In signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, the University of Oregon has embarked on a journey. Climate neutrality is a long-term goal for a large institution, but it is essential that we take the steps to make it a reality. Indeed, we have already come further down this path than most other universities in the country. However, this new commitment cannot be simply another "green" effort that involves certain environmental interests. It must be one which will span all the disciplines and departments. Everyone on this campus has a role to play.
Attached is the first draft of our Climate Action Plan (CAP), as prepared by the Office of Sustainability. Information was gathered from several units, and outside consultants were hired to assist with data collection and modeling to estimate the emissions profile of our entire campus. This plan represents the best information we currently have about how much we are emitting and where opportunities exist for reductions. While the CAP provides a good sense of what climate neutrality will require at UO from an operational perspective, it doesn’t yet include details regarding faculty, staff, and student engagement. I therefore ask for your input on this draft version of the CAP to ensure that it reflects broad institutional goals.
The CAP is now entering a review period in which your feedback and advice is considered and incorporated. A final version will be presented to me in early January 2010. It will then be published on the ACUPCC website along with climate action plans from 650 other institutions of higher education.
This plan is intended as a living document, changing and adapting to different circumstances as we move forward. Thus, the process through which we solicit and evaluate potential projects and strategies is important. I ask faculty and students to identify areas where curriculum and research tie in. I ask staff to recommend operational initiatives, and all to suggest outreach programs to the campus and surrounding community. Please give this process special attention and thought as you review the CAP, and submit your feedback by November 30, 2009.
There are many questions left to be answered in this undertaking. It is in the best interest of this institution and of future generations that our Climate Action Plan be as inclusive and effective as possible. We are asking for your input to lay the groundwork for a long-range strategic plan for the University of Oregon. Your input will help determine what type of university we are and create the type of university that we want to be.
Comments
Sustainability at UO
This is a terrific initiative that the University and OUS are undertaking. Higher education must lead the way on sustainability.
After reading the report and seeing a presentation by Steve Mital, I am amazed at how much air travel by faculty contribute to total CO2 emissions. Perhaps instead of paying for faculty travel, the university could build in a cost of carbon component to faculty travel expenses. This could help to spur increased consideration of the externalities of air travel.
Good work. I look forward to hearing more as the process unfolds.
Jaxon
Great efforts!
It's really great to see such a strong effort by the U of O. I think this is a really important step for a large institution, and that this document can have potentially have a substantial impact. I really think that the "think global, act local" mentally is the best way to go and this is a great example of that. Kudos!
Michael
Draft Plan
I am delighted that the university is planning for a low carbon footprint. I am stunned by the percentage that air travel contributes to the university's carbon usage. Keep up the good work. The sooner the better.
Add Telecommuting/Telework to the Transportation Section
Telecommuting can substantially reduce carbon emissions and overall energy consumption while providing many other benefits as well. These benefits include more time for other activities, especially for people with long commutes; less stress; space savings for employers; savings on vehicle fuel and maintenance; and often increased productivity.
In the case of the UO, it could be especially important to encourage consideration of it for employees (faculty, classified staff, and administrators) who live a substantial distance from their offices.
Official encouragement for telecommuting will prompt administrators already supportive of it to go ahead while inducing the more skeptical to reconsider their opposition. Many jobs can be done wholly or partially from home at little or no net institutional cost.
Air Travel
The University Community would like to know what fraction of the Air Travel CO2 footprint is due to travel by (1) CAS and Professional Schools, (2) Athletics, (3) Other.
Academic travel can be reduced by greater use of videoconferencing (I have done it -- it works great). Athletic travel can be reduced by scheduling games within bus distance.
I agree. For our first
I agree. For our first attempt to measure GHG emissions from UO air travel, we collected aggregate data only. In the next round, we will attempt to dis-aggregate the data so that we can determine what percentage of the total air travel athletics, academics, and administration are responsible for.
Air travel
Steve,
Thanks for your response. One supposes that the FY08 number for air travel is the sum of individual numbers of identifiable origins. Is it impossible to sort those numbers by source, and get separate totals for academic, athletic, and administrative travel?
Brainstorming
It's great to see this happening. I've been brainstorming some ideas that may help.
For the gym if there was a policy to only buy machines that are self sufficient or energy generating in the future you could begin to cut some costs there. For the Stadium I believe that it may be possible to put down generators under peoples feet. We are seeing this in clubs already where energy is generated by people dancing. This could also be a great idea in high traffic areas.
