Conservation | Renewable | Climate
On Wednesday, April 11, 2007 OSU President Ed Ray signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The commitment requires OSU to launch a two-year planning process to outline its path toward becoming climate neutral. Because OSU signed before June 30, 2007 it is a charter member.
In addition to planning for climate neutrality, the Commitment requires greenhouse gas inventories and interim steps to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions. The Fiscal Year 2007 inventory was completed in June 2008 and the interim steps include:
The Climate Commitment requires OSU to submit a Climate Action Plan by September 2009. The Sustainability Office is in the early stages of crafting the document that will guide OSU toward climate neutrality. Collaboration and brainstorming is underway and a team of graduate students is reviewing documents and collecting benchmark information. Using the Fiscal Year 2007 Greenhouse Gas Inventory as a guide, preliminary recommendations on how OSU is to become climate neutral are expected as early as fall term.
The Climate Commitment requires inventorying greenhouse gasses every two years. These inventories provide important baselines for action to reduce OSU's greenhouse gas emissions. It is the Sustainability Office's intent to complete greenhouse gas inventories every year, using a fiscal year cycle. OSU's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Data collection for the FY08 Inventory will commence in August 2008, because the end of FY08 occurs June 30, 2008.
While it is useful to compare emissions sources between the Fiscal Year 2007 and Calendar Year 2004 inventories, because the two inventories used different boundaries and methodologies, across-the-board comparisons will not be accurate. For this reason the FY07 Inventory takes two looks at emissions: one look compares to CY04, another uses new expanded methods and boundaries for a more accurate picture of OSU's emissions.
In June 2008, the OSU Sustainability Office completed the greenhouse gas inventory for FY07. This is the first comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory completed by OSU, and is the most accurate to date.
This inventory goes into detail about emissions sources and their relative contribution to OSU's emissions profile, contains an apples-to-apples comparison with the CY04 Inventory and also elaborates about methodology and the new expanded scope that makes the FY07 Inventory the most accurate inventory ever produced for OSU.
View the full Fiscal Year 2007 Inventory of OSU greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2006 and 2007, the Oregon University System hired Good Company to create the first ever greenhouse gas inventory for the seven OUS campuses. As part of that work, Good Company created profiles for each institution based on available data, which varied from campus to campus.
View the full Calendar Year 2004 Inventory of Oregon University System campuses.
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