Introduction

The Clean Air-Cool Planet on-line Campus Climate Action Toolkit (CCAT) is a resource to anyone who is interested in making his/her educational institution more "climate friendly" — college or university students, staff, faculty, administrators, trustees, alumni, community members. It consists of short bits of guidance for every aspect of "campus climate action" along with hyperlinks to technical resources and examples/case studies that will help people understand, plan, and execute or implement a climate action plan’s various elements.

Featured in the Toolkit is the latest version of the Campus Carbon Calculator.™ (Click the orange logo at the left to download.) Version 6 of the tool measures campus emissions and can be used to help create a climate action plan, analyzing viable long-term strategies to reduce a campus’s carbon footprint.

The Campus Carbon Calculator™ is the leading tool for assessing campus greenhouse gas emissions. Currently in use at more than 1200 campuses across the country, the Calculator has already helped schools of all sizes and types, and in all regions to tackle global warming. The Calculator is the “tool of record” for most of the 600 signatories to the American Colleges and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a voluntary agreement to move toward campus “climate neutrality.”

Campus Carbon Calculator™ version 6 includes new Projection and Solutions Modules that will make it easier for administrators to plan for money-saving efficiencies on their campuses, make action plans easier to comprehend for trustees, and provide a powerful new educational tool for instructors and students.

Creation of this toolkit, and of the calculator specifically, draws on CA-CP's experience working with an accomplished group of people and institutions doing such work across the Northeast region such as Tufts University's Tufts Climate Initiative, the University of New Hampshire's Office of Sustainability Programs, the University of Vermont's Environmental Council, Middlebury College's Carbon Reduction Initiative Working Group, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, and others.

Clean Air-Cool Planet partnered with the University of New Hampshire to create the original calculator, employing then-graduate student Adam Wilson to develop the spreadsheet template, in collaboration with University staff and faculty advisors and mentors, as a way to measure the UNH footprint. Since then, CA-CP has worked closely with UNH to keep the tool current, relevant, and in line with the best scientific methods available. The calculator is designed to be compatible with any type of school — from a technical community college to a private 4-year university.

At Middlebury College, another institution that contributed early on to the Calculator’s success, former students Ian Hough and Jason Kowalski demonstrated the facility of the tool in January 2007.  Working with faculty and staff during an intensive student-led month-long project to update the Middlebury greenhouse gas inventory and investigate the costs and emission reductions of possible projects on campus, they evaluated initial costs, cost savings over time, emissions reduced, and emissions reduced per total invested and then presented their findings to Middlebury’s trustees. The resulting climate action plan and carbon neutrality target were both unanimously approved by Middlebury trustees. Middlebury is one of only a handful of colleges with a specific near-term plan for carbon neutrality.

Demonstrating the power of colleges and universities not only to reduce their own emissions but to help shape the next generation of climate and energy professionals, Hough and Kowalski brought what they learned at Middlebury to CA-CP in early 2008 to finalize development of the Projection Module; they continue to advocate for cost-effective investments and carbon-reduction targets at Brighter Planet and 1Sky.