Excellent Climate Action Planning Resources Abound

Submitted by Niles Barnes on January 30, 2009 - 4:36pm
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 This is the second Guest Blog from Walter Simpson, CEM, LEED AP, retired 26-year University at Buffalo Energy Officer and Director of UB Green. Walter will be posting blogs weekly that provide guidance on preparing a comprehensive Climate Action Plan to assist signatories of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. We encourage readers to post comments and questions for Walter.  Read Walter's first blog here.

Developing a climate action plan (CAP) is a daunting interdisciplinary undertaking. Luckily there are lots of great resources to help you. InWalter Simpson February we will be posting a comprehensive CAP manual on the web as a wiki and inviting you to use it and add to it. Our hope is that it will fill some gaps in the support structure for the ACUPCC. In the meantime, here is a rundown of some other resources – all excellent -- available to help you: 

First and foremost are the websites of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and one of its primary sponsors, AASHE.
 
The ACUPCC site contains more than a description of the commitment and a list of the 600-plus signatories. It also contains a “solutions” section that has links to resource pages with examples of already completed campus climate action plans, as well as information on issue areas you will need to address in your CAP. On the right side of the Solutions page you will find a comprehensive listing of supporting documents including the ACUPCC Implementation Guide and Clean Air--Cool Planet’s super Campus Carbon Calculator and Campus Climate Action Toolkit.
 
The next place to go for help is the AASHE website. This site hosts the most comprehensive Resource Center on green campuses. Here you will find a section on climate that contains links to numerous campus greenhouse gas inventories as well as campus climate plans and commitments, and publications on campus climate action. Many other sections of AASHE’s on-line Resource Center will be of great help in developing the various mitigation strategies which will be part of your CAP. These sections include: buildings, energy, transportation, and waste disposal/recycling as well as resources to assist in the greening of your school’s curriculum and research – which are also important components of the ACUPCC.
 
In 2008, Campus Ecology, a division of the National Wildlife Federation, produced two excellent ACUPCC and CAP resources, Guide to Climate Action Planning: Pathways to a Low Carbon Campus (PDF) and Higher Education in a Warming World: the Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus.
 
APPA, the professional organization of higher education facilities managers, has just finished and posted an excellent CAP guidance geared, not surprisingly, to facilities managers, The Educational Facilities Professionals Practical Guide to Reducing the Campus Carbon Footprint. It will be helpful to non-facilities managers too and it’s available for free download.
 
Excuse my mentioning this but also from APPA is my own book, an anthology entitled The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge of Environmental Sustainability which contains a number of helpful articles on the ACUPCC and campus climate action as well articles on many other green campus topics. I can’t recommend this book enough!
 
‘till next week climateers!
 
Walter Simpson
Walter Simpson, CEM, LEED AP, retired 26 year University at Buffalo Energy Officer and director of UB Green, is working with AASHE and the American College & University President’s Commitment to develop a climate action plan wiki which is expected to be initially posted in February 2009.