On Friday, Oct. 22,  Executive Director of Sustainability Chad King announced the formation of a carbon-neutral task force at the faculty senate meeting. King stated the task force will, “accelerate our campus climate commitment.”

The main goal is to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. To achieve carbon neutrality a company would emit the same amount that they currently emit of CO2 into the atmosphere while balancing it out by purchasing carbon offsets. A carbon offset is an investment into an existing project that is actively reducing greenhouse gases. This concept is different from carbon net-zero which would equal out the emissions that an organization creates by taking the same amount out of the atmosphere.

To dive into the objective of the task force, the committee would be reducing emissions from standard university business practices. This means the task force has goals to add a study abroad offset fee, allow telecommuting one to two days per week when appropriate and students would purchase offsets for traveling.

King also discussed how the force will reduce direct on-campus emissions. This will consist of switching from natural gas to electric heating, renewable natural gas and the development of a carbon offset program.

In addition, the task force would work towards reducing emissions from purchased electricity by ensuring that Xcel’s electricity is 85% renewable by 2030 through holding the company accountable and switching to more forms of sustainable energy on campus by implementing more solar panels on roofs, buildings and parking garages.

Another point that King touched on is how we must “act now or be forced to act soon.” There is an increase in legislation that is impacting how companies interact with the environment. For example, Xcel Energy has formed a Colorado carbon reduction plan, the city of Denver has a plan to create electric buildings and homes by 2027 to achieve net-zero energy and the Energize Denver Task Force has renewable heating and cooling plans to move to be fully electric and there are many more examples at a national level.

Colorado’s largest sources of carbon emissions are transportation, oil and gas, infrastructure, coal mining and industrial processes. Climate change is directly impacting Colorado due to the state’s high amount of industrial pollution and wildfires. This became evident in August when Denver had the worst air quality in the world. This is detrimental to vulnerable populations with Asthma or other health conditions.

The average temperature in Colorado has increased by two degrees over the past 30 years and is expected to continue to rise. Scientists have also linked this temperature increase to wildfire frequency. Snow has been melting 15-30 days earlier than previous years, and this decrease in dense snow has caused an influx in avalanches.

The University of Denver’s number one source of carbon emissions are fertilizers, natural gas heating and fleet fuel. Our second highest source of emissions is from purchased electricity, and our last sources are wastewater, paper purchases, landfill, commuting, travel and study abroad.

The environmental implications of the university’s activities have led DU to consider sustainability “a core university value.” DU’s connection with both divestment and sustainability is contradictory and worrisome for students. The conversation on divestment has been brought up to the Board of Trustees who continuously reject the idea of divesting. This is hard for students to fathom when DU encourages sustainability by implementing a sustainability committee and an increase in environmentally focused classes and creating this carbon-neutral task force.

For now, the task force is recruiting faculty members and the first meeting will take place in November. Their goal by May is to form a proposal to the budget and finance committee on what policies need to be implemented and how to go about making the university carbon-neutral by 2030.