PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION

The Sustainable University

Will O’BrienGSOM - Visiting FacultyWOBrien@clarku.edu September 14, 2009

Agenda

Footprints: Carbon Water Environmental

Campus Sustainability – why important? ACUPCC: Goals, Commitment & Guidance Climate Action Plan (CAP) Investment Decisions & Financing Carbon Offsets Implementation:

Awareness/Readiness of the Community Change Management

Tracking Performance & Reporting EN103 Projects in support of Clark’s CAP Resources

Footprints

Carbon Footprint is the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product. Source: Wikipedia

Water Footprint is an indicator of water use that includes both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer.

Source: Wikipedia

Environmental Footprint is a measure of the amount of resources consumed and the amount of pollution; e.g., green house gas and waste created by an entity and by the firms that serve the entity, usually summarized by the equivalent are of land needed to assimilate these impacts.

Source: “Measuring Environmental Footprint: A Financial Services Industry Case Study”, 2008, UNC

Water Footprint

Campus Sustainability – why important?

Impact on the environment

Education - development of future leaders

Research

Service to the community

American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment

Goals : exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to eliminate global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.

Commitment: Within 1 year, report the results of GHG emissions inventory; Within 2 years, submit Climate Action Plan; Within 3 years and at least every other year thereafter ,update GHG

emissions inventory; Within 4 years and at least every other year thereafter, submit narrative

reports describing progress in implementing Climate Action Plan.

Guidance: Implementation Guide

www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/resources/guide

Climate Action Plan (CAP)

The climate action plan should be in the form of a brief summary report that is Comprehensible by and accessible to the general public. For consistency, signatories are encouraged to include the following sections in their report:

Introduction – describes why the institution is taking this initiative and other background information.

Campus Emissions – describes the institution's current emissions trajectory and sets a target date for climate neutrality. This section should include visual representations of the institution's emissions trajectory under business as usual and under the ACUPCC plan, as well as a graph illustrating the contribution to the institution's total emissions from each emission source.

Mitigation Strategies – shows how the institution intends to achieve climate neutrality. This section should include sub-sections describing how the institution will neutralize emissions from each source.

Educational, Research, Community Outreach Efforts – describes plans to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and/or other educational experience for all students as well as actions to expand research, community outreach and/or other efforts toward the achievement of climate neutrality; this section should include subsections on education, research (if appropriate), and community outreach.

Financing – explains how the institution will finance the mitigation strategies and other efforts described in the rest of the plan.

Tracking Progress – describes how the institution will track its progress in achieving the goals set out in the rest of the plan.

Clark’s CAP

Executive Summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Campus Emissions

Chapter 3: Mitigation Strategies

Chapter 4: Emissions reduction scenarios 2010–2015

Chapter 5: Barriers and Risks

Chapter 6: Financing

Chapter 7: Culture, Educational, Research, Community Outreach Efforts

Chapter 8: Policy Initiatives

Chapter 9: Tracking Progress

Chapter 10: Conclusions

Clark’s CAP

Executive Summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Campus Emissions

Chapter 3: Mitigation Strategies

Chapter 4: Emissions reduction scenarios 2010–2015

Chapter 5: Barriers and Risks

Chapter 6: Financing

Chapter 7: Culture, Educational, Research, Community Outreach Efforts

Chapter 8: Policy Initiatives

Chapter 9: Tracking Progress

Chapter 10: Conclusions

• Building Energy Efficiency Measures• Cleaning Service• Energy Supply Options• Food Services• Information Technology• Paper usage• Purchasing• Recycling & Waste Management• Transportation• Water and Waste Water

Clark’s Sustainability Task Force

David Angel, Provost, Chair Kara Baylog, Graduate Student Justin Brooks, ITS Jim Collins, Treasurer Paul Coute, Business Office Jody Emel, Professor, Geography Kevin Forti, Resident Life and Housing John McKenzie, Graduate Student Will O’Brien, Visiting Ass’t. Professor Joe Sarkis, Professor, Management Dave Schmidt, Campus Sustainability Coordinator Jennie Stephens, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science and Policy Chris Traft, Undergraduate Student Ashley Trull, Undergraduate Student Tom Wall, Physical Plant

Investment Decisions & Financing

Investment Decision Model: http://www.thomasjmurphy.com/demo/login.php?er=4

Financing Options: College/University capital budget External sources:

Federal & State Bond - a certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing

or discounted) that is issued by an institution American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Clinton Climate Initiative Private Foundations Others

Carbon Offsets

Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.

There are two markets for carbon offsets. In the larger compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit.

Source: Wikipedia

Awareness/Readiness of Community

Why important?

How to assess?

Sustainability Surveys: Faculty: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/vision/feedback/sustainability/ Students:

www.ecohusky.uconn.edu/campusenviroawareness.htm

How to use survey results?

Implementation & Change Management

Tracking Performance – GHG Emissions

Clean Air –Cool Planet:

• Over 50% of the pilot group had completed or initiated analysis using Clean Air –Cool Planet’s Campus Carbon Calculator.

• Excel based tool designed to document and understand a campus’ greenhouse gas emissions.

• Available for no charge on www.cleanair-coolplanet.org

• Recommended resource by the President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)

Tracking Performance cont’d.

Water Footprint: www.waterfootprint.org/index.php?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_indv_ext

Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS): Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher

education. Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by

establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education.

Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability. Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability

practices and performance. Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community. Available to AASHE members on www.aashe.org/stars/index.php

Reporting

Internal:

External: http://acupcc.aashe.org/

Projects in support of Clark’s Carbon Neutrality

Clark University’s Environmental Sustainability Task Force will be finalizing this plan throughout the fall 2009 semester. So there is a timely opportunity for EN103 student teams to contribute directly to this plan because there are several specific areas of planning that have not yet been well-developed including:

energy supply options, improving recycling, reducing paper-usage, developing low-impact purchasing/procurement guidelines, expanding local food options, transportation, waste disposal improving water and waste-water management

Several different teams of students could contribute to the climate action plan by focusing on one or two of these different aspects of the plan.

GSOM students’ role on the team will be the financial aspects of the project as well as implementation planning and tracking/reporting progress.

Resources

American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)

Aspen Institute

Association of the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

World Energy Solutions, Inc.