Climate Action Plan

In June 2010, the EAC completed BC’s Climate Action Plan – detailing strategies to reduce our carbon emissions and overall environmental impact. Below is a summary of the major components of that climate plan, followed by a link to a detailed list of strategies for the next 40 years.

Climate Action Plan Summary
Bellevue College will be taking a multifaceted approach to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, with goals set for reductions at various stages over the next 40 years.  Our plan is a “working model” and will be re-evaluated and adjusted regularly (with major analysis and revisions occurring on a 5 yr cycle). We fully expect the plan to evolve as we learn what works and introduce new ideas and technologies.

The plan is divided into four major areas – buildings/energy use, transportation, purchasing/waste/“other” strategies, and education/culture change. These areas are defined based on the major scopes of carbon emissions and contain some overlap; however, they serve as a framework to organize our plan. The first year of the plan will be used to establish a baseline, and we will work to research and implement any new policies related to the plan in the first 3 years.  In addition, we have set general goals for the % reduction (below the baseline) in the four major areas for each year of the plan (generally between 2-5% a year).  They are set up to give us near climate neutrality by 2050. These goals will be re-evaluated after the first five years, and major reviews will be conducted every 5 years. A few details of the four sections:
(1)            Buildings and energy use: After transportation, our second largest (and most direct) area of campus carbon emissions comes from energy use in buildings. This is the area in which we have the most direct control on carbon emissions and there are a number of areas for improvement here.  Strategies in this area include improving building efficiency, installing alternative energy systems, improving efficiency in computers and appliances, and carefully planning class and event schedules to maximize energy efficiency. The overall plan is to reduce conventional energy use (fossil fuel) by 3% per year through 2030 and a 2% reduction per year through 2050 over baseline (averaged out in 5 yr increments).

(2)            Transportation: It is clear from our carbon audit that the greatest impact from BC comes from student and employee commuting to and from campus. We realize that is would be impossible to account for 100% of these commuting emissions, so we are setting a goal of reducing them by 80%, with the understanding that without 100% residential housing (1) there will always be some emissions produced by mass transit and carpools, and (2) individuals must also take some responsibility for reducing their own driving habits.  We will, however, continue to assist commuters in coming up with ways to reduce their need for a personal vehicle – promoting carpooling, busing, biking and walking to campus, and working with instruction and events planning to promote “commute reduction” schedules and “teleconferencing”. In addition, we also work to replace campus vehicles (as needed) with low emissions vehicles, and work to reduce and offset travel miles related to campus activities (particularly air travel). The overall plan is to reduce single occupancy vehicle commuting and carbon emissions from campus vehicles and other travel by 2% per year over baseline (averaged out in 5 yr increments) – an 80% reduction by 2050.

(3)            Purchasing, waste, and “other” strategies: Many of the strategies in this area involve waste reduction (e.g., improving recycling in all areas of campus, establishing composting, etc.).  In addition to dealing with the waste at the “end” of its life, we are encouraging practices that reduce consumption of resources (e.g., reduced printing, reduction of plastics, updates to purchasing policy, etc.).  Finally, the remaining strategies in this area deal with reducing impacts on the grounds (e.g., reduced fertilizers, “no canopy loss” policy, etc.) and promoting the use of local foods in the cafeteria. The overall plan would be to reduce solid waste production by 5% per year over baseline (averaged out in 5 yr increments) for first ten years (50% reduction) and continue to reduce waste with a goal of reaching a 75% reduction by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

(4)             Education and culture change: Many of the steps in the education plan are written to promote all forms of sustainability, including climate change education. They include making sustainability education a stronger part of our campus core values and helping instructors get more sustainability-related activities and information into existing classes across campus. We also plan to develop new certificates or degrees that compliment the growing sustainability job market (e.g., Sustainable Business Practices, Interior Design, Concentration in Environmental Science, etc.). We also want to continue to educate our campus and the community on sustainable practices (see Question D below on community connections). Our overall goal in this area is to embed sustainable education across the curriculum and create more ways to interact and educate the community over the next 10 years.

In addition, many sections of the plan are intended to reduce our overall environmental impact on campus, even though they are minor contributions to the climate plan itself (e.g., updating our purchasing policies, reducing waste, etc.) Many of these areas will lead to significant long-term cost savings and some (new technology, for example) may also be areas for the campus to market innovative new ideas (to help support the climate action plan).

Complete Climate Action Plan (pdf file)

Committee Resources

The following is a list of resources used by the EAC.