{"id":27949,"date":"2023-09-29T16:55:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T20:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=27949"},"modified":"2024-05-13T10:03:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:03:24","slug":"the-race-to-reduce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/the-race-to-reduce\/","title":{"rendered":"The Race to Reduce"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Zane Newell \u201924 was on a recent trip home to Salt Lake City, Utah, he looked out his plane window to gaze at the Great Salt Lake below. What he saw surprised him.<\/p>\n

\u201cComparing it to what I saw last year, it was just different,\u201d says the senior, who\u2019s double majoring in sustainability science and Spanish. \u201cLast year, we had one of our driest years on record, and now this year we\u2019ve beaten all our records for the amount of snow. Just two very large extremes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the unusual snowmelt Newell witnessed at 30,000 feet won\u2019t make a longterm difference in the decades-long Western megadrought, caused by climate change and worsened by the rising demand for water. Newell remembers his fifth-grade field trip to the Great Salt Lake, when students floated in the salty water. Today, he worries that when he has children, they won\u2019t experience nature the same way he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping they will. It\u2019s something I want to share with them. It\u2019s super important to me,\u201d says Newell, a hiker, runner, camper and cyclist. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be around, so let\u2019s make sure there\u2019s a planet that can support us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Panel

From left: Robert Engelhorn, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing, Halsey Cook, president and CEO of Milliken & Co., and Furman President Elizabeth Davis, during the BMW Charity Pro-Am Sustainability in Business Summit. \/ Nathan Gray<\/p><\/div>\n

How Furman approaches the climate crisis has a lot to do with what makes it distinct in higher education. Perhaps at its core is Furman\u2019s commitment to justice and equity for all people. After all, climate change disproportionally harms those who contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions and have the least resilience to its effects.<\/p>\n

Preparing students for the world that greets them after graduation also is central to the university\u2019s work. Graduates will be competing in a job market in which a growing number of roles respond to climate change.<\/p>\n

Consider, too, the deepening collective conscience of young people today: The Princeton Review found that 67% of prospective college students say an institution\u2019s commitment to the environment would affect their decision to apply to or attend it. And of that, 27% say it \u201cstrongly\u201d or \u201cvery much\u201d contributes to their decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a bottom-line perspective, students and parents, just like customers and investors, want to see educational institutions being sustainable and also teaching sustainability,\u201d Furman President Elizabeth Davis said during the BMW Charity Pro- Am Sustainability in Business Summit, a gathering of industry leaders in June.<\/p>\n

Furman is ranked third for sustainability among all baccalaureate institutions by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and it\u2019s the only university in the South to make the organization\u2019s Top 10 list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an accountability measure for us,\u201d said Davis, \u201cto be sure we\u2019re living up to what we\u2019re actually teaching our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

SMALLER FEET<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities<\/a> is updating the university\u2019s 2009 climate action plan with the help of consulting services covered by a $20,000 grant from Second Nature, a nonprofit that advances climate action and resilience in higher education. The consultants are charged with identifying and modeling the costs of different strategies for reducing Furman\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

And in May, the Furman Board of Trustees approved $3.5 million in energy efficiency upgrades. Among the improvements: Replacing 14,583 largely interior bulbs with LED bulbs (which also increases campus safety through better lighting), installing heating and cooling thermostat controls and sealing leaky HVAC ductwork to prevent 57,600 cubic feet per minute of air from leaking out of Furman\u2019s buildings.<\/p>\n

The project brings a variety of benefits, says Jeff Redderson, Furman\u2019s associate vice president for facilities and campus services. \u201cAnd certainly, on the most obvious level, we\u2019re saving energy and reducing our operating expenses, which puts less pressure on increasing tuition,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

WHEN WE PUSH THE LIMITS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June, some 240 wildfires in Canada sent an alarming haze across the eastern United States, forcing people indoors and prompting the New York attorney general to alert consumers to possible price gouging on masks, air purifiers and filters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to recognize there are ecological limits, and we\u2019re pushing those boundaries,\u201d Andrew Predmore, executive director of the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities, told the BMW summit attendees.<\/p>\n

FURMAN\u2019S ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECT IS EXPECTED TO REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS EQUIVALENT TO:<\/strong><\/p>\n