The Class of 2008

Senior Class Gift: Carbon Footprint Project

As a result of student voting, the Senior Class will play a significant role in reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions on campus. With a goal of $50,000, we hope to see 100% of our graduating seniors join together in support of this important initiative.

So what exactly does this mean?

The 2008 Senior Class Gift will sponsor a Carbon 'Footprint' Project (CIP) which will be led by Nobel Prize Winner and UD’s distinguished professor Dr. John Byrne. The project will accomplish two primary objectives:

1) Establish a carbon ‘footprint’ of campus to identify the amount of emissions created at UD.

2) Devise strategies to reduce these greenhouse gases which are key pollutants linked to increasing global temperatures.

The CIP will focus on five key areas; emissions energy (boilers, heaters), waste sector (water and solid waste management), purchased energy (City of Newark), transportation and other areas such as agriculture and land management. The end product will establish a baseline of current emissions and trend out what current emission rates would look like in the future. A plan will then be devised to reduce these emissions by a specific target date and action plans identified for each of the five areas.

Dr. Byrne currently serves as Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware and is a member of the working group within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace prize jointly with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. He also prepared a Delaware Climate Change Action Plan for the State of Delaware, winning the EPA’s Best Practice Award for his work.

The Senior Class Gift Committee is extremely honored to participate in a cause that will benefit the entire University. But in order to make this a success, WE NEED YOUR HELP!!