Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont

Middlebury College Moving to a more sustainable operation.

Middlebury College Established by the town of Middlebury in ,350 traditional students from all 50 states and over 70 countries 350 acres, 59 major building 44 majors Residential College Bread Loaf School of English Summer Langauge programs in 9 langugues School Abroad Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference

What are doing now? B5 in place of Number 2 fuel oil in our smaller buildings 175,000 gallons Certified green wood in construction Student operated organic garden

What we are doing? (con.) High efficiency light bulbs provided to students Major recycling program Compost program Buy local foods, apples, dairy, …

Atwater Residence Hall, Natural Ventilation

Electric car used by Information Technology for delivery and service

One of the 20 lawn mowers and gators powered by Bio Fuel

Farrell House, solar panels 1.02kw

One of three steam turbines - FY 05 co-generation 4,361,850 kilowatt hours

10KW,100 foottower

Replacing gas carts with electric carts

What we would like to do. Increase the use of B20 Convert base load at central heating plant to woodchips Replace current fleet of 7 passenger vans with hybrids Encourage and promote car pooling or employee shuttles in partnership with ACTR

Central heating plant Central plant provides heating, domestic hot water, cooling and steam for kitchens and dryers Co-generate electric three turbines totaling KW Fuel is Number 6 oil, 1.5million gallons

Woodchips Run of the mill byproduct Chips produced for fuel Loggers leaving the business Competition for chips, large paper plants, electric plants, K-12 schools, firewood Sustainable supply Local production reduces transportation

How “green” is our chip Non-certified, no standard Burlington Electric Standard SFI Sustainable Forest Initiative FSC - Forest Stewardship council VFF - Vermont Family Forest A “chip” we can be proud of.

What is stopping the “green” chip Lack of markets for certified chips Lack of chips to meet winter heating and paper plant demand Many loggers are marginal and will not spend the time in training without a return Mills are not seeing the value in the process Mills are not in the biomass fuel business

Current Dialog Mills become biomass fuel producers Loggers paid a premium to attend training Loggers paid a premium to use better harvesting and forest practices K-12 market needs to step up to the sustainability issue Mills need to see added value of certification

Forest Value Logger – Wages & Benefits Forestry Practices Chipping – Economy of Scale Low Grade Fiber Subsistence Poor HugeSmall Sustainable + Liveable + Veneer Logs Lowest Direct $ Cost Highest Direct $ Cost Low grade hardwood log – chip or firewood only + Liveable wage to logger + 50% SFI forestry practices + Chipping scale matched to sustainability = Final $/ton chip price = $/ton ÷ 60 ≈ $/gal #6 equivalent price

Price of #6 Fuel Oil Middlebury College Negotiates Markup Over Regional Rack Price Chip Price As Contracted between Middlebury College and Sustainable Chip Supplier Roundwood Price Regional Price Controlled by Local Paper Mills and Utility Scale Biomass Power Plants 1 ton of hardwood chips (45%MC) 60 gal of #6 fuel oil based on LHV analysis Δ $1/ton ≈ Δ $0.0167/gal This price differential drives the NPV of Middlebury College’s biomass system This price differential drives the NPV and sustainability of chipping operation Chip Price – Monetary, Environmental and Social Value

Questions we have asked ourselves? How green does a chip need to be to be better than #6 oil? Why not purchase byproduct chips; they are being produced anyway? Do we care about the firewood market? Do we care about the cost of chips to the K- 12 market or the paper plants?

Questions we have asked ourselves? Do we need to hire a forester for the chips? Can we grow our own fuel? What about natural gas? Cow power Central heating plant or satellite plants Is there any fuel in the waste stream? –Paper, cardboard, waste wood

HELP How do we move some of our small-scale projects to more mainstream use? How do we bridge the gap between our local forest products industry and our desire for a sustainable, environmentally friendly chip? Can FSC, SFI, and VFF co-exist? How can we have a positive impact on the loggers, landowners, mills and K-12 market?