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 (CAP) continue to pay off, though we have yet to recover from the rise in emissions that occurred in 2017, when the university’s financial crisis resulted in a 100% budget cut for CAP implementation. Prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the university’s financial situation had been improving and the CAP budget was restored in FY20 to a minimal operating level of $45,000/year (25% of historical funding levels). However, without larger investments to scale-up and maintain CAP projects, UofL’s emissions have only decreased slightly in recent years. While any reductions in emissions should be celebrated, it is clear that we have lost the momentum we gained through sustained investment of resources and attention in fiscal years 2011-2017. The good news is that history has already shown us that a renewed full investment of resources and leadership can get us back on track in the years to come.

In April 2020, UofL released its 2019 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, which documents that, following a troubling rise in 2017, our emissions essentially stabilized, decreasing in 2019 by just 1.7% from 2018. This means UofL remains off track for 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 estimated at that time that we stood at an 18.69% reduction overall. With new local data on commuter vehicle fuel efficiency, however, we now estimate that the reduction in 2016 was much greater: at a 23.17% reduction, we had reached our goal early! In 2019, however, after a 12% rise during 2017 and only modest improvement since then, we remain behind with only a 15.9% overall reduction.

This is a troubling development, but it is not unfamiliar territory for UofL. We have been here before and we have righted our ship. 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 7.75% 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.

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 2019, we estimate that UofL’s net carbon emissions have declined by 15.8% from 218,540 to 183,805 metric tons/year.

Given that the social cost of carbon is at least $40/ton of carbon emissions, UofL's emissions in 2019 were still responsible for no less than $7.35 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.

In 2019, we stood at an 15.8% reduction from the 2008 baseline. UofL decreased emissions by 32,781 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year since 2008. According to the EPA's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this translates to:

• Taking 7,082 cars off the road, or 81,342,432 miles of driving, or 3,688,646 gallons of gas burned;
• 11,150 tons (or 1,593 garbage trucks) of waste recycled instead of landfilled;
• Emission from 3,783 average U.S. homes’ annual energy use;
• 180 rail cars worth of coal burned;
• 1,245,337 incandescent lamps switched to LEDs; or the
• Carbon sequestered by 42,810 acres of U.S. forests in one year (or 542,041 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 at the scale of our $52M 2009-2017 three-phase performance contract.
2. Reduce driving through a Transportation Demand Management Plan that invests in and incentivizes alternatives (including online classes & working from home), caps parking, and transitions UofL from subsidizing 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.

The failure to cut emissions in recent years is not solely attributable to the continued growth of our university in terms of employees, students, land, and building space. In fact, it is particularly troubling to note increases since 2016 across the board in terms of emissions per student, per capita, per square foot of building space, and per dollar of operating budget. These trends must be reversed for the sake of our students’ futures, and, indeed, for our common future on this one shared planet.

UofL has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride as we try to reduce our carbon footprint. While in 2018 our emissions were holding steady, our 2017 Report documented a sharp 11% increase in emissions. In 2016, we saw an encouraging decline following the two-year rise in emission documented in our 2015 Inventory. That bad news, however, came on the heels of a very encouraging 2013 Inventory, in which we estimated that emissions had dropped over 22% from 2006 to 2013.

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:

• 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report (released June 2019)
• 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.