Climate Ready: Innovative system helping local college campus become carbon neutral

Students returning to class at Swarthmore College may not realize it, but they're part of a big change.

The college has a huge environmental goal that it's a lot closer to reaching thanks to what's beneath the campus, especially beneath the Swarthmore College Dining Center.

"It's the heart of our carbon-free energy system on campus," said Andrew Feick, Associate Vice President of Sustainable Facilities Operations and Capital Planning at Swarthmore College.

Through the door next to the assortment of desserts at the dining hall, a set of stairs leads to a room that will eventually help power nearly the entire campus without a drop of fossil fuel.

"In this plant is where we have our heat recovery chillers which are right next to me," said Feick as he stood in the geo-exchange plant housed in the basement of the dining center.

"Carbon neutrality really means either eliminating or in some way neutralizing all of your greenhouse gas emission," said Elizabeth Drake, Director of Sustainability at Swarthmore College.

The geo-exchange plant beneath the dining center is connected to a three-and-a-half acre field on campus, or really what's underneath that field.

"You look at it right now, it's hard to imagine that it's got 350 wells underneath it that go 800 feet down into the ground," said Feick.

It's for a process known as geo-exchange. Here's how it works: the heat that's removed from buildings is stored underground. The liquid in the wells helps transfer it back to the buildings to heat them in the winter and cool them in the summer.

"The whole system will be powered by renewable electricity which is what will helps us achieve carbon neutrality," said Drake.

Crews dug up the three-and-a-half-acre field In 2022. Swarthmore invested $125 million into changing its old steam energy system into a geo-exchange that will eventually save the college money on energy.

Steven Mukum, a Junior in Global Studies and Economics at Swarthmore College, says he's impressed by all of the efforts that the school has put forth to be carbon neutral.

"It's important to me. I think it's important to a lot of people on campus," she said.

Carbon neutrality is also increasingly important to colleges. The 6abc Data Team found that 355 U.S. colleges and universities have committed to reaching net-zero emissions by a particular date.

"We'll be connecting the first set of buildings this fall," said Drake. "Actually what we're calling flip the switch this fall to start heating and cooling buildings using geo-exchange for the first time."

The innovative system will eventually power the majority of buildings on campus including the dining center, which was also built with carbon neutrality in mind.

"It's mass timber instead of using steel... it's much less carbon-intensive than steel," said Feick.

So whether students in the dining hall are impressed by the energy source or the entrees, Swarthmore College is well on its way to becoming a carbon-free campus.

"I really think it's a wonderful endeavor," said Mukum.

Next year, Swarthmore College will work on installing 350 more wells as part of that geo-exchange. It's something they'll build on over the next ten years, as they work to become carbon neutral.

This story is part of our Climate Ready series - a collaboration between ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations focused on providing practical solutions to help you and your family adapt to extreme weather events and the current challenges of climate change.