Climate Action Plan

In 2008, UofL became a signatory to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which is now known simply as the Carbon Commitment. As a member of the Climate Leadership Network, the University of Louisville is committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest.

After benchmarking our carbon footprint with our 2008 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline Inventory, on September 15, 2010, UofL released its Climate Action Plan, a comprehensive roadmap for reducing our emissions down to net zero. A summary of the Plan and a link to the full document can be found here. The Sustainability Council coordinates UofL's Climate Action Planning as well as the reporting of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Our efforts to implement our Climate Action Plan had been paying off for many years, as we made progress toward our goal of climate neutrality. However, in June 2019, UofL released its 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, which documents that, following a troubling rise in 2017, our emissions essentially stabilized in 2018, decreasing by just 0.3%. This means UofL remains off track from achieving our first milestone goal of a 20% emissions reduction by 2020 from our 2008 baseline. In 2016, we appeared to be on track as we stood at an 18.69% reduction from the 2008 baseline. In 2018, we were back down to a 12.99% reduction. We must cut emissions another 8% in just two years in order to achieve our goal of a 20% reduction by 2020.

This is a troubling development, but it is not unfamiliar territory for UofL. We have been here before and we have righted our ship before. We saw a similar increase in emissions from 2013 to 2015, and took action to reverse the trend. In 2016, by continuing to invest in efficiency and behavior change, the university was able to achieve a 7.2% reduction of carbon emissions in one year. This was a vital investment for the sake of our students’ futures, and, indeed, for our common future on this one shared planet.

Our efforts to implement our Climate Action Plan (CAP) had been paying off, thanks to sustained investment of resources and attention in fiscal years 2011-2017.  However, a troubling reversal of progress occurred in FY18, when the university’s financial crisis resulted in a 100% budget cut for CAP implementation. In FY19, facing continued financial constraints, the CAP implementation budget was restored to a minimal operating level of $27,000 (15% of historical funding levels) and emissions leveled-off. This lack of investment has hindered on our ability to take action to reduce emissions and raise awareness. A renewed investment of resources and leadership can get us back on track in the years to come.

Fortunately, over the long-term, we have reduced our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, even as we continue to grow in terms of physical size, campus population, and budgetary expenditures. In fact, UofL has achieved the following relative reductions in emissions over time:

From 2008 to 2018, we estimate that UofL’s net carbon emissions have declined by 13% from 218,540 to 190,141 metric tons/year.

Yet this is no time to rest on our laurels. In fact, the most important finding of this inventory is that renewed investment will be required to make further progress and to meet our targets.

Given that the social cost of carbon is at least $40/ton of carbon emissions, UofL's emissions in 2018 were still responsible for no less than $7.61 million/year in damage to our planet and its people. It is not acceptable to continue externalizing these costs and imposing such a debt on the future generations for whom UofL ought to be a source of hope and flourishing.

UofL has made progress, but must reinvest if we are to achieve our first milestone goal of a 20% reduction in emissions from our 2008 baseline by 2020. In 2018, we stood at an 12.99% reduction from the 2008 baseline. UofL decreased emissions by 28,399 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year since 2008. According to the EPA's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this translates to:

• Taking 6,030 cars off the road, or 69,435,208 miles of driving, or 3,195,567 gallons of gasoline burned;
• 9,905 tons (or 1,415 garbage trucks) of waste recycled instead of landfilled;
• Emission from 3,401 average U.S. homes’ annual energy use;
• 155 rail cars worth of coal burned;
• 1,078,702 incandescent lamps switched to LEDs; or the
• Carbon sequestered by 33,423 acres of U.S. forests in one year (or 469,583 tree seedlings grown for 10 years).

While this reduction is important and laudable, this is no time for complacency. We must remain vigilant, committed, and willing to invest resources in order maintain our progress and to ensure a sustained effort toward our ultimate goal of climate neutrality by 2050. We must continue to invest in emissions reduction, to innovate solutions that work in our unique urban setting, and to prioritize efficiency, behavior change, transportation alternatives and renewable energy.

