Tulane University
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

"Tulane University Center for Public Service 2013-2023 Strategic Plan" As described in its Strategic Plan, the Center for Public Service aims to: I. Promote and maintain the highest level of quality in our partnerships and projects. Our objectives emphasize the significant relationship between faculty and community partners as co-educators, highlighting the importance of public service in addressing community challenges. We will enhance the critical reflection process by empowering students as facilitators and promoting creative reflection techniques. Our community partners will deepen their interaction with CPS and Tulane through more targeted partnerships and opportunities. And overall, CPS will create a comprehensive monitoring and assessment plan to ensure that our programs offer the greatest benefit to all of our constituents, and will give us the data to make adjustments and targeted trainings where needed. II. Implement innovative and intentional strategies to address community challenges. Tulane’s engaged faculty and students are positively impacting the Greater New Orleans community with a plethora of projects across the city and world. CPS can capture the potential of this work to target a prevalent social challenge, whether it be a specific neighborhood or a pressing issue. Using a thoughtful, participatory strategy and analyzing Tulane and community resources, CPS will work with its constituents to determine a target area. Our constituents will be engaged together in interdisciplinary approaches to target the same social challenge, and students will gain the experience of thinking through innovative strategies as a team. These objectives further support Tulane’s highlighted themes of social innovation and placed-based learning III. Engage our constituents in dialogue and understanding around diversity and inclusion as experienced through community encounters. New Orleans is a unique setting that draws students from all over the country to attend Tulane, yet many students are not fully prepared for the many cultural and social differences they’ll encounter off-campus. A more in-depth orientation to community issues and tools on how to engage differences are needed to supplement the on-site service orientations that already take place. In line with Tulane’s Diversity and Inclusive Excellence initiative, CPS is creating the Community Engagement Advocates program to train students, faculty, and partners as facilitators to use dialogue and other programing as tools towards building greater understanding and empathy for differences encountered in the community. Program objectives include: IV. Continue to exercise a leadership role on campus and in the field of community engagement. CPS staff will focus on improving its effectiveness and impact both inside and out. For greater efficiency and effectiveness, staff will streamline internal procedures so as to maximize their ability to achieve program objectives. CPS will advance our research and publications, increasing opportunities for more constituents’ to become involved, so as to further our mission on campus as well as the field of community engagement. V. Promote a change in campus toward full engagement of faculty, staff, students, and community partners in public service. Since 2006, Tulane has seen an increase in engaged students, staff, faculty, and research, yet some do not understand CPS’s role in engagement and the support we can offer. CPS seeks to better clarify and market its role as a resource on community-engagement for the Tulane and wider community. CPS will make itself more accessible and create greater awareness of its programs through more strategic marketing and through strengthening collaborations with other Tulane centers and departments. With faculty being at the crux of all of CPS’s academic programming, increasing our support, resources, and reward for faculty-engaged scholarship is essential to the quality of our academic programs. Likewise, strengthening our communication with students and student organizations will allow pathways for student leadership and achievement, and further support student-initiated projects. To further keep community engagement on the forefront of campus life, CPS will highlight community partners as a valued voice and resource on campus.

• By 2015: i. establish diversity and inclusion framework to guide CPS’s work ii. develop comprehensive marketing strategy to significantly increase the awareness and understanding of public service and CPS’s role on campus • By 2017: i. develop progressive pathways of service for improved student program development ii. streamline internal processes to improve office efficiency by 20% • By 2018: i. incorporate support for diversity and inclusion in at least 50% of CPS programs ii. see an increase of 30% in students’ understanding of the correlation of service and academic content as reflected in course evaluations • By 2019: i. see a 50% increase in service learning (s-l) constituents that self-report being satisfied with their academic service experience ii. see a 25% increase of active community partners that deepen their relationship with CPS through participation in at least one “higher” level engagement program iii. define areas of prevalent social challenges that can be addressed by Tulane’s strongest areas of expertise in a sustainable way iv. 50% constituents report that their service projects addressed a social challenge in a meaningful way v. increase assistance and services provided to all faculty members at Tulane who conduct community-engaged scholarship • By 2022: i. 75% of CPS programs implement assessment mechanisms. ii. fully integrate diversity and inclusion as part of CPS’s overall role as a resource hub for community engagement iii. continue CPS-research agenda iv. make campus more inclusive of community voice by engaging at least 80% of active CPS community partners in Tulane functions on campus and in the community v. continue to convene and support national and international leadership in community engagement

The Center for Public Service works to convene and support offices and departments across the university to see that our objectives are met.

