USF St. Petersburg should continue its push toward sustainability by signing the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. To date, 647 college and university presidents have signed it, and 434 have submitted climate action plans detailing how the schools plan to go, and stay, green.
The President’s Climate Commitment was started by Second Nature and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, organizations that aim to help colleges focus on being sustainable. The document was created in 2006, and 157 universities had committed to the plan by March 2007. The supporting organization surrounding the document was fully realized in June 2007, with 284 institutions on board and an official launch at the annual Climate Leadership Summit.
Universities that sign the commitment are pledging to “complete an emissions inventory; within two years, set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral; take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by choosing from a list of short-term actions; integrate sustainability into the curriculum and make it part of the educational experience; [and] make the action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available,” according to the informational website for the commitment, presidentsclimatecommitment.org.
Universities that sign it agree to form a climate action plan to help further the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions laid out in the document. They agree to a timeline: creating “institutional structures” to implement the plan within two months; taking inventory of the school’s greenhouse emissions within a year; and developing an “institutional action plan” for climate neutrality within two years.
Signees also commit to taking at least two actions from a list of several to immediately begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions while developing the more concrete plan.
USF President Judy Genshaft signed the commitment for the Tampa campus in 2008, and USFSP has already been taking steps toward greening up the campus. The Science and Technology Building, completed in 2010, was the USF system’s first LEED-certified building, classifying it as a green building. USFSP students have shown their commitment to creating an environmentally friendly university by voting to instate the Student Green Energy Fund—over $53,000 has been collected. The USFSP Student Government showed its support for the idea of St. Petersburg signing the commitment through a vote at a recent Senate meeting.
The administration should heed the vote and make this very clear commitment to sustainability. A committee has formed to figure out how to best spend the money collected through the Student Green Energy Fund. Signing the President’s Climate Commitment and creating a climate action plan for the university could help to provide some focus for the use of this fund, and keep the university on track to a sustainable future.
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