"If we don't do it, who will?"
With this question last week, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 President Janet Napolitano asserted the university's leadership role in sustainability, especially in carbon neutrality. 鈥淚t is essential to our stewardship of the environment and to what we hand off to the next generation,鈥 she declared June 9 at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 headquarters in Oakland, at the first meeting of her new Global Climate Leadership Council 鈥 students, administrators and professors from around the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 system, plus a few experts from outside the system.
新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis has two members on the council:
鈥 Professor Michael Siminovitch, director and co-founder of the California Lighting Technology Center, which works to accelerate the development and commercialization of energy-efficient lighting and daylighting technologies. He holds the Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency and serves as associate director of the Energy Efficiency Center.
鈥 Elaine Swiedler, a double major in environmental policy analysis and planning, and economics. This summer, she鈥檚 interning at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C. Then, in the fall, she鈥檚 back at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis for her fourth year, and to continue working at the Student Farm and the Coffee House, where she is the sustainability intern.
Napolitano put 24 people on the council and plans to add one more, a regent yet to be named.
Napolitano called on the council to find ways to engage faculty, staff and students 鈥 leveraging the power of 新澳门六合彩内幕信息鈥檚 10 campuses 鈥 to help the university reach its sustainability goals and serve as a 鈥渓odestar, a place that can really set an example.鈥
The council committed to meeting three times each year at different 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 campuses. Members will focus on carbon neutrality 鈥 reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero 鈥 but also will offer guidance on 新澳门六合彩内幕信息鈥檚 other sustainability goals.
Achieving carbon neutrality is a difficult but attainable goal, council members said. To succeed, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 must expand its energy efficiency efforts and explore large-scale energy procurement from renewable sources such as solar, wind and biomethane gas captured from landfills and agricultural waste.
鈥淭here is really nothing like an audacious goal to make everyone work together,鈥 said Wendell Brase, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Irvine鈥檚 vice chancellor for administration. He and Nathan Brostrom, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息鈥檚 executive vice president for business operations, serve as the council's co-chairs.
Napolitano said 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 already is a national leader in sustainability. She suggested finding ways to pair 新澳门六合彩内幕信息鈥檚 sustainability successes with the university's cutting-edge research on renewable energy and other technology to reduce carbon emissions.
Shortly after becoming 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 president last fall, Napolitano launched a sustainability initiative with a 2025 target date for a carbon-neutral 新澳门六合彩内幕信息. Carbon neutrality was already part of 新澳门六合彩内幕信息's policy on sustainable practices.
The policy, adopted in 2003, guides operations in nine areas: green building, clean energy, sustainable transportation, climate protection, sustainable operations, waste reduction and recycling, environmentally preferable purchasing, sustainable food service, and sustainable water systems.
Today, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 campuses are among the greenest in the country.
For example, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 leads the nation in green building, with more than 150 certifications through the U.S. Green Building Council鈥檚 LEED program, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis has 11 LEED certifications for new construction or major renovations, three for interior spaces, and two for operations and maintenance in existing buildings.
Several campuses, including Davis, meet or exceed the university鈥檚 benchmark goal of reducing per capita potable water use by 20 percent by 2020. And 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis is trying to cut an additional 20 percent (over last year鈥檚 consumption).
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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu