Leading the way towards carbon-neutral campuses

RMI Accelerates Campus Climate Initiatives 


By Molly Miller, BET Writer

"Can you name a college that was not founded to exist into perpetuity?" David Shi, President of Furman University, asks the room rhetorically. "Sustainability is the most precious endowment," he says, explaining his reasons for participating in RMI's June workshop on campus climate initiatives.

The June 2009 workshop in Denver was part of a two-year project that culminated in RMI’s new book "Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives." The workshop convened representatives from twelve colleges and universities to share innovative climate related project information and solutions to barriers and problems. The project was created and facilitated by Rocky Mountain Institute in collaboration with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Published in December 2009, the book outlines common barriers and targeted solutions for a whole-system approach to achieving low-carbon campus operations. RMI believes most colleges and universities can benefit from this information as they build frameworks for their climate initiatives. Several campus participants also expressed the hope that their work on campuses will serve as a model for non-academic institutions.

Many schools are committing to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions as part of their campus planning. Not only are students and faculty pressuring their schools to address the climate crisis, but trustees are looking to energy efficiency and renewable energy to help reduce long-term energy costs. Most schools involved in the workshop have made a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality on their campuses under the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Workshop participants—who ranged from university facilities managers and administrators to professors and student activists— cited a variety of reasons for their interest in climate issues, including concerns about health issues, energy carbon saving potential, and the worrisome prospect of having kids in a world facing a climate crisis.  Energy efficiency and carbon emissions are the goal of most climate programs but campus representatives were also striving for healthier buildings and stronger, more resilient communities.

Preceding the workshop, RMI visited the twelve participating campuses for two days each to check out individual campus programs and initiatives and give campus and climate initiative participants on each campus sustained attention. Through an anonymous donor, RMI provided seed grants ($35,000—$50,000 per institution) to provide each participating campus with an opportunity to implement a high priority project that advances its climate program. Each school is now using this funding to launch an important greenhouse gas reduction project.

RMI staff worked with campuses to hone their proposals during the workshop and also worked to incorporate integrated design principles into each project. "RMI estimates 25 percent to 50 percent of operating energy can be saved in existing buildings if you use whole systems renovations," RMI architect James Brew told participants. RMI is well known for conducting charettes or workshops on topics such as green building, energy and transportation. Whole systems design principles are one of the basic foundations of RMI's teachings.

Michael Kinsley, who spearheaded the campus climate project on behalf of RMI, congratulated the participants. "I have spent time with you walking around your campuses, and I have seen in you this extraordinary commitment. When people look back at this point in history to see who was there working to avoid the climate crisis, they'll think of you people. "

Participating schools included Colorado State University, Furman University, Harford Community College, Lakeshore Technical College, Luther College, Richland College, Tufts University, Unity College, University of Minnesota Morris, University of Missouri, University of Vermont, Yale University.

Other participants included: National Wildlife Federation, which has developed a Campus Ecology Program, and Second Nature, a Massachusetts non profit that advances sustainability on college campuses through outreach, advocacy, and curriculum development, capacity development.