In June 2015, 2014 Tulane University Climate Action Plan was completed and adopted. The plan identifies the most impactful and cost-effective measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from university activities. In the near-term, the university will work to capture immediately available and important efficiency gains in campus energy supply and distribution, advance building energy demand management, introduce renewable energy sources, and increase efficiency within the campus fleet and air travel. New construction will be designed to achieve a high level of energy efficiency. In the mid-term, the university will continue to implement energy conservation measures, and will introduce an ambitious transportation strategy to encourage the university community to walk, bicycle and take transit. While the long-term measures identified in the plan include investment in renewable energy and energy conservation measures with a longer payback, less specificity is offered for this phase, because utility prices and options, technologies and fuel source availability are expected to be markedly different within a decade. It ten years, it will be necessary to revise and update this plan.

Based on 2007 emissions, the university aims for 15% reduction by 2020, 30% reduction by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The Office of Sustainability will be responsible for maintaining the plan. An inventory of university greenhouse gas emissions is conduct annually.

Tulane University's "Green Building Design and Construction Standards and Guidelines" were endorsed by the University Senate in 2011. They establish specific environmental goals for all major construction and renovation projects, including LEED Green Building certification at a Silver level. The complete document can be viewed at http://tulane.edu/oua/policies-and-plans.cfm

1. The LEED Silver minimum standard will apply to projects above an identified size and/or budget. 2. All new buildings should have at least a 28% energy cost savings from a baseline building performance according to Appendix G of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, earning 9 points for LEED Energy & Atmosphere Credit 1. 3. All major renovations should aim to have at least a 24% energy cost savings from a baseline building performance according to Appendix G of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, earning 9 points for LEED Energy & Atmosphere Credit 1. 4. The guidelines identify priority LEED credits that should be achieved by every project. These credits identify measurable objectives for every building project in the areas of Water Use Reduction, Commissioning, Measurement and Verification, Construction Waste Management; Construction IAQ Management, Low Emitting Materials and Education.

The Office of Sustainability, University Planning Offices, Design Services, Capital Projects and Real Estate Group, and Facilities Services collaborate to ensure that each project achieves the measurable objectives outlined by Green Building Design and Construction Standards and Guidelines.

“ Embedding Diversity and Inclusive Excellence: Tulane University 2013-2023 Strategic plan,” was completed in May 2013. At the request of former President Scott Cowen, in 2011 Provost Michael Bernstein convened a special task force and charged it with developing a Diversity and Inclusive Excellence (D&IE) Planning Roadmap as an integral component of the strategic planning process. The overarching aim is to embed D&IE across all aspects of university life--learning, teaching, research, service, and institutional effectiveness--in a measurable and sustainable fashion. Tulane uses the term “diversity” in its broadest sense and takes into consideration the issues of socio-economic status, geographic background, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation and gender identity. The taskforce used an evidence-based approach to accomplish three goals: determine baseline assets, strengths, and challenges; develop a set of university-wide D&IE strategic imperatives allowing for the development of measurable benchmarks; and create a roadmap consisting of a how-to guide and toolkit to foster embedding Diversity and Inclusive Excellence within the ongoing strategic planning efforts of every university unit. Informed by the findings of these activities, the taskforce developed five strategic imperatives that will define D&IE university-wide, going forward. These five imperatives serve as targets for Tulane’s highest diversity priorities and allow every unit within the university to align resources and programs accordingly. These five D&IE imperatives direct the Tulane community to: 1. Sustain a diverse and inclusive Tulane community through successful recruitment and retention of faculty, students, and staff; 2. Embed D&IE in research, teaching, and service; 3. Strengthen the cultural competence of Tulane’s community; 4. Examine institutional policies and practices to ensure that they sustain Diversity and Inclusive Excellence; 5. Ensure sustained and committed leadership in Diversity and Inclusive Excellence. The Diversity Plan can be viewed at https://tulane.edu/equity/diversity-plan.cfm

All units, with guidance and assistance from the Office of Institutional Equity