Duke University
OP-T2-2: Local Offsets Program

Duke University established the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative in 2009 to develop the University’s strategy for meeting its offset goals in a way that provides significant local environmental, economic, and societal co-benefits beyond the benefits of greenhouse gas emission reductions. These goals include generating approximately 180,000 metric tons of CO2e in emission reductions (approximately 55% of the University's emissions baseline) by 2024 and annually thereafter to meet the University's climate neutrality commitment, to supply the internal University community with offsets in the near term, and to serve as a resource for other universities and organizations, particularly those in the Southeast, that are interested in generating or purchasing offsets. The Initiative works both within Duke University and outside the University with other institutions and partners to build meaningful offset projects and to facilitate and catalyze the development of offset projects and offset market transactions, particularly those projects and transactions which offer innovative and cost-effective approaches. The Offsets Initiative has prioritized swine-based agricultural methane projects as its first major project type, with energy efficiency, renewable energy and forestry following close behind. The University has focused on swine first because of the large number of swine farms in the state and the opportunity they present to eliminate a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions in ways that will generate renewable energy and solve other major pollution problems, such as nutrient loading and odors. Currently, the Initiative is partnering with Duke Energy, Google Inc., and a North Carolina farm to pilot the first anaerobic-digester based innovative swine waste management system which meets stringent environmental performance standards and produces renewable energy to help Duke Energy meet its renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolio standard commitment for swine-based energy. The innovative system controls greenhouse gas emissions from a working farm by capturing methane from the animal waste and generating renewable energy by combusting the methane in a microturbine. Use of an innovative system means that in addition to the GHG reductions and renewable energy production, the farm must meet stringent environmental performance standards that require substantial reductions in farm ammonia emissions, pathogens, nutrients, odors and metals and eliminates discharge of waste into surface and groundwater. Research is underway to analyze the system, including a mass balance of nitrogen in the swine waste as it travels through the waste management system and the minimization of the operating time of the jet aeration system, as well as alternatives to jet aeration, to achieve the same environmental results with less electricity and therefore less cost. In 2013, using results from the swine farm project, the University completed a modeling analysis that provides a potential blueprint for using similar technologies via a pipeline network approach to meet North Carolina’s entire REPS swine waste requirement, which amounts to some 270,000 MWhs per year of renewable energy and could result in as many as 1.35 to 1.37 million carbon offsets/year. The report is available at http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/sites/default/files/publications/ni_r_13-02.pdf. The University is also exploring the opportunity to encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy in the local community via an employee-based program that would encourage Duke employees to implement weatherization upgrades to their homes through a revolving loan mechanism. The groundbreaking pilot project will test the ability of creative financing mechanisms to reduce the cost of carbon offsets from energy efficiency and renewable energy-based projects, while the University will use its special expertise in the area to develop workable carbon accounting methodology. In the end, the Offsets Initiative hopes to make energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at the household level easily accessible by providing education to employee homeowners to help them identify and navigate energy efficiency options, make energy efficiency projects financially feasible, and connect employees to a network of certified contractors. Thus, Duke’s own employees will help it meets its climate neutrality commitment, making it truly a Duke community effort. The University will also collect data and conduct research on program results in order to identify and share best practices with other colleges and universities. With respect to forestry-based offset projects, the University is evaluating opportunities to develop projects involving afforestation, avoided conversion and improved forest management. The University has begun to work with the City of Durham to determine the potential for an urban forestry offsets program. In addition to these specific projects, the Offsets Initiative has been working with a small group of colleges and universities who receive support from The Duke Endowment foundation to assist them in evaluating offset projects and strategies and is often consulted with at the state and national levels on offset project development and policy. Duke University continues to work with students, faculty, and staff on identifying and implementing new offset projects.