Associate Professor David Brazer is the Sustainability Spotlight for the month of July

A professor in the College of Education and Human Development, David Brazer has made an effort to encourage sustainability in his courses.

Brazer currently teaches a class called "Using Research to Lead School Improvement" for students in the Education Leadership Program. This course discusses the ways in which schools work as organizations, and administrative details such as budgets.

"We have to follow curriculum approved by the state licensure program," says Brazer. "But the strange thing is, there is really nothing in our program about facilities. It would be nice if we were talking about making transportation greener, recycling, etc. ... There isn't really time or a good place to insert a lot about sustainability, or to be more environmentally friendly."

Despite these challenges, Brazer has found a way to convey the importance of being environmentally conscious through the use of remote learning.

"We have two to four electronic sessions each semester," Brazer said. "The explicit purpose is to reduce carbon emissions and fuel consumption."

Brazer has calculated the carbon impact of each of his students' transportation to and from class.

"Part of what I teach is basic statistics, so in order to do that I created a spreadsheet where I ask for data on driving, round trip mileage and estimated miles per gallon. I then searched the web and found the consensus for burning gas is about 20 pounds per gallon," Brazer said.

Brazer then uses an internet learning tool called Taskstream (similar to Blackboard or WebCT) to hold two online discussions per semester in lieu of classroom sessions. Brazer estimates his students save 558 pounds of carbon each time.

"There's all kinds of problems with taking the data too seriously," cautions Brazer.

For example, some students do not travel directly from home to school, or vice versa. The numbers also do not take into account the carbon generated by the use of home computers. A computer could use as little as 15 watts peak usage for a pocket-size PC to more than 300 watts peak usage for a high-end gaming system, plus the monitor adds another 50 to 150 watts.

Still, even running the most energy-hungry computer for three hours will generate far less carbon than driving a car any appreciable distance. A 2000 report by the U.S. Department of Energy estimated the average amount of carbon produced at coal-fired plants to be approximately 2.062 pounds per kWh for the mid-Atlantic region.

"The point is to get people to think about their own habits," Brazer said. "Sure, it's just 18 students, one semester, but there are three hundred students in our program alone each semester. If more instructors had electronic sessions, the savings would start to look more significant."

Brazer hopes to expand his program in the future.