Vassar College
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

The Vassar Climate Action plan outlines goals for improving sustainability in the curriculum, which include running a Sustainability Literacy test. The plan calls for expanding the number of course offered and increasing the number of students who graduate from programs that have sustainability learning outcomes.

The Tree Care Plan requires an annual Arbor Day observance, an annual project that increases public engagement on campus, and a service learning project. In order to re-certify with the Arbor Day Foundation each year, evidence of each activity needs to be documented.

In Tree Care Plan this is covered by the following:
Goals and Targets:
c. Community Engagement: Regularly scheduled events for the wider community will educate the public about the importance of tree conservation, Vassar’s ecologically friendly efforts, and the other benefits of trees. The organized creation of volunteer opportunities for on-campus restoration efforts, including but not limited to invasive species removal, rain garden maintenance and stream clean ups, will serve to instill a conservation-ethic in the student-body. Attendance at events will be tracked, with a goal of increasing participation over time.

Service projects will be viewed mainly as a benefit to students and the community in general, with secondary benefits to grounds or infrastructure. The primary value of service projects for students and faculty is that these projects deepen social networks and strengthen commitment to the college community as a whole, as well as to practice civic engagement and responsibility. There is also learning involved in the large task of organizing, publicizing, overseeing, and follow-up on a service project. In order to identify ways to do these projects, the Tree Committee will consult with B&G and the Union once a year to explore opportunities for student/faculty service projects on campus. The Tree Committee will work to identify dedicated project organizers who can take charge of a service project and follow-up.

The Climate Action Plan sets goals for energy efficiency, fuel switching, and behavior change to achieve energy reductions towards the carbon neutrality goal. Of most note is a commitment to decrease total on-campus combustion to no more than 125,000 mmbtu (relative to a 200,000 mmbtu baseline at the time of commitment) as outlined here:
https://sites.google.com/vassar.edu/cap2020/goals/energy-stationary-emissions-goals?authuser=0

The 2020 Climate Action Plan integrates the UN Sustainable Development Goals as the foundation for its work, with a target of addressing all 17 through efforts conducted on campus.