Raritan Valley Community College said it is carbon neutral for the sixth year in greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity and fossil fuels used on campus.
Besides using solar panels and making efficiency upgrades, the community college is reaching carbon neutrality by buying renewable energy credits, carbon offsets, and carbon removals to balance out emissions from electricity and fossil-fuel use. This is the second year that RVCC has purchased carbon removals, which cover a portion of the emissions from 2024.
“As we work towards reducing our consumption of fossil fuels on campus and increasing the proportion of renewable energy, carbon removals are an important tool to decrease our impact on climate change,” says Julia Fiore, RVCC’s sustainability and energy coordinator.
Students in the college’s energy, the environment, and climate change class worked together to research and select carbon removals that met the target of 44 tons. They were guided by instructor Nancy Olds, adjunct assistant professor, and Sue Dorward, principal of Carbon Manager LLC and the college’s former sustainability and energy coordinator.
The students researched options and purchased carbon removals from three different projects that fit within the budget: enhanced rock weathering, biochar, and regenerative agriculture. Rock weathering is a long-term solution that stores carbon for at least 10,000 years, and the bamboo biochar removal stores carbon for at least 1,000 years. Regenerative agriculture is less durable but comes with co-benefits such as improved biodiversity and climate change resilience.
The carbon removals purchase was made possible with donations from the college’s environmental sustainability committee and the facilities department.
