Shop Talk: Carbon Neutrality at Colorado State U., Algae Fuel at Brunswick CC, and More

Offsets are for wimps: Larry E. Penley, president of Colorado State University at Fort Collins, recently announced that the university would be carbon neutral by 2020, an ambitious goal by any measure. The interesting thing is that the university is not going to rely on carbon offsets to reach this goal — offsets are often a safety valve for other universities striving for neutrality. Of course, it helps that the university is in the midst of planning a huge wind farm that will generate far more power than the university uses.

Hello, neighbor: Saint Vincent College will open the Fred M. Rogers Center, a $14-million, 36,500-square-foot building. The building will feature a center for early learning, a Fred M. Rogers archive, galleries, and a conference center.

Vane show: Harvard University is installing wind turbines as a symbolic statement.

Our friend, the algae: Brunswick Community College plans to produce 75 pounds of biodiesel each month from algae, which will be used to run campus vehicles. Algae biodiesel is a growing area of research, where some see a lot of potential.