Simone Skopek Pertuiset’s Post

Our very own Amy Sullivan Ph.D., Assistant Teaching Professor, is quoted in The Miami Student's article on Miami’s carbon offset strategy. In the article she compares the carbon offset market to the wild west and suggests "looking inward”—reducing emissions internally through improved energy efficiency before relying on carbon offsets from outside sources like tree-planting projects to achieve carbon neutrality. https://lnkd.in/gZsFrPbb

We are pleased to announce that CMTA's Tracy Steward has published an article in Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)'s Planning for Higher Education Journal with Megan Campbell, Tanvi Sharma, AIA and Mary Anne Ocampo! The article, titled "Stepping Toward Carbon Neutrality," offers insights into tackling challenges such as aging #infrastructure, deferred maintenance, dependence on city utilities, and financial limitations to progress toward #CarbonNeutrality. Utilizing University of Louisville as a case study, this article demonstrates how strategic campus planning and effective stakeholder engagement can secure a 60% reduction in #CarbonEmissions by 2030 and achieve full neutrality by 2050. Read the article here: https://bit.ly/3V0kbjP #HighPerformance #EngineeringExcellence #Sustainability #ZeroCarbon

Props to my business school alma mater on its achievement of carbon neutrality on SBTI scope 1 and 2 emissions. This article makes the point that incoming students expect this sort of thing nowadays :)

Heading to COP29 Azerbaijan to promote universal and formal climate education in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) As EARTHDAY.ORG and the Climate Education Coalition we urge all countries to update their commitments to greening curricula in their NDCs in 2025. 10 years from the #ParisAgreement all states need to commit to integrating climate education in their education programs in accordance with Art. 12th of the Paris Accord. #Climatechange can no longer be the only crisis which is not taught at schools. As it should be the first one that the new generations should learn about. Sign the #civilsociety Petition for Climate Education, lets ensure that climate action is build on knowledge and values, climate action is not vision of one generation of activists, it should be the mindset of all human kind. https://lnkd.in/d5ZsF8GP With EARTHDAY.ORG my mission is to advocate for 27 #EU Member States to integrate climate education in the EU NDCs in 2025. The EU block should lead the green tech transformation, but this will not happen without adequate education and green skills. Additionally, I am proud to represent my uni Trinity College Dublin at COP29 which is a global leader for #climateeducation and research and an outstanding institution for green innovation in the EU. See you at the COP, I will be there 15-20th of Nov. dabrowski@earthday.org for collaboration;)

"Developing UC's carbon offset program Designing a quality carbon offset procurement program on ones own is beyond the reach of most organizations given the persistently poor credit quality on the offset market. In 2018, the University of California (UC), with a $47 billion annual budget, almost 25,000 faculty members, ten campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a public-interest mandate, decided to invest time and resources into developing a quality offset procurement strategy. That decision created a three-year, all-campus, cross-discipline effort that generated an extensive analysis of existing offsets, methods for doing that analysis, and a bold approach to developing its own offset projects. Ultimately, this effort resulted in the University system's unexpected decision to move away from offset procurement altogether. It proved too difficult to identify quality projects on the market, and the process of developing our own offset projects also was more difficult and risky than we anticipated. In July 2023, the UC system replaced its 2025 carbon neutrality goal with accelerated targets for direct decarbonization, and a fee per ton emitted (the funds it would have spent on offsets) to be reinvested into direct decarbonization efforts. This website presents the results of this three-year effort with the hope that these materials can inform other institutions in assessing offset quality, identifying quality credits, initiating new offset projects, and developing a mission-aligned offset procurement program. The Berkeley Carbon Trading Project will continue this effort, and invites collaboration in studying offset quality, expanding and updating the project type quality assessments, and refining methods for performing these assessments. https://lnkd.in/dGUXz6PH

"While the Principles provide a useful framework for offsetting strategies based on the latest science and evidence, regulation is now urgently needed, say the authors. Governments, standard setters and others must deploy them, to steer the market away from low-quality credits and low-integrity offsetting strategies." Read the University of Oxford article on our recently launched Oxford Offsetting Principles 👇  

In the process of setting up 5 pilot residential systems (read: navigating roadblocks) to ensure that both government and privately funded projects adopt the most sustainable long term pathway, I’ve discovered a huge hole in the industry. One that, for example in India alone where district cooling systems are already in the development roadmap, has potential to MASSIVELY affect the global race to reach carbon neutrality. When considered across all of Asia, Oceania, and also North America - the amount of unnecessary waste and manufacturing related emissions is game changing.

University students! Are you interested in #carbonremoval? Check out this exciting competition that is open to all #college or #university #students across the world! #carbonmanagement #CDR #sustainability #climateaction

An interdisciplinary University of Oxford team, including OxSFG's Ben Caldecott and Injy Johnstone, have released an update to the Oxford Offsetting Principles on credible and net zero aligned carbon #offsetting. The Principles have been used by hundreds of organisations since publication in 2020. Co-author Dr Ben Caldecott, Director of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, said, ‘The demand for and supply of high-quality offsets is far too immature. Adopting the Oxford Offsetting Principles will help to attract investment into carbon removal projects that have a low risk of reversal, as well as durability over the long term. This is a necessary condition for achieving global net zero and the aims of the Paris Agreement'. ‘Realism is required though. We will never be able to scale enough high-quality carbon removals to offset like-for-like currently avoidable fossil fuel emissions. The use of finite carbon removals needs to be preserved for hard-to-abate emissions and then bringing us back to safe levels after we almost certainly overshoot 1.5 degrees, and not sustaining existing fossil fuel interests.’ #climatechange #sustainablefinance #carbonremoval #greeninvestment #netzero #fossilfuel Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment - University of Oxford

University of Oxford report calls for major course-correction in carbon markets and carbon offsetting; update of broadly used guidance from 2020 (revised ‘Oxford Offsetting Principles’). "The Principles: 1. Cut #emissions as a priority, ensure the environmental integrity of credits, and regularly revise as best practice evolves  2. #Transition to #carbon #removal offsetting for any residual emissions (away from emissions avoidance or reduction) by the global #netzero target date 3. Shift to removals with durable #storage and low risk of reversal  4. Support the development of innovative and integrated approaches to achieving net zero" https://lnkd.in/dMYqWXU4