1 Introduction This document is the result of a seminar entitled MIT 4.s42 Decarbonizing the MIT Campus taught during spring 2024 at MIT. The seminar complemented the efforts of an institute-wide working group on the same topic and many members of the working group served as guest speakers in the seminar. Our common goal was to Evaluate what combination of technology upgrades (future and existing) will lead to net zero scope 1 and 2 emissions for MIT’s buildings in what time frame, at what cost and perceived risk. Seminar participants worked with members of the working group to develop comprehensive descriptions of nine technologies – some available today, some not – and two external factors, a local carbon tax and future New England grid emissions, that could influence MIT’s ability to reach its on-site decarbonization goals (Figure 2). Figure 2: Technologies and external factors that influence MIT’s ability to decarbonize its campus The group collaborated on an integrated, physics-based model to evaluate the combined effect of these technologies on campus. We also administered a pilot survey on how the adoption of these technologies might be perceived by the MIT community. The technology descriptions, preliminary survey results and integrated model are described in this document. As shown in Figure 3, over 56,000 decarbonization pathways have been explored. The recommendations presented in the executive summary are based on an analysis of these results and further motivated in the various technology sections. The curious reader is invited explore the decarbonization pathways via an interactive dashboard.
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