While Dickinson has many factors that limit our carbon emission, I do not believe we are not truly neutral. Dickinson participates in the practice of buying carbon emission credits or carbon offsets, allowing the college to be considered carbon neutral. Dickinson is still producing a net positive in carbon emissions.
While it is true Dickinson is producing less carbon emissions than the average college institution, it is not net zero.
One way Dickinson lowers carbon emissions is by composting all of the food waste that comes from the dining hall. I visited the Dickinson College Farm, where I saw the 10 foot high piles of compost. In addition, I learned that Dickinson is sharing this process with other businesses and institutions to apply these processes elsewhere. Dickinson also uses solar fields to power a quarter of Dickinson energy and participates in the use of wind turbine projects to reduce net emissions.
Carbon offsets credits represent one metric ton of carbon emissions saved from other projects in other areas. While I do believe that the idea of buying carbon offsets is good, seeing as it is still lowering the planet’s overall carbon footprint, I do not believe Dickinson should display itself as carbon neutral without doing more.
However, I do believe that Dickinson is working to be truly carbon neutral. For example, the school plans to implement a more efficient heating system to continue to lower emissions. Dickinson is also exploring ways to generate electricity from compost and lower carbon emissions from Dickinson’s fleet through the use of electric vehicles. In addition, Dickinson is teaching other schools and businesses some of the ways that we reduce carbon emissions. These are all amazing steps being taken by our college to lower the overall carbon footprint our activities leave behind.
Carbon neutrality truly helps lessen the impact humans have on the earth. In all of recorded history, the growth of humans has been exponential, and similarly so has carbon output. With scientific developments humanity’s carbon footprint has become so much bigger, causing much larger effects on our planet. Examples include the melting of glaciers due to atmospheric temperature incineration, ocean acidification, and extreme weather events. Not only do they impact the plant, but they come back to directly impact us. So lowering our footprint should be at the forefront of our priorities and something we should all strive to do, the same way that Dickinson has made it a priority.
