Cornell University
PAE-5: Climate Action Plan

Cornell President David Skorton launched Cornell’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2009, setting the Ithaca campus on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050. The pursuit of this goal has sparked the imagination of our staff, stimulated innovative solutions, and created a whole new dimension of educational opportunities for our students as they help to green our campus, waste less, and become better stewards of our resources. As the New York State land grant university and an Ivy League institution, Cornell's comprehensive plan for climate neutrality will have an impact well beyond our campus borders. From students, faculty, and staff to researchers and the administration, our actions and initiatives to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions will engage, educate, and inspire our state, our nation and our world. Created with financial support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and among the first such comprehensive programs undertaken by a major university, the Climate Action Plan (CAP) sets the goal of reducing carbon-based emissions from the Ithaca campus to net zero by the year 2050, thus achieving carbon neutrality. The carbon neutrality goal includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions along with employee air travel and commuting. Recommended actions in the plan will help the university improve the energy efficiency of its facilities, reducing operating expenses and realizing savings otherwise subject to commodity fuel cost fluctuation, projected carbon legislation, and potential capital expenditure. At the same time, the CAP will help Cornell unify research and teaching around sustainability in its broadest sense: economic strength and stability; research and teaching excellence; and outreach programs that fulfill our Ivy League and land-grant missions.

See the chart that plots planned reductions year by year through 2050. http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/initiatives/climate-action-plan as well as goals for each individual action in the CAP that are included in the bi-annual updates posed on the same webpage. The campus reduced overall emissions by 32% since 2009 by aggressive energy conservation, a new combined heat and power plant, and ending the use of coal. Our recent inventory posted in January 2013 to the ACUPCC site showed additional reduction (see the GHG reduction credit).