In a move that marries academic inquiry with practical application, MIT students have been hard at work developing strategies to help the university slash its carbon emissions, aiming for full decarbonization by the year 2050. In a recent semester-long class, aptly titled Building Technology — Carbon Reduction Pathways for the MIT Campus, a cross-disciplinary group of undergraduates and graduates delved into an array of technologies, evaluating their potential contributions to MIT's decarbonization. The results of their efforts culminated in a comprehensive report presented to MIT’s Climate Nucleus, initiating a conversation that could resonate globally.
MIT has long projected itself as a bastion of sustainability, and this initiative, detailed in a report by MIT News on June 7th, puts its aspirations to the test - the course tasked students with knitting together theoretical knowledge and practical implementation, projecting pathways for the institute to engineer away direct carbon emissions that, according to the students, will have implications that stretch far beyond the campus borders. Conducted by professor of architecture Christoph Reinhart, the class served as an arm of the broader MIT Campus Decarbonization Working Group, co-chaired by Reinhart and Director of Sustainability Julie Newman, its purpose is to architect a technology roadmap toward an emission-neutral future.
The class schedule, spanning every Thursday morning, became a battleground for ideas and a laboratory of technological deep-dives; from nuclear science to geothermal energy and carbon capture, each concept was subjected to rigorous scrutiny in terms of cost, feasibility, and potential impact on campus emissions. According to a student participant, Morgan Johnson Quamina, in an interview with MIT News, “We’re evaluating how MIT can reach these goals on time, what sorts of technologies can help, and how quickly and aggressively we’ll have to move. The final report details a ton of scenarios for partial and full implementation of different technologies, outlines timelines for everything, and features recommendations.”
The students, empowered by an intrinsic drive to tackle the climate issue, also developed a physics-based modeling tool that visualizes the emissions impact of various interventions, with the preliminary survey results shared with the Climate Nucleus sparking engagement within the community. This modeling tool's capability allows for scenario testing, its design geared towards illuminating the most effective strategies in the pressing fight against carbon emission proliferation, offering invaluable data as MIT considers its next environmental strides.
A range of recommendations emerged from the classwork, such as the creation of a building energy team for MIT to audit and retrofit campus buildings and conducting a detailed geological feasibility survey to investigate underground heating options. Additionally, the students recognized the importance of clear communication with the MIT community as well as regulators and policymakers concerning the more avant-garde technologies like nuclear batteries and geothermal boreholes. These student-led initiatives, as Emile Germonpre, a master’s student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering told MIT News, bridge the innovative spirit of academia with the specificity typical of industry.
The reverberations of the MIT students' research are expected to ripple beyond campus borders, in line with MIT's 2015 climate commitment to leverage its microcosmic community as a testing ground for broader change. The work put forward by these students today may very well scaffold the decarbonization efforts of organizations worldwide tomorrow, as they continue their research and advocacy into the summer and beyond, ready to carry the torch of environmental stewards into their respective future careers.
