Emerson has begun the process of switching to a newly developed carbon-free heating system called eSteam this semester. They will be the first college to do so in a decision that will help Emerson reach its goal to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Since 2004, Emerson has heated most of its campus with the help of steam provider Vicinity Energy through a system called “district steam.” Rather than using broilers in every building, Vicinity Energy distributes steam generated by a central plant in Kendall Square through pipes to the college, where the steam is used to heat campus buildings.
Before eSteam, the steam used to heat campus was created as a byproduct of burning natural gas, said Sustainability Director Jennifer Lamy.
“We have had for a long time a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. That’s a goal we set back in 2007, and right now the single greatest source of our emissions is our heating,” Lamy said.
Unlike previous systems, eSteam is produced with electric broilers powered by renewable energy sources—windmills and solar panels—purchased by Vicinity Energy this year.
Starting this semester, 17% of campus buildings are heated with eSteam. Over the next six years Emerson will make the full switch, Lamy said.
“We’ll basically be able to eliminate a third of our greenhouse gas emissions from this one change,” she said.
Lamy also predicts the switch will not cause any noticeable changes on campus.
“That’s the interesting and very convenient part for us being a part of a district process where everything is centralized over at [Vicinity Energy’s] plant,” Lamy said. “There are huge changes for them in how they’re doing this. They’ve basically built this new plant within their larger plant. But on our end, it’s the same thing.”
The process will be “easy” and “cost-effective” to change because Emerson can reuse the same pipes and continue with the same maintenance at the same cost, unlike other campuses that, according to Lamy, are “basically retrofitting their whole power plants that supply their whole campuses to decarbonize.”
In the past, Emerson has not always been able to implement certain sustainability practices due to location.
“It’s really hard on our campus for us to do something like put solar panels on the roof because with our very vertical buildings, the amount of solar panels that we could fit would not be nearly enough,” Lamy said, which she explained is why the college is “taking advantage of the fact that it [eSteam] is a little easier for us and try.”
The use of eSteam is not the only way Emerson has reduced its emissions. Since 2004, Emerson has offset electricity use with renewable energy certificates, switched to LED lights, installed occupancy sensors to reduce waste, and implemented efficiency upgrades—all in order to reach its carbon neutral goal.
“We’re building these kinds of things into the regular processes we have to continually upgrade the campus,” Lamy said.
The college is now focusing on reducing indirect emissions from places where Emerson spends money, namely commuting and travel.
Emerson already has a low number of greenhouse gas emissions from commuting compared to other colleges, but “we do, like any other campus, send people all over the world on airplanes, and that has a lot of greenhouse gas emissions associated with it,” said Lamy. “We definitely don’t want to discourage people from doing important travel that’s associated either with their jobs or with their studies, but we are looking into what kind of things we can support financially to sort of counteract the emissions that are caused by flying.”
Since Emerson started measuring its greenhouse gas emissions in 2004, the college has decreased its total net emissions by 46% Lamy said.
Though the college has made significant progress, the goal for carbon neutrality in 2030 is fast approaching.
“If you do the math, we have to do more than that,” Lamy said, “We have to move faster if we’re going to do what we’ve done in the last 17 [years] in seven.”