Oregon Public Broadcasting

The University of Idaho has joined dozens of colleges and universities nationwide in tackling a question that’s more than just academic.

The Moscow-based school has calculated its carbon footprint. That’s the measure of how much carbon dioxide the university sends into the atmosphere.

Administrators at the University of Idaho campus have signed an agreement with other schools to reduce their emissions to zero.

They don’t know when the university will reach that, but they say this baseline calculation will help them to track their progress. North Idaho Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

It’s not easy figuring out how much carbon dioxide is generated by 11,000 students, 2000 employees, about a hundred buildings and dozens of university vehicles.

University of Idaho sustainability coordinator Darin Saul says it took his team  more than a year to calculate the school’s carbon footprint.

Saul says his researchers started in the most obvious places. They measured the amount of electricity and natural gas used in campus buildings. Then they went on to more esoteric sources.

Darin Saul: “Emissions from livestock that are owned by University of Idaho. Air travel by faculty and staff and also commuter traffic.”

After all that work, Saul estimated the Moscow campus generated about 39,000 tons of greenhouse gases between 2005 and 2007.

That’s the equivalent of 1300 full cement trucks. He says that’s actually a pretty low figure for a university. One reason for that is the university’s unconventional low-tech heating source.

Every day, this conveyor belt feeds trucked-in wood shavings to a big boiler at the university’s steam plant. Manager Mike Lyngholm says the steam generated here heats about three-quarters of the campus buildings.

Mike Lyngholm: “We have one wood boiler and three gas boilers. We run the one wood boiler 95 percent of the time. We just flog the devil out of it, keep it going. We just cringe at having to turn on the gas boilers.”

Researchers say this plant keeps the university from having to burn more natural gas. So they believe it reduces the university’s carbon footprint.

Lyngholm explains that, yes, there is carbon in the wood and, yes, that goes into the atmosphere when the wood is burned. But he says because trees take in carbon as they grow, they release it as they decompose."

Lyngholm considers this plant to be greenhouse friendly.

Mike Lyngholm: “If we weren’t burning the wood in the boiler, it would be in the forest rotting and releasing carbon slowly or one of the wonderful wildfires we’ve been having the last few years would be releasing it in one big puff of smoke, so this is a controlled, good way to release carbon because we minimize smoke and emissions.”

The university does not include the emissions from the wood waste plant in its carbon footprint calculations.

Lyngholm expects the university will continue burning wood waste for a long time. In fact, Darin Saul says the university will extend steam tunnels from the plant to parts of the campus that aren’t already served.

Saul says the university will also invest heavily on conservation projects: $35 million during the next three years, for example, to install the most efficient lighting and air conditioning systems.

At the same time, he says the school will try to be more precise in measuring its emissions.

Darin Saul: “Some universities are starting to work on looking at how much emissions are embodied within the building materials. So it’s not just the emissions that are produced in heating and cooling and operating a building, but also all of the emissions associated with actually building the building and producing the materials.”

Calculating a carbon footprint weighs heavily on students too. Saul estimates the average U of I student is responsible for about 20 pounds of greenhouse gases each day.

At lunch in the Idaho Commons, student Brian Veseth tried to make sense of that figure.

Brian Veseth; “I don’t really know how much greenhouse gases weigh, so I don’t know how much that is. I’m probably up there because I drive a fair amount. So that right there takes care of my 20 pounds.”

Veseth is just one college student and lowering his carbon footprint is not high on his priority list.

But the university says it’s hoping to develop a plan to move toward carbon neutrality.

It’s not clear yet what role students will play in that. That plan is expected to be done next fall.