Climate Action Toolkit

The Campus Climate Action Toolkit is an online resource for educational institutions. This resource provides guidance, technical resources, and examples/case studies to assist educational institutions in understanding, planning, executing, and implementing a climate action plan.

The toolkit is broken into five steps. In Step 1, the educational institution conducts an emission inventory. Step 2 involves considering greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and timetables. Step 3 is the development of a campus action plan, followed by Step 4, implementation of the campus action plan. The final step is to institutionalize climate protection.

The Toolkit includes a campus carbon calculator. The calculator measures a campus' emissions, and is designed to assist educational institutions with development of a climate action plan. The climate calculator is designed to be compatible with any type of educational institution.

The toolkit has been replaced by CarbonMAP (Carbon Management and Analysis Platform), as online carbon accounting platform.

As stated in the toolkit, the ultimate goal of Campus Climate Action is to achieve systemic/institutional commitment to a sustainable campus, including carbon neutrality, throughout all constituencies of the college or university (faculty, staff, students, and administration.)

Earlier versions of the climate calculator were used to develop a greenhouse gas inventory at Middlebury College. Costs savings and emission reductions of potential projects were investigated, and the results were brought to the trustee's of Middlebury college. This work resulted in the approval of a climate action plan and carbon neutrality target for the college by Middlebury's trustees.

Many university's have completed emissions inventories and developed climate action plans, including Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and the University of New Hampshire. The campus carbon calculator is in use by over 1,200 campuses across North America.