Climate Action
News: Updated Greenhouse Gas Inventory released on Sept 23, 2011. This page will be updated soon with new data.The University's Climate Action Plan
The University of Maryland is a charter signatory to the American College and University President' Climate, a network of more than 670 American colleges and universities that have made institutional commitments to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from specified campus operations, and to promote the integration of climate change and sustainability into research and education. In September 2009, the University submitted its Climate Action Plan to Climate Commitment organizers. This strategic plan was collaboratively developed by the Climate Action Plan Work Group, a diverse group of more than 50 students, faculty, and staff representing 35 different schools, departments, and offices.
The Climate Action Plan outlines more than 40 strategies, which if fully implemented, would enable the campus to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The strategies include policy changes; mitigating emissions from power and operations, transportation, and solid waste; and opportunities to integrate climate change and sustainability into the curriculum and research.
Progress Toward Carbon Neutrality
The Climate Action Plan was reviewed by the campus community and ultimately endorsed by the University Senate and President Mote. Even before it was submitted, diverse units were working to implement core strategies in the plan. In September 2010, a third campus greenhouse gas inventory was completed for the campus, detailing emissions for calendar year 2009. The 2009 inventory shows sound progress with an 8.5 percent reduction in emissions over baseline emissions in 2005.
The Climate Action Plan set an initial milestone of a 15 percent reduction over 2005 levels by 2012. Due in part to energy efficiency and conservation measures, emissions associated with purchased electricity use were down by over 13 percent. These included the $20M Energy Performance Contract with Johnson Controls, lighting retrofits, Tawes SCUB, and SCUB3 projects. Emissions from refrigerant releases were down 36 percent and solid waste associated emissions were down 70 percent. There were also a number of reductions associated with improved accounting practices, as campus units improve their ability to track emissions associated with diverse University operations.
Going forward, the University will need to seek reductions from each contributing sector, and promote innovation across a diverse array of campus functions and units. In addition to making the campus infrastructure more efficient, the University needs the cooperation of the entire campus community to reduce energy use in buildings and promote the adoption of more sustainable means of transport.
