It's a bright but cool morning in Syracuse, chilly enough that Michael Kelleher could be forgiven for relishing his cozy office on the campus of the state university's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Instead, he shot an apologetic glance at the wall thermometer.

The circa-1911 building that houses Kelleher's office is original to the campus. For Kelleher, who is ESF's director of renewable energy systems, the challenge of getting the campus to a carbon dioxide-neutral state by 2015 starts here, with the soaring ceilings, expansive hallways and oversized windows.

"One of the challenges with an older building like this is we keep trying to keep the temperature low," Kelleher explained. "My temperature in here is set at 60, but it's actually 70 in the room, because some of the valves don't work as well as they should."

At ESF, old buildings and aging infrastructure have met their match in a campus-wide effort to make the college as energy-conscious as possible.

When Kelleher says ESF wants to reach a carbon dioxide-neutral state, he means that the campus community wants to achieve equilibrium between its CO2 emissions and its CO2 conservation in a little more than five years — a goal he describes as "very aggressive."

Right now, ESF produces 11,000 tons of carbon emissions a year. The campus expects to cut that in half by 2015, and balance the remaining production with CO2 savings.

"When you engage a few thousand people and their ideas, a lot of creative energy can be released," he says.

The campus-wide initiative at ESF is an example of a growing movement in the NYSUT membership, said NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer Lee Cutler.

"Our members have made it clear that they want NYSUT to adopt environmental awareness as a permanent part of our strategy," Cutler said. "We already have a number of outstanding examples among our locals to model this effort after, and the zero CO2 output goal at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry sets a new standard for us all. It's an incredibly ambitious program."

Represented by United University Professions, at the ESF chapter headed by John View, ESF faculty are carrying the spirit of the effort into their research.

Many professors are involved in long-term projects to develop sustainable fuel sources, or to find new ways to use wood and plant byproducts at a college where forestry and papermaking are time-honored courses of study.

David Johnson, a professor of environmental chemistry, is taking an ancient method of using food waste to fuel the generation of methane gas, and illustrate energy conservation for his students. Johnson used a 30-gallon drum and plastic parts he bought at a home improvement store to build an oxygen-free container in which bacteria break down compost and produce methane. The technology has been around for centuries, and Johnson knows an upstate dairy farmer who heats his dairy barns with such a system.

"My interest is not to generate electricity with this," Johnson explained — although his Rube Goldberg-like contraption can do that, too. "My interest is getting kids to think about sustainability."

Timothy Toland, an assistant professor of landscape architecture, is helping develop a new master plan for the hilly, 18-acre ESF campus that will include water-conserving "rain gardens" and green spaces where there's now concrete.

"Part of the strategy is, 'How can we reclaim some of that land for a more purposeful use?'" explained Toland, who says the goal is to "practice what we preach."

"We talk about this stuff in class, but the physical layout of our campus really doesn't match that message yet," he said.

Projects by other faculty include the development of quick-growing shrub willow plants as a sustainable crop that can be turned into biofuel, and the extraction of wood byproducts from papermaking waste that can be sold to other industries.

The green effort at ESF — which has been endorsed by the board of trustees — starts with the obvious: recycling bins everywhere. But from there, the innovations launch into the unexpected.

The campus has a car-sharing program in which faculty and staff who don't bring their own cars to work but who need a car for an off-campus appointment can rent a hybrid for a few hours at a nominal cost. All college-owned diesel vehicles have been using 20 percent biodiesel fuel in the winter for three years.

Made from waste vegetable oil used in commercial food preparation, biodiesel fuel thickens in cold temperatures, so it has to be mixed with other fuel until summertime. But once the trees bud, those same campus vehicles switch to 100 percent biodiesel.

A fuel cell is now producing almost 20 percent of the college's electricity. Kelleher, an economist who worked for utilities for 20 years, explains that a traditional generator produces steam by burning fossil fuels; the steam then powers a turbine to produce electricity.

A large part of traditionally produced power is lost in the transmission to the customer, but a fuel cell produces electricity through a chemical reaction that is far less wasteful.

The college is also designing a new campus building that will incorporate numerous energy-saving techniques, including solar power and a "green roof" where plants conserve water and regulate the interior temperature.

Given that ESF owns 25,000 acres of North Country forest for research and as an outdoor classroom, and considering that a number of ESF professors are involved in research projects dealing with sustainability, the campus is a natural setting for such an all-out conservation effort, Kelleher said. He has no doubt ESF will meet its ambitious goal of being carbon-neutral by 2015.

"We've been teaching sustainable forestry for about 100 years," he said. "We want to demonstrate that what we teach is what we do."