GROUP 1: Development of survey instruments for Earth Source Heating (ESH)
• Group 1 will develop a public survey instrument to evaluate attitudes towards Earth Source Heating (ESH; enhanced geothermal) in the community outside Cornell. The surveys will not be performed, but the audience for the survey will be identified. The survey will evaluate public familiarity with ESH, public support or opposition to ESH.

GROUP 2: Development of survey instruments for solid biofuels
• Group 2 will develop brief public surveys designed to evaluate attitudes towards solid biofuels in the community outside Cornell (the surveys will not be
performed at this time, but might be used later).
1)How does the Tompkins County community view the use of willow?
2) How many forest landowners would be willing to participate in a Cornell-based forest woody biofuel production program?

GROUP 3: Optimal biofuel supply for augmenting Earth Source Heat - ESH
• A likely scenario for Cornell’s future climate neutral heat and power system would be ESH augmented by solid biofuel during peak demand. These groups will make calculations of the amount of biomass needed to provide “peaking heat” using data available from Cornell Facilities. The group will provide recommendations about the optimal biomass supply to minimize total costs and related issues like switching to a hot water storage system.

GROUP 4: Forest biofuel supply and sustainability
• This group will evaluate the production potential of woody biofuel from existing Cornell-owned forests and other regional forest land. Obviously, any initiative to utilize woody biomass from forests must be sustainable, and several indicators of forest biofuel sustainability need to be evaluated before embarking on such an initiative. How much woody biofuel could be supplied while meeting sustainability standards of certification organizations (such as FSC)? What sort of management system would be optimal?

GROUP 5: Afforestation as carbon offset
• This group will quantify the potential for sequestering carbon by reforestation of abandoned agricultural lands in the vicinity of the Cornell campus. By good fortune Cornell scientists established a set of plantations on abandoned farmland near campus in 1950. These trees were recently measured and the data are available to estimate carbon accumulation. How much carbon could be sequestered in coming years by planting trees? What species of tree should be planted? What are the rules for certifying carbon offsets?

GROUP 6: Woody biofuels: climate forcing from albedo effects and life cycle assessment
• Woody biofuels are not exactly climate neutral. Changes in land use resulting from solid biofuel production could significantly alter the reflectivity
(albedo) of the land surface and partly counteract the benefit from reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Also, emissions are associated with the biofuel life cycle. This groups will evaluate how Cornell’s Climate Neutrality planning could be affected by these effects.