The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment was formed in 2007 to address the need for changes in climate and leadership in the higher education community. The idea is that institutions all over the country develop carbon neutrality plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on college campuses.
On Oct.15, Towson submitted a Climate Action Plan to ACUPCC.
Towson’s ACUPCC Committee “will continue to work together to begin implementing the long-term goals and strategies of the climate action plan on campus,” according to communications specialist for administration and finance Pam Gorsuch.
Towson President Robert Caret signed the ACUPCC in the same year it formed to join the efforts of over 650 other leading institutions to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions on Towson’s campus, according to Towson’s “Go Green” Web site.
The goal of this commitment is to take at least two immediate action items in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campus.
“After becoming a signatory of the ACUPCC, Towson University began pursuing not just two, but three of the immediate action items suggested by the ACUPCC: green building, public transportation and waste minimization,” Gorsuch said.
Soon after Caret signed the ACUPCC, the University amended its construction standards policy to state that all new campus construction must be built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard. Therefore, the College of Liberal Arts building as a whole, currently being constructed on campus, is being built to LEED standards and will be the first LEED-certified building on campus upon completion, according to the “Go Green” Web site. LEED is nationally recognized as the prototype for its design, construction and operation of “green” buildings. In order for a building to meet LEED standards, it is required to meet a variety of standards including the site in which it is built, how efficiently water is used, materials and resources that are used to build it, among other criteria.
In order to meet Towson’s public transportation needs, an off-campus shuttle program was created in order to reduce the emissions caused by commuting to and from campus, according to the “Go Green” Web site.
“The program now services more than 20 local apartment complexes and has more than 20,000 riders a month, reducing the parking demand by between 400 and 500 vehicles,” Gorsuch said.
In the past year, Towson has also begun matching the students MTA discount for faculty and staff and enhanced our alternative transportation offerings, including carpooling and car sharing, to provide incentives to individuals who don’t bring a car to campus, according to the “Go Green” Web site.
Gorsuch said recycling has not gone by the wayside.
“A great example of this is our donation of more than 500 residence hall beds to Trinity College in D.C. this summer, which helped to avert more than 55 tons of material from going to a landfill,” Gorsuch said.
To further ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on campus, Towson completed a greenhouse gas emissions inventory of the campus in Sept. 2008 to evaluate where the problem stands currently, according to an ACUPCC report.
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