Duke University
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

In 2007, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, committing the University to developing an institutional plan to achieve climate neutrality.
The Campus Sustainability Committee (CSC), with student, faculty and staff representatives, was established immediately afterward to develop Duke’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). The 2009 CAP primarily tackled Duke’s carbon footprint, setting goals and creating strategies to achieve them in energy, transportation, and carbon offsets. In addition to aggressively retooling infrastructural operations, the CAP also focused on education and communication because climate neutrality, and ultimately sustainability, is impossible without the community’s cooperation and active participation.
In 2011, the Campus Sustainability Committee began the expansion of the Climate Action Plan into a broader Sustainability Strategic Plan that assesses the baseline and develops targets for other elements of campus sustainability such as water, waste and recycling, food, supply chain management and land use.
The process of developing the Sustainability Strategic Plan will be a multi-year initiative and will create a comprehensive road-map for Duke’s future sustainability efforts.

Emissions and Carbon Offsets
- Achieve carbon neutrality by 2024.
- Aggressively pursue on-campus efforts to reach established milestones for emission reductions for carbon neutrality by 2024.
(Milestones for Emissions Reductions)
2010 – 10%
2030 – 70%
2015 – 21%
2035 – 74%
2020 – 45%
2040 – 79%
2024 – 45%
2045 – 83%
2025 – 45%
2050 – 88%

Infrastructure
- Continue implementation of energy conservation measures in existing buildings with the goal to realize a 15% reduction in energy use over the next 20 years.

Campus Operations
- 6% reduction in transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions (over 2007 baseline) in 2012 through investment in alternative transportation options
- Assess Duke’s baseline recycling and waste reduction efforts and create meaningful goals to increase recycling and reduce the total campus waste stream.

Education and Engagement
- Incorporate sustainability into the depth and breadth of every student’s experience by including core concepts of sustainability in every applicable field and research opportunity and by using the campus as a sustainability living laboratory.

** More details about goals of the Sustainability Strategic Plan can be found at:
http://sustainability.duke.edu/about/reports/index.html

Emissions and Carbon Offsets
- In 2009, Duke created the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (DCOI) – the first university-sponsored carbon offsets program in the U.S. DCOI collects and analyzes carbon offsets data, and helps university partners formulate strategies that best reduce emissions and maximize carbon offset opportunities.

Infrastructure
In order to achieve its goal of a 15% reduction in energy use over the next 20 years, Duke is working closely with Duke Energy to collect yearly energy consumption data numbers. Data numbers are organized by energy source. As a result of this detailed record keeping, Duke University was able to report last year that the University had realized an 18% reduction in energy related greenhouse gas emissions compared to the baseline of 2007.

Campus Operations
- Every year Duke surveys students and employees of Duke to collect data numbers on transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. Data numbers inform policies and programs that encourage carpooling, cycling, and bus transit, among other programs.
- Duke Recycles conducts a yearly waste and recycling audit. Numbers from the audit inform policies and programs that encourage more recycling on campus.

Education and Engagement
- Duke created the position of Faculty Director of Sustainability, held by Dr. Charlotte Clark, to help formalize the University’s commitment to promoting sustainability education. Dr. Clark's position will help the University identify current academic efforts to incorporate sustainability into curriculum and research. Her position will also help the University identify new areas of coursework and research, where sustainability can be better incorporated.