1. Introduction

1.1 Defining Campus Climate Action

Concern about global climate change has existed on college and university campuses for decades. However, it is only within the last few years that institutions of higher education have recognized this problem en masse and have begun making institutional commitments to addressing this threat. Often the call for collective campus-wide action has come from students and faculty but occasionally it has emanated from facilities or other professional staff or from the highest levels of campus leadership.

Initially, schools were largely on their own in efforts to address climate change. While some regional and national organizations provided support services to campuses that chose to address climate change, it was entirely up to each campus to develop its own goals, program, process, and resources – and to proceed to implement curricular changes and operational greenhouse gas emissions reductions on its own. This changed dramatically in the autumn of 2006 when the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) was founded. Since then over 600 colleges and universities have signed the Commitment.

The ACUPCC represents one form of campus climate action. But it is not the only one. For a variety of reasons other colleges and universities have developed their own campus climate action programs with different goals and expectations. All these schools have this in common: a recognition of the over-riding problem of global climate change and a commitment to exercise leadership in responding to it – through curriculum, research and campus operations.

1.2 What Is a Climate Action Plan and Why Do One?

There are a variety of real-world reasons why campus leaders make commitments to academic and operational programs to address climate change. These include:

• Awareness of the problem of global climate change and a desire to contribute solutions
• Knowledge that other schools are doing it or are likely to do it (“so let’s get on the bandwagon”)
• The perception that GHG emissions reductions will have substantial value with regard to reducing costs, attracting students, faculty, and funding, increasing productivity, and/or improving public relations
• The belief that implementing the commitment will not be that difficult given already existing environmental initiatives on campus
• Campus environmental advocates insisted that it is the right thing to do!

Of course, making a commitment and keeping it are two different things. On many campuses there are undoubtedly students, faculty and staff wondering “how do we get there from here?”. That’s where a campus climate action plan comes in.

Ad hoc actions can take you in the right direction but a plan can provide:

• A better understanding of the scope of the challenge
• An opportunity to define goals, strategies and tactics
• A blueprint for action -- defining the best way to proceed
• Milestones to measure progress
• A process which encourages collaboration and brings people together
• Institutional commitment and an effective response

A campus climate action plan can be a roadmap to get your school to the promised land of climate protection. Important components include:

• Your climate action goals
• Target dates for achieving goals
• Actions to make climate change a part of the curriculum and other educational experiences
• Actions to expand research on climate change and potential solutions
• Actions to reduce the institution's GHG emissions
• Interim targets for goals and actions
• Mechanisms for tracking progress on goals and actions

In all likelihood your climate action plan (CAP) will contain more than these items since it is one thing to list planned actions and quite another to include all the details needed to facilitate actual implementation. Practical considerations such as financing will have to be incorporated. The proper sequencing and combining of actions is important, not only so momentum is created but also so your plan can take advantage of synergies and allow early steps to set the stage for later ones. Since the success of your plan requires on-going effort by so many different individuals, offices, and constituencies on and off campus, you may find that the process used to develop the plan is as important as the final plan itself.

1.3 About this Guide

While there are a number of excellent campus climate planning resources available, this guide attempts to fill a gap by providing an abundance of “how-to” information. The goal of the guide is to assist climate action planning teams at schools that are well versed in campus climate issues and well along in the CAP process as well as those who are just beginning in this endeavor -- and may be wondering where to start and what to do. This guide deliberately errs on the side of providing a lot of detail to maximize its potential helpfulness. Apologies if there is too much detail!

While planning steps are presented in a logical sequence, you may find that proceeding in a different order makes sense for your school or that working on a number of these items simultaneously will be most effective. You can also use this guide as a reference book and just consult topics of interest.

1.4 Where to Find Campus Examples of CAP-Related Projects

All of the topics covered in this guide would make more sense if illustrated by real-life examples of campus projects and initiatives. However, to keep the length of the guide somewhat manageable, campus examples are generally provided at the end of each section via reference to appropriate webpages on the AASHE and ACUPCC websites. In the event that campus examples for particular topics are not provided on these sites (or if there are other websites with good campus examples), those other links are also provided.

Also, please see the “Campus Climate Action Planning Resources” chapter, which lists and provides links for a number of excellent CAP resources – organizations, publications, and web-based information. An especially good resource which describes seven campus climate action plans is the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology publication, Guide to Climate Action Planning: Pathways to a Low Carbon Campus.

AASHE’s Resource Center is the most complete and extensive green campus web resource of its kind. Note that some portions of this resource center are "members only" resources which require logging in to use. If your institution is not an AASHE member, you can learn more about it on AASHE's membership pages.

For sample campus climate plans, see: the Climate section of the AASHE Resource Center and the "Overview and Examples of Climate Action Plans" section of the ACUPCC website.