University of San Diego
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Climate Action Plan (https://issuu.com/universityofsandiego/docs/nov21_usd_climate_action_plan) 

• Research and Academic Integration: USD will develop and maintain a list of research projects that could help implement and evaluate the CAP. Examples of such research include a study of actual use of parking spots on campus, advancing dynamic electric load management, integration of energy storage and onsite generation, electric vehicle charging patterns, and benchmark building energy and water use.

Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan (https://issuu.com/universityofsandiego/docs/pro-23-3610-stratetic-plan-annual-report-final-pag)

• Goal 3-A: Campus as a Living Lab. From 2021-22, USD increased course-based projects across undergraduate academic units; established Climate Fellows supported by EIL and Changemaker Hub; and established a Procurement Internship for Business Student. From 2022-23, USD hosted its inaugural Student Sustainability Summit; USD Design Lab fellows produced reports on Sustainable Commuting; Conscious Consumerism; and Community Building. The goal by 2024 is to fully implement Campus as a Living Lab across all academic units with direct connections to USD's operational efficiency and Climate Action Plan
• Goal 3-D: Number of courses teaching sustainability to students, whether in a related or focused way. Increase number each year from 525 (the number of sustainability courses taught during 2021-22 academic year).

Climate Action Plan

• Education and Culture Goal: USD will develop a strategy to educate our campus community about the CAP, our commitments, and what role each of us can play to reduce emissions. The ultimate goal is to embrace our Culture of Care to include the important issue of global climate change.
• Education and Culture Goal: To educate students about the importance of the CAP and sustainability on campus, USD will develop programs to expose students to USD's commitments during prospective student tours, Preceptorial Programs, and in Living Learning Communities. Similarly USD will promote these ideas to faculty and staff during recruitment and orientation.

Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan

• Goal 5-K: Designation of Community Engagement and Public Service in Courses. Goal to fully implement the program by 2024 (the program was fully implemented earlier than the stated goal in the 2022-23 academic year). As part of the program, USD's College Corps students provided more than 31,000 hours of service to 43 San Diego community-based organizations focused on equity, sustainability, and education.

Climate Action Plan

• Energy Goal 1: Reduce projected electricity use by 35% by 2035 (from 2010 baseline).
• Energy Goal 2: Reduce projected natural gas consumption by 35% by 2035 (from 2010 baseline).
• Energy Goal 3: Increase use of cleaner renewable sources of energy by 40% by 2035 (from 2010 baseline).
• Commuting Goal 1: Reduce projected miles driven for commuting by 12% by 2035 (from 2010 baseline).
• Zero Waste Goal: Increase projected solid waste diversion to 75% by 2035.
• Water Goal: Reduce projected water use by 30% by 2035 (from 2010 baseline).
• Fleet Goal 1: Reduce projected fossil fuel consumption of USD's fleet 15% by 2035 through optimized use (from 2010 baseline).
• Fleet Goal 2: Reduce projected fossil fuel consumption of USD's fleet by 20% by 2035 by increasing clean-fuel vehicle use (from 2010 baseline).

Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan

• Goal 3-B: New Climate Action Plan. By 2024, implement an updated plan. Reduce GHGs by 26.7% from 2020 to 2024 to stay on track to achieve goal of being carbon neutral by 2035.

• Goal 3-F: Energy Savings. By 2024, achieve 20% reduction in total energy consumption from FY20 baseline with a minimum of $515,000 in savings per year.

Horizon Project (https://www.sandiego.edu/horizon-project/) 

In early 2021, recognizing the challenges to create a more diverse, multicultural and global campus, the university announced the creation of the Horizon Project. The objective of this program is to dedicate the time, energy and resources necessary to build a more inclusive campus community by achieving one of the key pathways in our strategic plan: Strengthening Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice. The Horizon Project has specific, quantifiable goals for USD to achieve by 2026, including:

• Be recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution
• Be one of the 100 most diverse, independent universities in the country
• Be a leader among our national Catholic peer universities for: percentage of students of color enrolled; percentage of Black students enrolled; retention and graduation rates of students of color
• Increase the number of full-times Black faculty within each of the Professional Schools and the College of Arts and Sciences

2020 Strategic Plan for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence (https://www.sandiego.edu/senate/documents/decc_strategic_plan_six_terrains_die.pdf) 