Insulating all buildings as well as possible is also a great idea. With global warming we don't know what the climate will be like here in 50yrs so we must be prepared for anything.. Also using recycled goods and tires in your design would be an excellent opportunity to show others by your example how to build responsibly. I've seen many completely sustainable green houses made entirely out of recycled goods on the internet that look very sleek.
Installing a Electric charging station close to campus would also be a great idea and would encourage more responsible travel. There could even be an electric shuttle around campus or rentable electric buggies to help discourage the use of people driving their own cars. This could also help generate some money for greening the campus.
Lane CC is already way ahead of you with their automatic bathrooms. Paper isn't being wasted with automatic high speed hand drying stations. Water isn't wasted with automatic flushing toilets and sinks that turn off when your hands aren't under them. I believe it's vitally important to not only cut back on oil and coal but also water and wood products. Even if you were carbon neutral without taking away the wood products you'd still be destroying the world by reducing trees.
In response to air travel being the biggest factor I'd suggest that you get behind the movement for high speed rail travel and encourage it to be as green as possible on the environment it will have to go through. It will reduce the total amount of traffic on the roads and also increase access to the college. Overall the impact of this going through would probably be a much larger impact then you could ever hope to do as a University alone. I know PowerShift West and OSPIRG are two of many student groups working on this program. It would be very empowering to the youth of today if they knew their professors stood behind them.
To help educate students on how to grow their own produce it would be great to see a some of the lawns dedicated to local produce and teaching people how to grow plants. This would reduce carbon in food intake and develop your students to become examples like you. The art of sustainability has been lost on the generations of the media. Shipping produce from other areas not only uses massive amounts of energy from oil and coal it also helps support corporations like Monaco which genetically modify seeds so that the seeds of the new plants can't be used, sue farmers for their seeds getting onto their lands accidentally from wind then forcing farmers to destroy entire crops and seeds that have been passed down generations.
I believe it is important for the University to stand behind student leaders in their organizations and help provide training, monetary support, and "advertising" space so that their ideas can be spread quickly. I know some people will pay enormous amounts of money to advertise for the U of O games and for locations around campus. I believe a green ad run every game could also be a great way to bring attention to the issue and let the ducks know that ducks need the earth preserved to be healthy and happy.
The University has a lot of power but I also know that your dependent on student and corporate funding. It is important to let your students know that you will be supporting only green energy in and out of the school in the products you support, how and where products are made and the products you sell. We all know that with great power comes great responsibility. We need your help behind the movement 100% if we are to have a chance at succeeding.
I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas, if you'd like to contact me regarding any of these thoughts or to brainstorm please don't hesitate to ask.
Ross Jensen
-Multimedia Design
-OSPIRG Board Member
-Student
Interests
-Psychology
-Philosophy
-Activism
-Media
-Futurism
-Leadership
Students Living On Campus
Students living on campus are, at this point in time, hardly aware of their consumption of energy and resources on campus. I have heard that people who are more aware about their power consumption are more likely (with the right incentives) to significantly reduce their power consumption.
For example, if students had power meters in their rooms (or the ability to install one in their rooms) perhaps University Housing staff could fund programs and initiatives that would encourage students to consume fewer kilowatts? Educating students on campus about their individual consumption of resources could also help such projects as the Black Basket Initiative and Trayless Dining (at Carson Dining) be more successful as well.
Ultimately, all students need to be thoroughly educated about sustainability and consumer consumption, even the ones who aren't interested in spear-heading such projects as campus recycling. Not everyone will be an activist, but everyone should know their impact by not being an active supporter.
ACUPCC's "tangible actions"
It looks like a very good draft plan. Thanks for all of the work that has gone into this. I'm not sure where to enter this comment, since my comment pertains to part of the downloadable Draft Climate Action Plan that doesn't appear to be represented in the web content.
According to the ACUPCC, signatory institutions are committed to initiating "two or more of the following [seven] tangible actions to reduce greenhouse cases ...". The Plan describes how the University of Oregon is already pursuing three of these actions, but it doesn't mention the other four options at least for the sake of consideration.
The full list of seven tangible actions *are* listed in Appendix 1 as part of the full text of the ACUPCC, but I think it would be productive to list them specifically in the Climate Action Plan itself to spark thinking about how we could go well beyond the minimum requirements of the ACUPCC. Three tangible actions are better than the minimum of two, but why content ourselves with three if we can do better?