Campus carbon neutrality

Universities all around the world have always had a leadership role in their respective communities by demonstrating the type of changes that need to occur with respect to timely issues that arise. In recent times, educational institutions are reporting greenhouse emissions as a means to measure sustainability. To become carbon neutral, universities are working to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, cut their use of energy, use more renewable energy, and emphasize the importance of sustainable energy sources.
* Carbon Offset: an emission reduction credit from an action or activity that results in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon offsets are usually measured in tons of CO<sub>2</sub> and can be created by renewable energy projects, energy efficiency, and land use and agriculture based projects. In addition carbon offsets can be traded sold or bought as part of a bigger system to reduce pollutants.
* Sustainable: a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged; of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods .—the tool previously recommended by the U.S. EPA, the ACUPCC, and others—to do their greenhouse gas inventories and climate action plans.
Agreements and organizations in the United States
American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment
The American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC or PCC) is a project of Second Nature and AASHE. It is the primary supporter for the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Its involvement in ACUPCC includes coordinating cooperative action in developing a carbon offset protocol for universities, as well as coordinating outreach for new presidents to make the commitment to carbon neutrality. In 2014, American University ranked #2 in the Sierra Club's list of the 'Top 10 Greenest Colleges'. In 2014, the university announced an ambitious project to build a solar farm in partnership with George Washington University. As of January 2016, the completed solar farm provides an equivalent of 50% of the university's energy. In 2018, American University became the first university in the United States to reach carbon neutral status.
Cornell University
Cornell University has signed the President's Climate Commitment and pledged that its Ithaca campus will have net zero carbon-based emissions by 2050.
University of Florida
In October 2006, University of Florida President Bernard Machen became the first college president to sign the President's Climate Commitment. The goal of Neutral Gator is to help the University of Florida achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025. Neutral Gator offsets the carbon emissions through various activities including compact fluorescent light bulb exchanges, weatherization efforts in low-income households, and local as well as regional natural area restoration projects. committing themselves to 1) conducting campus-wide greenhouse gas inventories; 2) setting reduction targets and timelines; 3) creating climate action plans; 4) implementing the carbon reduction measures contained in their plans; and 5) communicating with their students, faculty, staff and community members to "institutionalize" a culture of sustainability on their campuses. These schools, many of which became leading members of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment when it was established in 2006 and/or have driven innovation and demonstrated international leadership on the issue of climate change in other ways.
The CA-CP Campus Climate Action Toolkit — which included the CA-CP Campus Carbon Calculator developed by CA-CP in partnership with the University of NH — was made available to the public in 2004. The Campus Carbon Calculator was downloaded by users at thousands of different institutions, which include not only colleges and universities but also hospitals, science centers, museums and aquaria, government agencies, k-12 schools and businesses, many of which are actively working toward campus carbon neutrality. More than 90% of U.S. colleges and universities, and many outside the US, use the calculator to do their greenhouse gas inventories and create climate action plans.
In 2014, the University of New Hampshire's Sustainability Institute took over operations of Clean Air-Cool Planet. The CA-CP Campus Carbon Calculator became a part of the Carbon Management and Analysis Platform, or CarbonMAP. CarbonMAP has many resources and tools to help organizations calculate and track their carbon use online.
Although the UNHSI Campus Carbon Calculator is still a widely used tool for calculating a campus' carbon footprint, it has received critiques. Some researchers believe that using carbon emissions as a single metric for campus climate change impact is outdated. They suggest that UNHSI would benefit from combining their carbon calculator with a nitrogen footprint calculator to most precisely estimate a campus' climate impact.
Campus leaders and student groups
University and college leaders have taken action to reduce campus carbon emissions in the following ways: purchasing renewable energy credits, installing micro wind turbines, retro commissioning HVAC systems, install geothermal or solar hot water systems, building co-generation electrical plants on campus, upgrading lighting on campus, establishing campus green teams, providing free public transportation for students, staff, and faculty, providing financial incentives for carpooling, implementing car-sharing and/or bike-sharing programs, and implementing campus shuttle services. Student clubs and organizations are active in raising awareness in various aspects of carbon neutrality. Climate change, sustainability practice, natural resource conservation, clean energy, and environmental policy are common focuses of student groups working toward carbon neutrality.
Endowments Institute
The Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) is a nonprofit organization created in 2005 that supports sustainable development for campus operation and endowment policy. The SEI focuses its efforts on various climate change initiatives, such as the College Sustainability Report Card and the Billion Dollar Green Challenge Program.
Billion Dollar Green Challenge Program
The Billion Dollar Green Challenge Program was started by the SEI and 15 other sustainability organizations to encourage colleges and universities to invest in green revolving funds. The program requires that institutions involved collaborate and engage with other institutions in order to reach a collective $1 billion of investments. The funds are then reinvested in green initiatives in participating campuses. As of 2016, 60 institutions are participating in the Billion Dollar Green Challenge and have committed $76 million toward green revolving funds.
College Sustainability Report Card
From 2007-2011, SEI released the College Sustainability Report Card, which identified the leading campus sustainability efforts in the US and Canada. Three hundred thirty two campuses were assessed via independent research and voluntary surveys, which included 48 indicators in nine categories: administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, endowment transparency, investment priorities, and shareholder engagement. Each category was given a grade (A-F), and an overall grade was awarded to the school. Profiles of the colleges and universities were published on the report card website. Each profile includes the overall grade, categorical grades, and a description of efforts in each category. The website aimed to identify leading colleges and universities, as well as provide information for other schools to learn and adopt sustainability policies used elsewhere.
The Green Report Card was a highly regarded metric for campus sustainability, being used by researchers to assess environmentally-friendly campuses. However, the Green Report Card also garnered some criticism for being redundant with other ratings of sustainability, specifically the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) by AASHE.
In March 2012, the Sustainability Endowments Institute suspended the College Sustainability Report Card program to focus on the Billion Dollar Green Challenge Program.
Brown University
Brown University is a leader when it comes to both campus sustainability and carbon neutrality. The university was one of only 26 universities across the country to receive an A- on the College Sustainability Report Card. Brown University also has a plan to achieve carbon neutrality on campus. This plan entails carbon offset projects to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the local community and purchase carbon offset contracts." Additionally, Brown’s Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee is working to retrofit lights, motors, and mechanical equipment in existing buildings in order to reduce the university’s environmental impact and its carbon emissions. The University is also a member of the Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition which comprises five universities and nine high schools within the state of Rhode Island. The coalition is working to have a bill passed that would enable an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2050. It was written with the premise that universities play a major role in the process of addressing and reversing the current trends of environmental changes because they prepare most of society's leaders and are therefore uniquely positioned to influence the direction that society takes. By 7 March 2019, all 14 Dutch universities (united in the VSNU) had expressed their support for the Dutch Climate Letter. Next, various universities introduced short-haul flight bans for their staff, recommending or ordering them to travel by train instead (for example, the University of Groningen, the University of Geneva, and Radboud University Nijmegen), or invested in better video conferencing facilities and introduced mandatory carbon offsetting for unavoidable flights (such as Utrecht University).

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