Presidents Climate Commitment

Have you ever heard of “Climate Neutrality”? Climate neutrality is defined as having no greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving this is one of several action plans for the American College & Universities Presidents Climate Commitment. The ACUPCC is an effort to make colleges and universities become more sustainable and to address global warming. Equipping society with the tools to re-stabilize the climate through added research and education within these colleges and universities also plays a part in this commitment. The ACUPCC provides a framework and support for these colleges and universities. This framework includes elements that would establish institutional structure, measure greenhouse gas emissions, target tangible actions, create a climate action plan, and certain reporting requirements.
In short institutional structure consists of a committee including high power members, faculty, staff, students, administrators, alumni, trustees, community members, and more who are empowered to implement the necessary actions in this commitment.
Greenhouse gas emissions inventory must be completed within one year of the implementation date. The ACUPCC recognizes there are different methods of calculating greenhouse gas emissions and only require that the methods used are consistent with the standards of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Resources Institute). The gases expected to be reported on are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
In regards to tangible actions ACUPCC has established seven, of which two need to be chosen for implementation within two years. These actions are green building policies, energy star procurement policy, air travel offsetting, provision of public transportation, green power production and purchasing, climate friendly investing, and waste minimization.
Climate neutrality is addressed in the climate action plan and entails a target date with interim milestones for achieving neutrality. Gas emissions inventory, climate action plans, and progress reports are all part of the reporting requirements for this commitment.
The ACUPCC commitment is supported by Second Nature (secondnature.org), The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE.org), and ecoAmerica (acoamerica.net). Through this commitment colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, providing new knowledge, and providing educated graduates motivated to achieve climate neutrality. Please visit www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org