MU officials submitted the university’s climate action plan to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment last week, pledging MU’s next goal to eliminate its carbon emissions by 20 percent by the year 2015.
Chancellor Brady Deaton signed the agreement two years ago, pledging MU to continue the process of eventually becoming climate neutral along with more than 650 other colleges and universities. MU’s 2015 goal is based on emissions data from the year 2008, according to a news release.
“Submitting the Climate Action Plan is a major step for Mizzou,” Campus Facilities spokeswoman Karlan Seville said in an e-mail. “We’re working on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by taking a look at many different areas across campus.”
According to the news release, MU’s plan addresses areas defined by the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, including energy, transportation, education, research and financing, along with other areas of sustainability — water, site selection, waste management, purchasing, building design and construction and food.
Seville said MU’s first goal is to get a biomass boiler in place.
“We are continuing to upgrade the infrastructure to improve utility distribution,” Seville said. “These improvements are expected to decrease our GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions by 20 percent by 2015.”
Seville said MU also wants to work on educating members of the MU community, including students and faculty, about how they can help.
“Sustain Mizzou and other student groups are integral in these efforts,” Seville said. “Mizzou Dashboard is now online in nine residence halls and we will add other halls by 2015. This real-time online energy usage data is designed to educate students about energy usage and conservation and ultimately empower residents to reduce their energy usage.”
Students also serve on the Environmental Affairs and Sustainability Committee to offer their own input, Seville said.
Kelly Gehringer, Sustain Mizzou vice president of communications, said in an e-mail Sustain Mizzou has not been directly involved with the climate action plan, but Steve Burdic, MU sustainability coordinator and Sustain Mizzou’s unofficial supervisor, has been heading the project. Gehringer said they have received knowledge of the plan and are happy about it, but cannot take any ownership in its process.
“The university is committed to becoming climate neutral,” MU sustainability coordinator Steve Burdic said in a news release. “We have set a rolling date to achieve that goal.”
According to the signatory list on presidentsclimatecommitment.org, along with MU, UM-Kansas City, UM-St. Louis, University of Central Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology and the UM system have all signed on to eventually become climate neutral as well.
ACUPCC was launched in 2007 and now includes schools from every state. It is led by a steering committee of more than 20 presidents from a myriad of colleges and universities according to a Sept. 15, 2009, news release.