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.

On September 15, 2010, UofL released its Climate Action Plan, a comprehensive roadmap for achieving this goal. 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 have been paying off for many years, as we make progress toward our goal of climate neutrality. On May 1, 2017, UofL released its 2016 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, which documents that UofL’s emissions continue to DECLINE overall, despite an increase documented from 2013 to 2015. UofL reversed that trend and, in 2016, the university was able to achieve an overall reduction of 7.2% in carbon emissions from 2015. By continuing to invest in efficiency and behavior change, we have begun reducing emissions once again. This was a vital investment for the sake of our students’ futures, and, indeed, for our common future on this one shared planet.

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.

From 2006 to 2016, we estimate that UofL’s net carbon emissions have dropped nearly 25% from 236,101 to 177,704 metric tons.

We have also documented that UofL is well on its way to achieving our first milestone goal of a 20% reduction in emissions from our 2008 baseline by 2020. In 2016, we stood at an 18.69% reduction from the 2008 baseline. UofL decreased emissions by 40,836 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year since 2008. According to the EPA's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this translates to:

• Taking 8,262 cars off the road, or 97,869,829 miles of driving, or 4,595,026 gallons of gasoline burned;
• 12,960 tons (or 1,851 garbage trucks) of waste recycled instead of landfilled;
• Emission from 4,312 average U.S. homes’ annual energy use;
• 217 rail cars worth of coal burned;
• 1,447,572 incandescent lamps switched to LEDs; or the
• Carbon sequestered by 38,656 acres of U.S. forests in one year (or 1,058,312 tree seedlings grown for 10 years).

While this reduction is important and laudable, we certainly cannot rest on our laurels. 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. Reduce driving through a Transportation Demand Management Plan that invests in and incentivizes alternatives, caps parking, & transitions UofL from highly subsidized annual permits to market-rate, pay-per-use parking.
2. Invest in large-scale renewable energy, behavior change, and energy efficiency measures beyond the scope of the existing performance contract.
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.

This encouraging news followed the two-year rise in emission documented in our 2015 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. That bad news, however, came on the heals of a very encouraging 2013 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, in which we estimated that emissions had already 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).

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:

• 2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (released in September 2011); and
• Our first benchmark 2008 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline Inventory (released in 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.