The Sustainable University
PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION
Will O’Brien
GSOM - Visiting Faculty
WOBrien@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
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.
 Environmental Footprint
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:
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Introduction – describes why the institution is taking this initiative and other background information.
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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.
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Mitigation Strategies – shows how the institution intends to achieve climate neutrality. This section should include subsections describing how the institution will neutralize emissions from each source.
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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.
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Financing – explains how the institution will finance the mitigation strategies and other efforts described in the rest of the plan.
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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
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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
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discounted) that is issued by an institution
American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
 Clinton Climate Initiative
 Private Foundations
 Others
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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):
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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:
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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.