The most important steps that UofL needs to take in the near-term are:

1. Invest in large-scale renewable energy, behavior change, and energy efficiency measures beyond the scope of the recent performance contract.
2. Reduce driving through a Transportation Demand Management Plan that invests in and incentivizes alternatives, caps parking, and transitions UofL from highly subsidized annual parking permits to market-rate, pay-per-use parking that subsidizes alternatives.
3. Explore carbon offsetting and sequestration solutions that would benefit our campus, community, and region.

The reductions we’ve been able to achieve over the years have occurred in spite of the continued growth of our university in terms of budget, employees, students, land, and building space. We've documented reductions across the board in terms of emissions per student, per capita, per square foot of building space, and per dollar of operating budget.

UofL has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride as we try to reduce our carbon footprint. While in 2018 our emissions held steady, our 2017 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report documented a sharp 11% increase in emissions. Our 2016 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, showed an encouraging decline following the two-year rise in emission documented in our 2015 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. That bad news, however, came on the heels of a very encouraging 2013 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, in which we estimated that emissions had dropped over 22% from 2006 to 2013 (from 246,929 to 191,823 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted annually, an amount equal to taking 11,600 cars off the road).

Kentucky colleges have lofty climate goals but struggle to cut greenhouse emissions (Courier-Journal, July 8, 2019)
University Of Louisville Falls Behind On Climate Change Goals (WFPL, July 2, 2019)
Carbon Neutral (Sustain: A Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Issues, Issue 38, Spring/Summer 2018)
 - Shrinking Emissions & Expanding Minds at the University of Louisville, p. 16-25.
UofL study: Heat, health risks worsen by 2050 (Courier-Journal, Nov. 14, 2016)
Perspectives on Climate Change (UofL Arts & Sciences, Oct. 2015)
UofL’s emissions down (UofL Today, Jan. 27, 2014)
Interview: UofL energy report (WHAS-11 ABC TV, Mar. 18, 2014)
UofL Reports Reduction in Carbon Dioxide Emissions (WFPL, Jan. 24, 2014)
University of Louisville is on its way to carbon neutrality (Louisville Alternative Energy Examiner, January 31, 2012)

While the reductions to date are certainly worthy of note and should be celebrated, they still do not represent a steep enough decline to achieve our goal of climate neutrality by 2050. We must continue to innovate and strive for even greater reductions in years to come.

For earlier trends, see our:

• 2017 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report (released May 2018)
• 2016 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report (released May 2017)
• 2015 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (released January 2016)
• 2013 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (released January 2014) 
• 2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (released September 2011)
• 2008 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline Inventory (released September 2009)

Climate Action Plan

UofL's target goals for university-wide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from our 2008 benchmark estimate of 192,788 MT eCO₂ are:

Our plan for making progress toward climate neutrality is dynamic and multifaceted. We recognize that sustainability demands progress on multiple fronts and that lasting change cannot be achieved without coordinated efforts campus-wide. As such, we propose taking a variety of steps to lead UofL down a path toward climate neutrality with a focus on the following initiatives: green purchasing; energy conservation and efficiency; renewable energy; carbon sequestration; master planning; green building design; composting and horticultural practices; behavior change; recycling; transportation; food; and carbon offsets.

UofL employees & students are encouraged to offset emissions from university travel/business through a service such as Carbon Footprint Ltd, Native Energy, CarbonFund, or TerraPass.

UofL's Climate Action Plan is designed to be a living document that we will continue to revisit and refine as we go through a four decade process of adaptive management on the road to climate neutrality. Engaging students, faculty, researchers, staff and the broader community in this process will be vital to its success and to our broader educational and research mission. This plan is a key element in our sustainability initiatives, and it involves many steps that will help us achieve our strategic goals as well as our climate commitment. It is also the right thing to do in a world of dwindling fossil fuel resources and worsening climate crisis.