BY ALEXANDRIA

BOURNONVILLE

Journal Staff Wrtier

MARQUETTE–Northern Michigan University expects to reduce its carbon footprint by 85% by 2050.

NMU recently announced its climate-positive centered goal through its new Carbon Neutrality Task Force.

The task force identified three targets first the university would reduce carbon emissions by a minimum of 25% by 2030, then 50% by 2040 with the final goal being 85% by 2050.

Members of the task force gave plan updates during a recent information session. The speakers included public relations professor Jes Thompson, associate vice president of engineering and planning Kathy Richards and carbon neutrality intern Kolibri Drobish.

“It’s also a living plan,” Thompson said. “This is the sort of plan that’s gonna require a lot of attention, constant looking and seeing what’s working, what’s not working, what things got implemented, what is still left to be done. It will require a lot of monitoring and it will change.”

The CNTF concluded that the university needs to reduce energy use on campus and implement “energy saving technologies where and when appropriate,” according to draft document.

To reach their first 2030 target, 50% of lighting on campus would need to be switched to light-emitting diode or LED and 10-15% of NMU’s entire vehicle fleet should be transitioned to electric or hybrid vehicles.

“The university pays over $3.8 million in their electric bill annually. Half of that is due to lighting,” Thompson said. “If we can switch our lighting to LEDs, we can see substantial reduction in use and potentially savings. We saw this when the lights were switched in the dome to LEDs: It was an instant saving of $15,000 a month …. that’s what we mean by optimizing our infrastructure using the latest and greatest and least intensive energy.”

She also noted that NMU eliminated more than 30% of their carbon emissions since 2010 due campus electric upgrades.

Additionally, Northern will schedule building “refurbishments, retirements and demolitions,” according to the draft. Building technology will be replaced right away–only when it has failed or reached the end of its service. This includes introducing more efficient lighting systems as well as replacing of ice making systems and HVAC in the Berry Events Center.

The document says the CNTF will evaluate “whether we can adapt or repurpose existing space before building new space” in order to maximize each building’s purpose without creating more space than needed.

Investing in renewable energy is a large component of the project. NMU will explore a partnership with the Marquette Board of Light and Power, install solar systems and develop a plan to switch from natural gas to a renewable fuel at the Ripley Plant.

An official statement from the university said: “NMU is making a commitment to not invest in any stand-alone fossil fuel investment endeavors. Currently, NMU does not actively invest in fossil fuels. Today, 90-95% of NMU’s investments are not in fossil fuels and we will continue to make efforts to be fossil-fuel-free in our overall portfolio by 2050 or sooner.”

Actions will also be taken to sequester carbon on university land. The No-Mow program–which forbids mowing on an area of land, enabling a naturally biodiverse environment–will be expanded to cover 10-15% of the campus’s land compared to the current 9%. Post-consumer composting systems will also be expanded in order to reduce food waste in landfills which generate methane.

Thompson said Dining Services is already composting pre-consumer waste, such as “the clippings that you have as you’re preparing meals” so the concept isn’t new to the university.

The draft also includes details on electric vehicle charging stations, the Jacobetti Center remodel and re-evaluation of practices as technology and market forces change.

“Everything that we’ll be doing comes with…additional opportunities,” Thompson said. “We’ve talked with a carbon accountant and I’ve talked with my colleagues in accounting, what if we offered a special topics course in carbon accounting and then brought students in to help? So we’re trying to make it a learning experience and so far none of these things come at the cost of others.”

Task force members wanted to give credit to professor Ryan Stock, who called attention to NMU’s contribution to climate change in 2021, and started the movement. .

Throughout the process, the university faculty and staff will work to maintain their core values of academic engagement, agility and adaptability, financial sustainability, reporting transparency and service reliability.

Students, faculty, staff and other Upper Peninsula residents can ask questions or request information from jessitho@nmu.edu and submit ideas through the EcoReps Green Fund.

Alexandria Bournonville can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 506. Her email address is abournonville@miningjournal.net.