Young Scholars 2012
Taking CAPS to School
Climate Action Plans, or CAPS, are comprehensive plans developed by governments (states, cities, towns, and villages) and institutions (corporations and universities). They outline specific steps to reduce contributions to climate change, and to save money from new efficiencies. The methodology accounts for every facet of an institution’s operations—energy, transportation, water/wastewater, construction materials, purchasing, food, and buildings and grounds—in terms of the operation’s current negative impacts on global climate and how alternative processes, systems and choices can reduce these impacts. Engineering analysis and an understanding of the economic, technological, political, and ethical choices behind the decision to undertake and implement a Climate Action Plan are crucial for its success. Despite their use by governments and higher education institutions, there has been little effort to encourage K-12 schools and school systems to adopt CAPS.
This year’s Young Scholars Program will work to change that. Working with three Clarkson professors specializing in Engineering, Energy Policy and Politics, and Sustainability Ethics, students will form a fictional consulting firm focused on helping K-12 school districts develop and implement Climate Action Plans. Students will work as an integrated team to learn the basics of CAPS, gather real-time data from local schools, interview school officials, apply the CAPS framework in a new institutional setting, and learn rudimentary principles of engineering, politics and public policy, and environmental philosophy. At the conclusion of the weeklong program, the “consulting group” will deliver a professional presentation to school administrators and energy experts outlining the unique challenges and overall benefits to K-12 schools of adopting Climate Action Plans.
http://www.climateactionplans.com/
http://www.aashe.org/resources/campus-climate-action-plans
