Duke, Durham environmental initiative has potential

I'd like make a few clarifications regarding the Oct. 16 article "UNC, town team up on green push." First, a team of students and staff inventoried Duke's greenhouse gas emissions a couple years ago-inventorying is an ongoing effort. That study is available on Duke's sustainability Web site. Second, Duke and Durham are both new to greenhouse gas reduction commitments. While Duke and Durham are not yet partnering on climate change issues, and so may not be overlapping in their efforts, to say this is because they are "thinking about it differently" needs clarification. Duke's commitment will be more stringent because we are aiming for "carbon neutrality." Durham is aiming for a 30-percent reduction by 2030 but is broader in scope. Duke can act unilaterally on campus while Durham may need to use more incentives. But both will be addressing the same challenges of becoming more efficient and using more energy from renewable sources. Finally, the most important point is that while Duke and Durham don't appear to have worked closely on environmental matters to date, there is a lot of potential to do so, there are a lot of passionate people ready to make it happen-and we shouldn't be discouraged if UNC and Chapel Hill are out ahead.

Eben Polk

Associate in policy and research, Nicholas Institute for

Environmental Policy Solutions