The Path to Carbon Neutrality

Macalester College, like many other institutions across the nation, is on its path towards becoming carbon neutral, when net emissions of greenhouse gases are zero. A handful of universities within the United States, for example University of San Francisco, Middlebury College, and Bowdoin College, have already reached this goal. Various initiatives have been taken across campuses from waste management changes to the purchasing of carbon offsets. As Macalester rethinks its carbon goals, they can adopt new tactics to help in the process.

Colgate University, located in Hamilton, New York, takes into account how much carbon is sequestered, absorbed and stored from the atmosphere by their forest. Their 1,059 acres of forest sequester around 3,776 tons of Carbon annually, which contribute to their carbon neutrality goal. Macalester can do the same with the Katharine Ordway Field Station located in Inver Grove Heights. They can calculate the amount of carbon sequestration potential of Ordway and use that to push them closer to carbon neutrality.

Although Ordway is only 300 acres, less than a third of Colgate’s forest, the potential carbon sequestration possibility is still high. In 2018, Colgate University released an inventory report on their forests’ carbon sequestration figures and the method they used to obtain those values. They created different sample plots and they calculated the carbon from the trees in those individual units. The total value for each unit was then summed to get an estimate of the carbon in the entire forest. Using those same values, they can also assess the carbon sequestration potential of the forest per year. In order to conduct a similar study of Ordway, both students and staff would have to work together for an extensive period of time in order to accurately assess the land. However, given the methodology Colgate University provided, it is more than feasible.

Sign for Ordway Field Station pictured above

Written by Sustainability Office student worker Evelyn Jauregui