Joining AASHE
Signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)
Create the institutional structure to develop and implement the plan
Completing a Greenhouse Gas inventory
Creating an Action Plan
Financing

Joining AASHE

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education promotes sustainability in all sectors of higher education through education, communication, research and professional development. Membership covers everyone on campus and costs $250-$1500 depending on the size of the institution. Members receive access to AASHE’s resource center, a weekly e-newsletter, professional awards, directories of other campuses dedicated to sustainability, workshops and trainings.

Signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)

The college and university presidents and chancellors who sign the commitment set their institution on the path to climate neutrality. They recognize doing so will stabilize and reduce their long-term energy costs, attract top students and faculty, attract new sources of funding, and increase the support of alumni and local communities. The commitment involves completing an emissions inventory; within two years, setting a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral; taking immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by choosing from a list of short-term actions; integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience; and making the action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available.

Create the institutional structure to develop and implement the plan

Some common institutional structures include creating a Sustainability Office, hiring a Sustainability Coordinator, and creating a Sustainability Committee comprised of professors, students, facilities managers, and administrators. It will take cooperation across many offices to achieve climate neutrality, so it is important to have a diverse group represented in the development and implementation plan.

Completing a greenhouse gas inventory

Calculating the greenhouse gas inventory of an institution is an important first step to achieving climate neutrality. By creating a GHG inventory, an institution can get an idea of what sectors carbon emissions are coming from and opportunities to tackle some low-hanging fruit. It is also necessary to have a baseline from which future benchmarks can be created. The most common carbon calculator used is the one developed by Clean Air Cool Planet.

Creating an action pan

A climate action plan should lay out goals, target dates, interim targets, curriculum goals, and mechanisms for tracking progress.

Financing

Grants, alumni donations, student fees, and facilities are all common sources for funding for sustainability initiatives. An innovative method for funding sustainability initiatives is called a Revolving Loan Fund which calculates energy savings and puts them back into a separate account so that they can fund more sustainability initiatives, perhaps those with longer payback periods.