Delta College to make commitment toward negating carbon footprint

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STOCKTON - College: It’s the first place you look for environmental awareness.

But what impact are the nation’s college campuses having on the planet?

San Joaquin Delta College is calculating its carbon footprint - that is, the quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere as a result of Delta’s everyday operations.

And President Raul Rodriguez plans to sign a commitment to make Delta climate-neutral if possible. That means basically canceling out whatever contribution Delta is making to global climate change.

It’s a tall task.

Early results show that more than 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year are associated with Delta, the bulk of it coming from students, faculty and staff who commute to and from campus. Electricity use is also a big factor, since most of California’s energy is generated by burning fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas.

Still other emissions tied to the college have yet to be counted, such as methane released by animals at Delta’s Manteca farm.

Becoming carbon-neutral is realistic, Rodriguez said, although not an easy goal by any stretch of the imagination. “It’s our job to raise awareness among our students and to set a goal so that we start as soon as possible,” he said.

Presidents of more than 600 of the nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities have already signed this commitment. Of the roughly 120 community colleges in California, Delta would be the 19th.

“It puts us certainly on the leading edge of California community colleges on this issue,” said Matt Wetstein, Delta’s dean of planning, research and regional education.

Rodriguez said he’s always wanted to sign the climate commitment but wasn’t sure Delta was ready to handle the obligations that come with it.

Then, in October, he was asked to participate in a panel discussion on sustainability. After research, he realized Delta already had taken strides for the environment. Rodriguez said his decision was iced when he saw a program on National Geographic television about the dire effects of a 1- to 6-degree average warming of the planet.

Should that occur, Rodriguez said, “Life as we know it is pretty much over.”

The commitment requires Delta to count its greenhouse gas emissions, develop a plan for becoming climate neutral, and put into action at least two of seven suggested strategies. These differ in difficulty; one strategy calls for a policy that all campus construction meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED standards, an expensive prospect, while another merely says the college should encourage the use of public transportation for all faculty, staff and students.

The cost of all this is unclear. Rodriguez said the college is looking into efficient electrical transformers and solar energy panels that could pay for themselves in a few years.

“If we take the long-term view, we can afford to make such changes,” he said.

First, Rodriguez said, Delta will likely focus on reducing the number of trips students and faculty take to campus. Students drive more than 27.5 million miles to and from Delta each year, Wetstein said in a recent presentation to Delta’s Board of Trustees. That eats up 1.2 million gallons of gas and results in 10,839 tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Increasing by 5 percent the number of students who use the bus would have the same effect as taking 68 cars off the road for one year, Wetstein said.

University of California campuses at Davis and Merced have both signed the climate commitment; Stockton’s University of the Pacific has not, although a spokesman there said Pacific is planning a six-month review of sustainability practices on that campus.