In 2010, the NC State Sustainability Office and the Campus Environmental Sustainability Team released NC State’s “Climate Action Plan.” The plan detailed a series of steps or “wedges” detailing how the University could effectively neutralize its carbon footprint by 2050.

“Avoid,” “Reduce,” “Replace” and “Offset” was presented as the four-step strategy for achieving this goal. The report found that in 2008 alone, the University generated approximately 143,494 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent solely from electricity consumption, which is approximately equivalent to the weight of 21,102 male African elephants.

That number makes up the majority of the University’s carbon emissions at 53 percent. Nine years later, with the massive expansion of Centennial Campus and a growing student population, emissions have almost certainly grown.

The University’s current approach presents offsets almost as a last resort, and understandably so. Offsets have been criticized by some for allowing emission heavy practices to continue with little incentive to end or reduce emissions. But offsets could be a way for the University to quickly reduce its yearly net carbon emissions in the interim of implementing longer term or more costly projects.

Another “right now” approach to shrinking the University’s massive carbon footprint is renewable energy credits or RECs. Also known as renewable energy certificates, RECs are essentially a way for the University to support renewable energy. In a nutshell, RECs are the property rights to renewable energy.

A school or other entity could benefit from the CO2 savings from renewable energy whilst not necessarily generating the power themselves. If the administration utilized RECs, the University could effectively utilize renewable energy without having the infrastructure generally associated with renewable energy on-campus.

RECs could theoretically cut the University’s carbon footprint by over 50 percent in a much shorter period of time than previously outlined in its Climate Action Plan, whilst promoting the renewable energy industry.

Reducing emissions and improving efficiency takes time. RECs offer a way for the University to virtually halve their carbon footprint overnight while waiting on more permanent methods of emission reduction to come into effect. It’s up to the administration to make renewable energy our climate reality.

Joseph Taylor, third-year studying environmental science