ACUPCC

By Peter Bardaglio, Senior Fellow, Second Nature

Welcome to the August 2011 issue of the TCCPI Newsletter, a monthly update from the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI).

Climate Showcase Community Projects Move Forward

EcoVillage at Ithaca celebrates its 20th anniversary next month.

As we all know, Tompkins County has taken a bold stance on climate change by committing itself to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with an interim goal of 20% reduction by 2020. But how does a community get from a vision to the reality of a sustainable future?

One strategy the county is using to reach these goals is teaming up with the internationally acclaimed, local EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI) to establish the county as a national exemplar of smart growth and sustainable development.

Tompkins County is one of 49 communities from across the United States to be chosen by the EPA as a recipient of a Climate Showcase Communities grant. The aim of the EPA program is to “create replicable models of cost-effective and persistent greenhouse gas reductions that will catalyze broader local and tribal government actions to stabilize the climate and improve environmental, economic, health, and social conditions.”

The Ithaca Journal in New York ran an article last week titled “Local colleges take measures to reduce carbon footprints” written by Dan Roth, Marian Brown and In Shik Lee.  The piece provides an overview of how three institutions are working together to reduce their climate impact and fulfill the ACUPCC through their engagement with the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative(TCCPI).  They write:

The “Big Three” — the Tompkins County higher educational institutions — have each adopted the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations. Cornell University and Ithaca College have each pledged to meet a goal of 100 percent emissions reductions by 2050 and are currently implementing their Climate Action Plans. Tompkins Cortland Community College has submitted the first draft of its Climate Action Plan.

Cornell University reports that, over this past winter, new programmable digital heating and cooling controls were installed in the Cornell Campus Store. They are projected to cut energy costs by as much as $75,000 each year, about 49 percent of the store’s energy bill. The upgrade is just one of dozens stemming from Cornell’s increased investment in an Energy Conservation Initiative that aims to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2015…

Read the Full Article.

By January 15, 2012 nearly 400 ACUPCC signatories will submit a progress report on their Climate Action Plan (CAP). The contents of the Progress Report form are now available for review.

By Rachel Sylvan, Director, Sustainability & CSR, Sodexo North America and Bianca Mazzarella, Consultant, Context America

(This article appears in the August, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

On the shores of the pristine Seneca Lake in the heart of the Finger Lakes in northern New York, environmental sustainability is on everyone’s mind. Enjoying nature and the outdoors are a part of life here, and residents want to keep it that way.

So when Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) in Geneva, New York, decided to expand their student population, administrators wanted to ensure that the campus grew sustainably.

In September 2007, HWS signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an effort by a network of colleges and universities to accelerate sustainability by pursuing climate neutrality. This involves finding ways to ensure a campus produces no net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by, for example, using renewable energy and conserving energy.

Signing the commitment formalized the institution’s obligation to cut carbon emissions, and in January 2010, HWS went a step further and published their Climate Action Plan, putting a 2025 deadline on campus climate neutrality. This is a tough target.

Sodexo, a long-time provider of dining services and facilities management to HWS, is helping HWS achieve that goal. Since 2008, we have worked with HWS to reduce energy consumption by 10%, and GHG emissions by 6%, as the student population has grown.

“We have a great working relationship with Sodexo,” said Jamie Landi, Sustainability Coordinator at HWS. “We don’t think of them as a separate entity on campus. We’re on the same team, and we both view sustainability as a top priority.”

By Jim Simpson, Director, Higher Education Energy Solutions, North America, Johnson Controls

(This article appears in the August, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Students often are taught that knowledge is power. Now campus school administrators are learning it for themselves. Smart building technologies tied together through control systems and monitored through simple dashboards are helping educational institutions make better decisions. The result? Saving money, increasing efficiency of operations, and improving campus comfort.

Many multi-building campuses have control systems spitting out mounds of data. According to the Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator, a global survey of 4,000 building executives, more than eight in ten organizations measure and record data on a weekly or monthly basis.

