California State University, Chico
EN-14: Participation in Public Policy

The City of Chico signed the USCMCPA in 2006 and established a Sustainability Task Force to advise City Council on complying with the Commitment shortly after. The STF has existed in a couple of different forms for over a decade now and has included in its membership at least one member of University faculty or staff for that entire time. Staff from the University's Institute for Sustainable Development developed a Climate Action Plan for the City of Chico, which was adopted by City Council in 2012, and have worked with the City to track community-wide greenhouse gas emissions to guide CAP implementation.

The California State University Board of Trustees adopted a comprehensive Sustainability Policy for the first time in 2014. The Policy was in development over a period of about five years and much of the collaborative development and campus stakeholder input to the process occurred at CSU, Chico. From 2009, when fewer than half of the 23 CSU campuses had full-time sustainability staff, through 2015, when all but one or two did, CSU, Chico hosted an annual system-wide sustainability summit as part of our TWTS conference each year. It was during these summits that much of the policy was developed and refined, before going to the BOT for approval in 2014.

CSU, Chico has been a dues-paying member of Second Nature since becoming a founding signatory to the ACUPCC in 2006. Besides overseeing the Climate Commitment, Second Nature works on a national level to leverage the power of its network to lobby for climate policy at the national level.

Since 1993, Second Nature has worked with over 4,000 faculty and administrators at hundreds of colleges and universities to help make the principles of sustainability fundamental to every aspect of higher education.

In late 2006, twelve visionary college and university presidents initiated the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). They were motivated by their conviction that higher education had the capacity and responsibility to lead on climate and sustainability action for the sake of their students and society.

The twelve founding signatories of the ACUPCC were:

Loren Anderson, President Pacific Lutheran University
Michael Crow, President Arizona State University
Nancy Dye, President Oberlin College
Jo Ann Gora, President Ball State University
David Hales, President College of the Atlantic
Bernard Machen, President University of Florida
Gifford Pinchot III, President Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Kathleen Schatzberg, President Cape Cod Community College
Mary Spilde, President Lane Community College
Douglas Treadway, President Ohlone College
Darroch Young, Chancellor Los Angeles Community College District
Paul Zingg, President California State University, Chico

These Founding Signatories worked with Second Nature, ecoAmerica, and AASHE to develop the Commitment, and in early 2007 they invited their peers across the nation to join this historic endeavor. By September 15, 2007, 336 institutions had joined the initiative as charter signatories. By Earth Day 2008, the ACUPCC was a national initiative with signatories in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

We Are Still In is the broadest cross-section of the U.S. economy ever assembled in pursuit of climate action. Over 2,500 leaders strong and growing, We Are Still In shows the world that leaders from across America’s state houses, city halls, board rooms, and college campuses stand by the Paris Agreement and are committed to meeting its goals.

As the United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord in 2017 and the We Are Still in movement was launched, CSU, Chico - one of the 12 founding signatories of the ACUPCC - was quick to sign on.