Air and Climate
Campus Initiatives
American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment
UW-Whitewater is a signatory of the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), committing to generate a greenhouse gas inventory annually and developing a climate action plan to set goals for achieving climate neutrality. The ACUPCC mission is to accelerate progress towards climate neutrality and sustainability by empowering the higher education sector to educate students, create solutions, and provide leadership-by-example for the rest of society. Currently, the program has been taken over by Second Nature and have expanded the Commitments Program to include the Climate Commitment, Carbon Commitment, and Resilience Commitment.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory
UW-Whitewater conducted our first greenhouse gas inventory for Fiscal Year 2007-08, which runs from July 2007 - June 2008. The inventory was conducted using the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator Excel spreadsheet. Currently, the inventories for 2008 and 2009 are available online. We are currently in the process of updating the entire greenhouse gas inventory to bring it up to date and are converting it to the CarbonMap, an online version of the Campus Carbon Calculator.
Climate Action Plan
As part of the commitment, UW-Whitewater has a draft, non-binding Climate Action Plan submitted and publicly available to read. At this time, the Climate Action Plan is not officially adopted as a strategic goal, but we continue to make improvements that will reduce our energy efficiency in energy and waste reduction, as well as promote low-carbon lifestyles among the campus community.