From Green Right Now Reports
New York University released its Climate Action Plan (CAP) today, which outlines the first steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.
The plan was developed after the university took a greenhouse gas inventory, and it outlines the projects and methods it will use to reduce or offsets its emissions.
NYU officials credited both Mayor Bloomberg’s PlanNYC Climate Challenge and the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) for initiating and helping shape its actions. The school is a signor of the ACUPCC .
The goals:
- NYU will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions per square foot by 30 percent from FY 2006 levels by FY 2017. This plan aims to reduce emissions in “an immediate, ambitious and tangible way,” school officials said.
- NYU pledges to achieve “climate neutrality” (i.e. net zero emissions) by FY 2040 by upgrading buildings through efficiency and conservation, planning for green building, generating cleaner on-site and renewable energy, encouraging behavior changes and offsetting remaining emissions.
“Across the University – from academics to financial and space planning to sustainability – we are striving to plan for the long-term,” said Michael Alfano, NYU’s Executive Vice President. “This Climate Action Plan fits within that template, relying on a rigorous analysis to point the way toward a 30-year goal of attaining carbon neutrality.”
Cecil Scheib, Director of Energy and Sustainability, noted in the news release that NYU has already made progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting them by 20 percent over the past three years.
“NYU total emissions have dropped from a fiscal year (FY06) peak of 171,000 MTCE to 136,000 MTCE in FY 2009. This decrease in global warming pollution is a measurable component of New York City’s total emissions, and represents a major step toward confronting the challenge of global warming,” Scheib said.
NYU, which is located in Greenwich Village and comprises 14 schools and colleges, intends to fulfill its CAP by retrofitting buildings to use less energy, and prioritizing those retrofits to maximize emissions reductions.
The school — already the largest university purchaser of wind power — plans to use more cleaner energy by expanding a cogeneration power plant on site, which is expected to mitigate nearly one-quarter of NYU’s baseline FY 2006 emissions. The university will also replace fuel oil used to heat buildings with cleaner energy sources.
NYU is exploring the possibility of adding wind and solar power to its on-site energy plans, projects that it hopes will be financially feasible because of a positive return on investment, buttressed by state and federal incentives.
Whatever emissions the school can’t reduce or eliminate with these methods will be mitigated through local, socially and educationally redeeming offset programs.
NYU’s Manager of Sustainability Initiatives, Jeremy Friedman said that the CAP plan “fuses” the short-term reductions required by the Mayoral Challenge with the broader goals of the ACUPCC.
And the program does not forget the educational opportunities provided by the changing times. NYU expects to foster a campus-wide appreciation of sustainability through expanded course offerings both at the main campus and the affiliated Polytechnic Institute of NYU.
“The size and scope of this problem,” said Friedman, “are equaled only by our collective capacity to confront it together – by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as individuals, and by educating the next generation of leaders in the struggle to create a more sustainable and just world.”