e-Communiqué

August/September 2007

Published exclusively for members of ACCED-I

In October 2006, a new initiative that will have a great impact in higher education was formed. The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) was created among a group of college and university presidents and their representatives at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference at Arizona State University.

Twelve presidents agreed to become founding members of the Leadership Circle and launch the ACUPCC. In early December 2006, these presidents sent a letter to nearly 400 of their peers inviting them to join the initiative. Since then, the Leadership Circle, which has agreed to promote the initiative among their peers, serve as representatives to the press, and participate in the public launch in June, has grown to 95 presidents and chancellors. The expanded Leadership Circle has since sent information to over 3,500 institutions, asking them to sign the commitment. To date, 347 presidents have signed the commitment.

Higher education is a leader through research, education and public service. According to ACUPCC, “We must tap the research, education, and public service missions and harness all of the scientific, technological, and pedagogical resources at the disposal of our institutions. By creating and implementing coordinated plans to neutralize our campuses' global warming impact within a generation, we can drive the scientific innovation and public education necessary to catalyze rapid change.”

Presidents who sign the commitment are pledging to eliminate their campuses’ greenhouse gas emissions in a reasonable period of time as determined by each institution. This involves:

• Setting up a mechanism (committee, task force, office, etc.) within two months to guide the process
• Completing an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions within one year, starting July 2007
• Creating and implementing a climate neutral plan (that includes a target date and interim milestones for achieving campus climate neutrality) within two years
• Taking two of seven immediate steps specified in the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while the more comprehensive plan is being developed
• Integrating sustainability into the curriculum and making it part of the educational experience
• Making the action plan, inventory, and periodic progress reports publicly available

A Whole-System Perspective for a Strategic Approach to Sustainability

The strategic approach is a whole-system approach with a shared vision of the end goal in mind. Different departments should work together in achieving those goals. A road map has been created to assist with the process including: top-level commitment from college/university presidents, strategies to get broad buy-in by the university community, and implement the plan and report progress to ACUPCC.

Schools can also lay out strategic guidelines and make plans for working towards that goal, as outlined in the roadmap, while recognizing that these actions need to be flexible enough so that schools can adapt accordingly to the changes that will occur on this journey towards carbon neutrality.

There are complex issues with regards to sustainability. For example, as we move towards climate neutrality, it is important that we minimize undesirable side effects. For example, a large-scale hydroelectric dam could avoid the need to build a new coal plant but also could have devastating effects on the local ecosystem and community. Similarly, nuclear power can produce less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel energy but produces nuclear waste and can pose a security risk.

To help address these issues ACUPCC has implemented the Natural Step approach to sustainability. Under this approach, sustainability means:
…eliminating our contribution to systematic increases in concentration of substances from the earth's crust in natural systems (such as fossilized carbon, scarce metals like mercury, etc.);
… eliminating our contribution to systematic increases in concentration of substances produced by society in natural systems (such as toxic chemicals, CFCs, etc.);
… eliminating our contribution to systematic degradation of natural systems by physical means (such as deforestation, erosion, flooding, etc.); and
… eliminating our contribution to the systematic undermining of people's ability to meet their needs worldwide (such as supporting companies with unfair labor practices, perpetuating policies that create barriers to escaping poverty, etc.).

By keeping these principles in mind as the end-goal for sustainability, schools can evaluate actions with some negative implications not as choices between evils or trade-offs, but as strategic moves or stepping-stones on the path towards a sustainable future, in which the four principles above are not violated.

When determining what actions to take throughout the strategic planning process, schools can evaluate each action proposed to help achieve carbon neutrality to make sure that it:

• moves the school towards sustainability, where there are no violations of the four principles;
• is flexible enough so it does not lock the school and/or the school's resources into unsustainable practices for long periods of time (i.e. dead-ends on the road to sustainability); and
• provides a sufficient return on investment (in terms of financial, social, and political capital) to continue the process and reinvest in future actions towards sustainability.

Coordination and support of the commitment is provided by AASHE, ecoAmerica, and Second Nature. To read the Climate Commitment, visit http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.php. Further information can be found at http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/index.php.