{"131091":{"#nid":"131091","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Students Achieve Record-Breaking Reductions in Carbon Emissions","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EReducing carbon emissions is a topic of conversation around the nation and world, including on Tech\u2019s campus. Last semester, students taking an earth and atmospheric sciences class titled \u201cEnergy, the Environment and Society\u201d teamed up to see which group could reduce greatest amount of emissions over an eight-week period. The winning team in the Carbon Reduction Challenge succeeded in keeping 94,000 pounds of CO\u003Csub\u003E2\u003C\/sub\u003E out of the air for a cost savings of $10,000.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe winning team, comprised of James Barazesh, Mitchell Blenden, Tyler Folse and Mary Shoemaker, used contacts at British Petroleum (BP) in Houston to have the company alter its building\u2019s lighting schedule by just 30 minutes, accounting for two-thirds of the team\u2019s total CO\u003Csub\u003E2\u003C\/sub\u003E reductions. The other third came from personal asks of friends and family to either not drive to work or telework one day per week.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile this year\u2019s winning team gained much of its savings from its work with BP, most teams found ways to reduce emissions here on campus; the 2008 Carbon Reduction Challenge did so \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/newsroom\/release.html?nid=71230\u0022\u003Ewith alterations to the lighting schedule in Bobby Dodd Stadium\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe cool thing about this challenge is that many of the changes implemented will be permanently changed at Georgia Tech, targeting efficiencies for campus,\u201d said Kim Cobb, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who taught the course. \u201cThe remarkable thing is the size of the reductions achieved.\u201d An average car in the U.S. emits 11,500 pounds of CO\u003Csub\u003E2\u003C\/sub\u003E per year; the challenge cumulatively saved 200,000 pounds in just over eight weeks \u2014 the equivalent of taking 17 cars off the road for one year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeams were required to document their savings and provide evidence that the reductions would not have happened without their intervention. The winning team traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with state policymakers and present their findings from the semester.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEach representative responded differently \u2026 but each made a point of addressing the aspects of our interests that converged with theirs,\u201d said Shoemaker, a public policy student.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is the first time I can say that I have ever presented the results of a project to congressional officials and legislative aides,\u201d said Folse, a nuclear and radiological engineering major whose experience in the course this semester has him considering a minor in energy systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents taking the course were members of the Georgia Tech Honors Program and came from departments and colleges across campus outside of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Cobb holds the challenge each time she teaches this course, and has seen an expansion from one class to the next in terms of size of reductions; this year\u2019s winning team achieved more reductions than the entire last class combined.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStudents\u0026nbsp;saved 200,000 pounds in just over eight weeks \u2014 the equivalent of taking 17 cars off the road for one year.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Students saved 200,000 pounds of CO2 in just over eight weeks."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2012-05-16 11:10:20","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:18","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"131071":{"id":"131071","type":"image","title":"Students Meet with Congressional Representatives about Carbon Reductions","body":null,"created":"1449178647","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:27","changed":"1475894757","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:57","alt":"Students Meet with Congressional Representatives about Carbon Reductions","file":{"fid":"194679","name":"dscn4157.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dscn4157_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dscn4157_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4425899,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dscn4157_0.jpg?itok=TsIMoPOU"}}},"media_ids":["131071"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/shadow.eas.gatech.edu\/~kcobb\/energy\/index.html","title":"About the Course"},{"url":"http:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"2088","name":"EAS"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"},{"id":"33791","name":"kim cobb"},{"id":"166926","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.shaw@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Shaw\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications and Marketing\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kim.cobb@eas.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKim Cobb\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}