Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories
Developing an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions associated with a school’s direct and indirect activities is the first step towards carbon neutrality. After establishing a baseline of emissions data, schools can then develop a plan with interim targets for reducing emissions below that baseline.
Details with regard to the process for conducting a GHG inventory according to the standards of the ACUPCC can be found in the Implementation Guide on page 10. This section lays out the emissions sources that should be included in the inventory, the resources and protocols that exist for conducting an inventory, and other helpful guidelines. The ACUPCC GHG Inventory Brief is also a helpful resource designed as a stand-alone complement to the Implementation Guide. For examples of GHG inventories, visit the ACUPCC Implementation Progress Reports and click on the GHG Reports for any of the schools listed.
Actions that institutions can take to effectively carry out their GHG inventory include:
- engaging a diverse group of representatives on campus, including students, faculty, and staff to leverage the process as a valuable learning experience
- connecting with other institutions that have joined the ACUPCC to share best-practices and learn from one another
- keeping good records to ensure continuity year over year
- publicizing the results within the community and beyond to raise awareness and promote behavior change to reduce emissions
Model Initiatives
Many campuses have completed greenhouse gas inventories, taking various approaches. Some have hired consultants to complete the task, while others have gone through extensive processes with their community to measure their GHG emissions. At Middlebury College the process was driven by the students, who engaged with faculty, administration, trustees, and staff to create and update the GHG inventory, and create a proposal for climate neutrality with an inspirational target date of 2016. They also created a “Carbon Neutrality Toolkit” as a way offer advice to other institutions from what they had learned through the process.
Northern Arizona University created the Carbon Footprint Project — a group of NAU students, staff, and faculty from six different departments and three different colleges around campus that are working together on this interdisciplinary problem. They were organized as an independent study course during the Spring 2007 semester designed to accomplish this task and help NAU meet fulfill the ACUPCC.
