management in national parks. All four protocols offer detailed guidance for developing carbon footprint analyses in national parks with the Climate Friendly Parks program proving to be the most appropriate. The analysis highlighted four characteristics that are necessary for a user-friendly, high quality GHG inventory protocol: explicit source data, a calculation tool, flexibility, and a discussion of uncertainty. The results of this assessment were used to develop a new calculation tool, referred to by the acronym PARCMAN, to facilitate carbon footprint analyses in national parks. This report provides an overview of the inventory protocol assessment, and PARCMAN tool, guidelines and methodology.
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    Recommendations For Implementing a Carbon Tax in Boulder, Colorado
    (2018-04) Arostegui, Danielle; Brinks, Rachel; Callihan, Ryan; Louis-Prescott, Leah; Mechak, Lauren
    Boulder, Colorado, a small city located approximately 30 minutes outside of Denver, has historically funded its Climate Action Plan through a tax on electricity (“CAP tax.”) In addition to generating revenue, the CAP tax serves as a carbon pricing mechanism. With the CAP tax expiring in 2023, this report examines what updates the city could make to the tax so it: 1) continues to generate revenue, 2) incorporates other fuels such as natural gas, and 3) better reflects the societal cost of greenhouse gas emissions. We provide recommendations and next steps to the city based on our analysis of the city’s regulatory authority, research on worldwide carbon pricing systems, and quantitative model results. We find that a charge reflecting the full social cost of carbon (~$42 in 2020) could greatly increase revenue beyond historical CAP tax levels, and that incorporating the natural gas sector at a lower rate could provide long-term funding stability for the city.