Climate Action Planning

In 2011, Colgate published its first Climate Action Plan, setting a goal to be carbon neutral by 2019 and detailing prescriptive measures to help us get there. After several iterations of our climate action plans, Colgate published the Third-Century Sustainability Plan in 2022 that furthers the goal of integrating sustainability throughout our institution and fostering a culture of sustainability. This plan is in conjunction with the university-wide Third-Century Plan.

The first step in taking ownership of and countering the University’s contributions to climate change is to take stock of Colgate’s carbon footprint. Every year since 2009, Colgate has completed an inventory of  greenhouse gas emissions which includes air travel, building energy use, ground transportation, and fertilizers, among many other components.

For over a decade, Colgate has been striving to reduce its direct output of greenhouse gases through the use of renewable energy and low-carbon fuels, increased recycling and composting, decreasing water and electricity consumption, green buildings, and much more. Through the execution of the Climate Action Plan and Bicentennial Plan, Colgate reduced its on-campus carbon emissions by about 40%. 

Benton Hall is an example of a project focused on reducing carbon emissions as its insulation and windows are top-notch and greatly increase energy efficiency. In the Class of 1965 Arena, there is a Kube Solutions heat exchange system that increases the efficiency in ice-making by 60-80%. Colgate has also moved away from fuel oil on campus and recently upgraded the heating plant to be able to accommodate more carbon-neutral biomass. 

Although the University has made remarkable progress in reducing its campus carbon emissions, that number is not yet zero. The University continues its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint with strategies like reducing transportation emissions, but in the immediate term in order to achieve carbon neutrality, the University invests in carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are investments in off-campus projects that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or prevent emissions from happening in the first place. The carbon offset project decisions are determined by student, staff, and faculty representatives after receiving feedback from groups and individuals on campus about the most important carbon offset factors to the Colgate community. The committee strives to balance the values most important to the community with the quality of the projects and the overall costs of investing in such initiatives. 

More About Carbon Offsets