One emission at a time: USU’s road to carbon neutrality

By the year 2050, USU plans to reach carbon neutrality, meaning the university has a goal to strike a balance between the amount of carbon emitted and how much the university absorbs.  

The university plans to accomplish this by eliminating many of its greenhouse gasses including but not limited to heating, cooling, landscaping, transportation and waste.  The USU Sustainability Council works hard to make sure USU is on the correct path to reach this goal.  

Caitlin McLennan is USU’s Sustainability Program Manager. She works full time to track USU greenhouse gas emissions.   

“I chair the university-wide Sustainability Council, so my work spans across campus,” McLennan said. “I work in about every department with as many stakeholders as I possibly can to try and integrate sustainability into operations, academics, policy, decision making and all that sort of stuff.” 

USU has a large campus that employs and educates vast numbers of people. There are many things happening between all the different colleges, so it’s crucial to keep an eye on all the little things such as waste management and greenhouse gasses.   

Jordan Taft is a planning and sustainability intern who helps facilities planning, design and construction.  

 “USU’s goal of carbon neutrality is to make sure as an institution we are responding to the reality of a changing climate,” Taft wrote. “By limiting our carbon (and equivalent) emissions, we are making sure the institution is resilient for the future and preserving our future.” 

There are three scopes contributing to greenhouse gas emission that USU Sustainability keeps a very detailed record of in compliance with AASHE and Second Nature reporting requirements. 

 “Scope one is really all of your direct emissions,” McLennan said. “That’s anything that is combusted or consumed on campus.”  

 Scope one includes livestock the university owns as well as the campus bus, shuttles and everything at the central energy plant. Scope two is any electricity USU purchases from other sources.  

“Scope two is anything that we’re buying from Logan line power, right up in Logan, Rocky Mountain Power or other campuses and then other municipal power companies. If we’re not under Rocky Mountain Power lands,”  McLennan said. “Scope three is direct and indirect emissions related to consumption and waste. So anything that’s processed off site is going to fall into that scope three category.” 

Scope three includes landfilled waste on the Logan campus; university study abroad and business travel; student, staff, and faculty commuting; and some paper purchasing. USU currently doesn’t track all of these but is hoping to start tracking them in the future.  

USU Sustainability has 11 strategies for tracking greenhouse gas emissions and lowering emissions for the campus. However, one of the strategies from the reduction report is no longer feasible. 

“The tricky thing with that reduction report is that rate 32 is no longer available through Rocky Mountain Power for Utah State University,” McLennan said. “That’s a power purchase agreement, which would have allowed us to purchase renewable energy.” 

On the USU Sustainability website in their USU greenhouse gas reduction committee final report, they list their key recommendations.  

Some of these recommendations include switching to energy saving lighting, looking for ways to improve fuel efficiency for USU vehicles, developing fund raising events for sustainability, adopting climate focused learning outcomes and more. To see the full list of recommendations, visit https://www.usu.edu/sustainability/about/index.  

These strategies have been effective, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some problems arising. One problem is funding for sustainability projects. USU sustainability receives less funding for projects than other universities.  

“Compared to other similar universities USU has 60% less funding for campus sustainability work. Most other universities have a whole office of sustainability, and we use a less formal model,” Taft wrote. 

Reaching carbon neutrality is costly. A lot of time and management goes into planning out what emissions can be reduced, as well as emissions that can be replaced by more sustainable opinions.  

“Funding for our Decarbonization Plan is also a work in progress, and we’re hopeful we’ll be able to chip away at it year by year,” Taft wrote. “That project will cost around $140 million in full, and our goal is to have it completed by 2040.” 

USU has a large sustainability team that works hard to make the plan function. The team collaborates with the faculty to make sure the whole campus can reduce emissions. Currently, there are about 30 members on the USU Sustainability Council working together in different areas to cover all bases.  

“I’m our sustainability program manager — this is my full time job,”  McLennan said. “To coordinate the Sustainability Council; to calculate our greenhouse gas emissions to make sure that we’re reporting to do outreach around all of that to do waste audits; to coordinate waste reduction and establish planning and goals; and then to also do and coordinate integration into the curriculum with some faculty members.” 

There are also student interns that are committing their time to help in the USU sustainability projects. The interns’ help is crucial to help promote and manage the work that has already been done.  

“Then there are three part time student sustainability assistants, and two part time planning interns (like me!),” Taft wrote. “There are so many more people working on sustainability efforts around campus though, like at our sister department COSAS where there is a coordinator and 4 part-time sustainability interns, our campus energy manager, recycling coordinator, and so many more people! Sustainability has been integrated into USU Facilities for a while, and we all have a role to play in the carbon neutrality goal!” 

Even with all the effort the USU sustainability is doing, they can’t do it alone. USU is a large  community and it takes a lot more than a small team to promote big environmental changes.   

“The best thing that people can do to help USU reach carbon neutrality is to show your support,” Taft wrote. “There is this misconception that people here don’t care about sustainability, but that is just not the case. So, show your support. Talk to people about climate change and reducing carbon emissions. Come to our events. Talk to your supervisors about making small changes in your events, offices, departments, buildings, whatever!”