Screen capture of the kiosk at Milwaukee Area Technical College

But everybody’s busy. The research shows that although they have greater access to energy data, few take advantage of it: Less than two in ten sites review and analyze that data at least weekly.

With a dashboard approach, administrators can take real-time, quality data and cross-reference it to whatever metrics they choose so they can make sound decisions. The dashboard can graphically report elements such as energy and water use, carbon intensity, infrastructure conditions, capital needs, real estate assets and more.

Transforming the way higher education teaches, learns, and operates is a necessary, often overlooked, leverage point in creating a healthy, just and sustainable society. Colleges and universities must produce the graduates and knowledge needed to create an economy that can meet the needs of the 7 billion people on the planet today – and the 9 billion expected by 2050 – without undermining the social and ecological systems upon which we depend.  Higher education has begun to lead in this arena.  Through the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), it is the first sector in which a critical mass has set the goal of climate neutrality and is actively working towards that goal.

To support this shift in higher education, Second Nature has launched the Presidential Fellows program, which will engage recently retired college and university presidents on a part-time basis, as mentors and ambassadors to support the ACUPCC.  We expect to grant at least four Fellowships during this academic year, representing a diverse range in terms of institution types (location, size, public/private, 2-yr/4-yr) and constituencies (gender and ethnic balance in Fellows group).

By Timothy P. White, Chancellor of University of California, Riverside and Co-Chair of the ACUPCC Steering Committee

(This article appears in the July, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

In February 2012, the ACUPCC will turn five years old. At this time five years ago, the initiative was an idea, just starting to build momentum. That momentum has now propelled the initial idea into one of the most important climate change initiatives in the world.

The higher education sector in the US is responsible for many of the world’s most influential ideas, values, and leaders. With a critical mass of these institutions — nearly 700 strong, representing 6 million students — now making real progress towards climate neutrality, the ACUPCC is laying an important foundation in creating the clean, green economy.

Looking ahead to the next academic year, the ACUPCC Steering Committee has identified three key ideas about how to build new momentum for this critical initiative.

First, we aim to ensure that all ACUPCC institutions are fulfilling their pledge, and realizing the benefits of a proactive climate action plan. In practice, the best metric for measuring fulfillment is the reporting rate — the percentage of ACUPCC schools that are up-to-date in publicly submitting their greenhouse gas inventories, climate action plans, and progress updates. At present, 66% of the network is in good standing with their reporting. We have a goal of increasing that number to at least 80% within the next twelve months.

By Steve Muzzy, Senior Associate, Second Nature

(This article appears in the July, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Download the 2011 Climate Leadership Summary Highlights PDF

The 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Climate Leadership Summit took place June 23-24 in Washington, DC at The George Washington University. The campus venue was a great success, and signatory institutions will host all Summits in the future. Presidents, provosts, and business officers, mark your calendars: American University will host the 2012 Summit June 21-22, 2012.

Keynote Speaker

Frank Sesno delivering his keynote speech at the 2011 Summit

by Diana Van Der Ploeg, President of Butte College.  This blog article was originally published on the AASHE blog. 

My eight-year tenure as President of Butte College ends this week on an exciting note: Butte College is now the first college in the history of the U.S. to go grid positive, meaning that we will generate more power from onsite renewable energy than our campus consumes. We are, in effect, our own renewable power plant.

At Butte College – located in Oroville, California, about 75 miles from Sacramento – we began installing solar panels on campus several years ago, and we now have 25,000 of them. Thanks in part to a generally sunny climate in our part of California, our solar panels will generate a combined 6.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That’s enough to power over 900 homes or take over 600 cars off the road.

Our solar project was completed in three phases – the first concluded in 2005; the second in 2009; and the third this week. In order to get financing on the best possible terms, we relied on lease revenue bonds, where energy cost savings are used to satisfy the debt obligation, for phase one. We relied on bank financing for phase two. For phase three, the largest phase, we used a combination of federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and our own funds.