This summer, the Carbon Reduction Challenge (Challenge) marked its ninth year of programming for innovative solutions and impactful contributions to sustainability. Co-hosted by the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (Center) and Georgia Tech College of Sciences, the Challenge brings together students, alumni, and community and industry leaders to tackle pressing environmental issues through creative initiatives and sustainable practices.
This year’s cycle saw an expansion with the participation of two international teams, adding a global perspective to the competition. These teams not only enriched the diversity of ideas but also underscored the Challenge’s growing influence beyond borders.
“We were thrilled to see the diverse perspectives and innovative approaches brought by all the teams from a variety of industries,” remarked Beril Toktay, co-director of the Challenge and founding faculty director of the Center. “The students’ commitment to being change agents at an early age is inspiring, and we look forward to seeing how their careers develop.”
The competition culminated in a Final Expo on August 5, where teams shared their projects aimed at reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainable practices. Together, the projects will save an estimated 18.7 million pounds of carbon annually and result in an estimated $490,000 in combined savings. The judging panel, including industry experts and sustainability champions, evaluated the projects based on innovation, impact, and feasibility.
One of the judges, Casey Erb (EnvE ’20), was the first-place winner in the 2018 Challenge. He is now project manager at Mortenson Solar. Erb reflected, “We had an impressive array of projects this year – with projects related to HVAC, composting, solar panels, and more. The students did an excellent job with their research and calculations to inspire some incredible changes.”
Top prizes were awarded to:
- First Place: Aleena Noor
Project: Lower Footprint, Leaner Operations (EY)
Working as an intern at EY in Boston, Georgia Tech rising second-year industrial engineering major Aleena Noor saw a unique opportunity to help the consulting firm location reduce their carbon footprint in an aging building. Noor’s project focused on two aspects of the infrastructure: waste diversion and HVAC optimization. The plan provides an outline on installing compost bins from an existing compost service in their building and adjusting the HVAC setpoints against the seasonal changes.
- Second Place: Inesha Gupta
Project: Bringing ROW Solar to Life (The Ray)
Inesha Gupta did an internship at The Ray, a nonprofit focused on researching and increasing sustainability along the United States roadway systems. She developed a financial model that helps Departments of Transportation (DOTs) quantify the carbon and cost savings to use this right-of-way (ROW) land as sites for solar deployment. Using a four-acre pilot site on Georgia’s I-85, this model offers DOTs a simple, customizable way to evaluate the value of ROW solar potential. Gupta is a rising third-year Emory University student with a double major in environmental health and finance.
- Third Place: Sara Abdallah and Adham Mohamed
Project: Green Cleanroom (Zewail City)
For their carbon-savings project, Sara Abdallah and Adham Mohamed looked at their own university in Cairo, Egypt. Abdallah and Mohamed both study nanotechnology and nanoelectronics engineering at Zewail City of Science and Technology. The project analyzed “clean rooms,” or highly controlled environments that are engineered to maintain extremely low levels of airborne particles and tightly regulate environmental conditions. The rooms are used across sectors such as semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and aerospace. The team studied four aspects of the rooms: HVAC, lighting, equipment operation, and system processes. They provided potential solutions regarding paint selection, smart AI sensors for equipment, and lighting.