{"55590":{"#nid":"55590","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Students Save 60,000 Pounds of CO2 at Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA class of Georgia Tech students saved the Institute approximately $2,500 in energy costs and prevented more than 60,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. They did it as part of the Carbon Reduction Challenge, a competition that Kim Cobb, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, holds to challenge her students to design and implement a strategy to achieve significant reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide used on campus. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis year 25 students participated in the challenge and the winning team lowered the temperature for the boilers for a group of residence halls, resulting in a savings of more than 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in just 10 days.\u0026nbsp; The winning team was comprised of students Chelsea Datko,\u0026nbsp; Abby King, Spencer Vore and Sam Whited.\u003Cbr \/\u003E----------------------------------------------------\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQ: \u003C\/strong\u003EWhat does the boiler do?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKim Cobb:\u003C\/strong\u003E It generates hot water that flows through pipes to six campus dorm buildings for heating.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQ:\u003C\/strong\u003E What does lowering the boiling point accomplish?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKim Cobb:\u003C\/strong\u003E The boiler is normally set to warm the water when the temperature\u0026nbsp; drops below 140\u00b0F and stop warming when the water gets to 160\u00b0F.\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe students managed to get them to change it to set points of 130\u00b0F and 150\u00b0F. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQ:\u003C\/strong\u003E What do the students learn from this exercise?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKim Cobb:\u003C\/strong\u003E They learn things they would typically not get in the classroom, like \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003Eeffective team-building, interfacing with a big bureaucracy like Georgia Tech and how to design and implement a solution to a big open-ended problem on a strict timeline with no\u0026nbsp; money.\u0026nbsp; But most of all they learn how relatively small interventions by single individuals can have a drastic impact on the Institute\u0027s carbon footprint. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI ultimately hope that they are enabled and empowered to actively engage their communities on issues that matter to them, and to push their new ideas with a \u0022Why not?\u0022 kind of attitude, working effectively with a wide variety of partners.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQ:\u003C\/strong\u003E What does Georgia Tech learn from it?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKim Cobb:\u003C\/strong\u003E I know that the various facilities partners that we\u0027ve had involved in \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003Ethe competition this year have been incredibly enthusiastic and supportive.\u0026nbsp; I think most of them are genuinely surprised at the level of energy savings the students have found through efficiency. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt is my hope that the competition might lead to a more formal process for identifying potential efficiency gains on campus. Educationally, I hope that it could serve as an example of another kind of undergraduate research that is problem-based and hands-on, moving classroom instruction beyond the classroom and leveraging student energy and creativity toward the improvement of the Tech community.\u003Cbr \/\u003E--------------------------------------------------------\u003Cbr \/\u003EDuring the last challenge, in 2008, the competition reduced Georgia Tech\u2019s carbon footprint by more than 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and saved the Institute approximately $2,000. The winning project for that year, to turn off lighting at Tech\u2019s Bobby Dodd football stadium during the day and limit the lighting at the night during Earth Week saved about 25,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and $1,500 in one week alone. The exercise resulted in the installation of solar breakers so that Tech could automatically keep those savings going. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis year\u2019s prize includes a trip with Cobb to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The prize is funded by the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Georgia Tech\u2019s Honors Program.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETaking part in the Carbon Reduction Challenge, a class of students raced to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide emitted by Georgia Tech. \u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Taking part in the Carbon Reduction Challenge, a class of students raced to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide emitted by Georgia Tech."}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2010-05-06 10:36:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:05:33","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"55597":{"id":"55597","type":"image","title":"Carbon Reduction Challenge","body":null,"created":"1449175556","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:45:56","changed":"1475894491","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:31","alt":"Carbon Reduction Challenge","file":{"fid":"190331","name":"10C1607-P1-485.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/10C1607-P1-485_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/10C1607-P1-485_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2024758,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/10C1607-P1-485_0.jpg?itok=88in8WTj"}}},"media_ids":["55597"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"610","name":"carbon"},{"id":"1329","name":"cobb"},{"id":"166847","name":"students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}