Whitman has joined colleges across the nation in addressing the global impact of climate change and the threat it poses to humans, animals and ecosystems. To better understand Whitman’s contribution to climate change, as well as potential areas of improvement, a group of students is conducting Whitman’s second annual greenhouse gas audit.

“Our focus for this time is to make a list of adjustments to make [Whitman] more carbon neutral,” said sophomore Katie Tackman, who is helping with the audit.

Last year’s greenhouse gas audit was a first step in identifying ways to improve Whitman’s carbon footprint. However, many of the numbers used to calculate Whitman’s emissions were based on estimation due to the lack of available data in some areas of the audit.

“The hope this year is to continue to do a more comprehensive, detailed audit that it is based on data rather than speculation and projection,” said Jed Schwendiman, associate to the president. “Last year there were several areas that had to be estimated, through no fault of the people who were working on it. But it makes the confidence in the outcome not as solid as one would like.”

This year’s audit will be conducted by a group of 15 students, most of whom are involved with Campus Climate Challenge. Five of those students will receive credit for an environmental studies internship based on their work on the audit. The audit is divided into three scopes: direct emissions, purchased electricity, and indirect emissions, which is subdivided into waste and transportation.

Tackman, who is responsible for looking at emissions from transportation for varsity athletics, said that finding data can be difficult.

“Whitman doesn’t necessarily keep track of that information, so I have to sort through archives,” she said.

Senior Lisa Curtis, Whitman’s sustainability coordinator, hopes this will change as the audit becomes an expected annual occurrence.

“At some point we’ll get institutionalized enough that we won’t even have to ask [for data],” she said.

Another challenge for the group is deciding which emissions should be counted. Tackman said that transportation is especially difficult, because it’s unclear whether emissions from students traveling to campus and to study abroad programs could ever be eliminated.

“We’re just trying to refine what’s applicable,” she said.

Unlike other schools, including Colorado College, Lewis and Clark College and the University of Washington, Whitman has not signed onto the President’s Climate Commitment. The commitment asks colleges and universities to conduct an emissions audit and complete a plan for becoming carbon neutral, as well as to integrate sustainability into campus life and curriculum.

Schwendiman said that when President Bridges was initially approached about signing the commitment, it was a new plan that had not been tested at other schools.

“The president was reluctant to sign an agreement about something we had never measured before,” he said. “We had no sense of what was possible in terms of reductions.”

Since signing on to the agreement, many other schools have fallen behind in their targets for emissions reductions.

“If those other schools haven’t met their goals, there’s no way Whitman was going to,” said sophomore Katie Radosevic, who is also working on the audit. “We want to sign something and have it mean something.”

For schools that have signed the commitment, an emissions audit is still the first step in the process of becoming carbon neutral.

“Even if we had signed on, we’d probably still be at [the emissions audit] stage in the process,” said Curtis.

Rather than signing onto the commitment, Curtis hopes that Whitman will be able to develop a specific action plan for emissions reduction based on the results of the audit.

Tackman said that regardless of the outcome, she enjoys helping with the audit.

“It’s fun to hang out with people who are really passionate about what they are doing and want to make a difference,” she said. “It’s an inspiring group of people to work with.”