Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.18
Liaison Allen Bottorff
Submission Date Oct. 8, 2012
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

Valencia College
PAE-5: Climate Action Plan

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Deborah Green
Director of Sustainability
Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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Does the institution have a plan to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

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A brief summary of the climate plan’s long-term goals:
To achieve climate neutrality by 2060, Valencia College will aim to reduce its total baseline GHG emissions by 12% by 2015, 30% by 2025, 50% by 2040 and achieve 100% by 2060. Carbon offsets will be critical to fully achieve climate neutrality by 2060. Even by 2010, when our most recent Climate Action Plan was completed, building energy efficiency efforts were reducing our total energy consumption; however, the college had not yet achieved reductions in Scope 3 emissions associated with commuting by students, faculty and staff. Future work will focus on alternative transportation strategies. Continued waste minimization will be carried out to continue to reduce Scope 3 emissions from Solid Waste.

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A brief summary of the climate plan’s short-term goals:
From the 2010 Climate Action Plan:  The formation of a Transportation Task Force to educate the Valencia community on alternative forms of transportation, develop a long range transportation plan to increase public transit to the college’s campuses and centers, and establish incentives to decrease commuter vehicle miles traveled (VMT)  Initiatives to increase onsite electricity generation using low carbon and renewable fuels  Policy initiatives aimed at conserving energy, increasing renewable energy, and reducing waste disposal and personal vehicle travel  The establishment of an Office of Sustainability and hiring of a full time Sustainability Officer to coordinate all sustainability efforts and oversee the Sustainability Committee  Numerous educational and outreach efforts that integrate sustainability into the everyday lives of students and employees. Considerable progress has been made on all of these, except onsite electricity generation using low carbon and renewable fuels, in large part due to the lack of state requirements and rebates.

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Year the climate plan was formally adopted or approved:
2,010

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An indication of whether institution has made a commitment to reduce GHG emissions a specific amount by a target year:
Yes

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List which emissions (scope 1, 2, and/or 3) are included in its GHG emissions commitment:
Scope 1, 2, 3

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The reduction level (percentage) institution has committed to:
12% by 2015

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The baseline year the institution used in its GHG emissions commitment:
Jan. 1, 2006

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The baseline emissions level institution used in its GHG emissions commitment:
52785

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The target year the institution specified in its GHG emissions commitment :
Jan. 1, 2030

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The website URL where information about the climate plan is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Valencia College's 2010 Climate Action Plan is posted at http://valenciacollege.edu/sustainability/action/carbon-footprint.cfm, as well as on the ACUPCC Reporting site. Updated strategies can be found in the Sustainability Plan, posted at http://valenciacollege.edu/sustainability/action/.

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