Elon University
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

The Sustainability Master Plan was developed by the Environmental Advisory Council, which included faculty, staff and student representatives, in 2006-2007. During its development, a draft plan was made available to the campus community and open forums were held to obtain feedback and input on the plan.

The overarching goal of the Sustainability Master Plan is to minimize the university's impact on the global environment by establishing a carbon neutral university. The Council focused on developing campus strategies to accomplish at least three goals: 1. Elimination of net carbon emissions. The campus should have the goal of becoming carbon neutral within the next 30 years. 2. Inform the campus constituencies (faculty, students and staff) of the issues of sustainability from a variety of perspectives: a. scientific information and implications, b. policy factors and implications, c. practical living accommodations and changes in behavior and d. economic costs and avoidances. 3. Identify initiatives that can be undertaken to address the issues of sustainability on the campus. With these broad goals in mind, recommendations (which have since been treated as sub-goals/objectives) were developed in the following areas: I. Carbon Neutrality II. University Organizational Structures III. University as a Teaching Tool IV. Partnership with Others V. Energy and Atmosphere VI. Materials and Resources Conservation VII. Indoor Environmental Quality VIII. Site Protection IX. Water Conservation X. Green Purchasing XI. Green Building XII. Student Activities XIII. Communication XIV. Curriculum

Progress is tracked by monitoring the status of the sub-goals/objectives under each of the defined areas on a regular basis. The following three statuses are used (along with comments, as necessary): green - complete, yellow - in progress and red - no action/activity.