• Access and Recruitment of Students, Goal 1: Enhance access for potential students and current students from all socioeconomic classes to undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, especially those whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented and underserved in higher education.
• Access and Recruitment of Students, Goal 2: Actively recruit students from groups underrepresented at USD, aiming to broaden our pool of applicants so that the differences interwoven into the human experience are justly represented in our recruitment processes.
• Student Success, Retention, and Integration, Goal 1: Identify and track areas where individual students and identity cohorts of students require support, and develop and assess strategies for groups of students whose retention, persistence and graduation rates are lower than those of the general student population and/or experience a lack of integration into our community.
• Student Success, Retention, and Integration, Goal 2: Collaborate and work strategically toward the elimination of barriers to student success, whether they are economic, cultural or political. 
• Faculty, Staff and Administrator Access, Recruitment, and Development, Goal 1: Develop strategies to increase the diversity of the faculty, particularly in areas where there is underrepresentation according to gender, race and ethnicity, in order to advance academic excellence and student learning.
• Faculty, Staff and Administrator Access, Recruitment, and Development, Goal 2: Develop strategies to increase the diversity of staff and administrators, eliminating access, recruitment and development barriers that deter professional advancement and personal fulfillment.
• Faculty, Staff and Administrator Access, Recruitment, and Development, Goal 3: Provide equal opportunities for all employees to balance work and life commitments within a mission-driven culture of care, and to build community by exploring commonalities and differences in a work context of mutuality.
• Campus Culture, Goal 1: Foster a campus culture in which all members of the community, especially those from underrepresented groups: (1) feel safe, respected and valued; (2) are invited to participate fully, sharing their unique gifts, talents and backgrounds; (3) increasingly recognize the value of perspectives that differ from their own; and (4) agree that diversity and inclusion are key priorities of the university. 
• Campus Culture, Goal 2: Develop and assess strategies where all members of the community experience inclusivity, felt in spatial features, institutional communication and design languages, and participatory cultural practices.
• Campus Culture, Goal 3: Adopt a regular routine to measure campus culture and climate at fixed intervals.
• Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning, Goal 1: Build on and expand curricula that integrate diversity, inclusion and social justice into the student experience, encouraging a diversity of perspectives, research topics and pedagogical styles while advancing a commitment to explore power and privilege through disciplinary lenses using universal design. 
• Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning, Goal 2: Build on and expand co-curricular learning and student development opportunities that educate the whole person in an inclusive context, and are characterized by equity, justice, compassion and love.
• Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning, Goal 3: Create opportunities for interdisciplinary research and practice to expand our understanding and appreciation of difference in academic and co-curricular domains.
• Community Relationships and Engagement, Goal 1: Further develop existing relationships with university constituents, including prospective students, families, alumni, donors and other friends of the university, to communicate more clearly the interrelated truths that our commitment to diversity flows from our Catholic identity, and our practices of inclusive excellence lie at the center of our institutional excellence. 
• Community Relationships and Engagement, Goal 2: Expand interdependent relationships with the communities of Linda Vista, San Diego and beyond, attending thoughtfully to how the diversity of the human experience in those contexts can enhance academic excellence on campus, and can grow the opportunities for institutional development and impact.

Investment Policy

• In 2021, the University of San Diego Board of Trustees unanimously adopted an amended Investment Policy aligned with Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si.’ The university has committed approximately $60 million toward impact investments in all three components of ESG — a growth of more than 400 percent since 2016. Under the approved policy, by 2035, the university will seek alternatives to eliminate its exposure from fossil fuel companies in alignment with its commitment to carbon neutrality.

As a Catholic institution, Pope Francis' encyclical entitled Laudato si’, or “On Care of Our Common Home,” is essential to the structure and importance of sustainability at USD. Pope Francis emphasizes the need to protect nature with a “courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps and to avert the most serious effects of environmental deterioration caused by human activity.” Regarding this, he is “confident that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.” USD's Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan, approved by the President and the Board of Trustees, includes Care for a Common home as one of the six pathways. The formal statement as listed on the Envisioning 2024 website states: "The message of Laudato si' tells us we must not only speak the words, but also take immediate action in concrete ways at all levels of the university to care for our common home. From messaging on campus for our visitors and our community, to policies affecting how we do business, to facilitating engagement from our staff, students, faculty and administrators, creating and supporting curricular efforts at all levels, we identify areas of opportunity to create a truly shared and lived vision for Care for Our Common Home."

Signatory to the Catholic Climate Declaration