Tradewater’s Post

Rethinking Carbon Neutrality on Campuses Carbon neutrality commitments have surged in US higher education, with 800+ campuses at the forefront. Yet, achieving net carbon neutrality goes beyond Scope 1, 2, and 3 reductions and typically involves purchasing carbon offsets. This article which appears in APPA’s Leadership in Educational Facilities Management Newsletter explores the challenges, strategies, and their alignment (and misalignment) with the national decarbonization agenda, amid concerns over reliance on accounting-based instruments.

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

"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 👇  

We often talk about how our Cambridge Judge students impact organisations once they have graduated and are well into their careers, however, our students are also driving change on key issues during their time at Cambridge Judge. Read below for our more recent example. 👇 ⭐ Collin G. Janich and Pete Golding #CJBSCareers #CambridgeMBA #ClimateLegacyCommitment

🌍 On 17 September, during the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her proposed College of Commissioners and presented their mission letters, detailing the key tasks for the upcoming mandate. 🌱 RPE looks forward to supporting the new European Commission in setting the EU on the path to a green transition through circular economy, and to ultimately reach climate neutrality by 2050. Do you wish to know which relevant European Commissioners are going to work on policies related to sustainability, circular economy, and environment? Do you want to understand what policies they will be working on for the next five years? Check out our carousel, where we explore these questions and highlight the key takeaways for you! 👇 If you have any questions or would like to explore how RPE can contribute to these initiatives, feel free to reach out. Let’s continue driving sustainability forward! #CircularEconomy #Sustainability #GreenDeal #RPE #EuropeanParliament

🌍 Happy #EarthDay 2024 🌏 Here at LSE, first-year undergraduates can choose "How can we transform our climate futures?" as the thematic focus of their LSE100 studies. Offered as part of the School's flagship interdisciplinary course, this theme provides students a way of deepening their understandings of the challenges of climate change, and the capacity for hope in the face of the climate crisis. Students who select this theme examine how social scientific research can inform local and global responses to climate change. In their exploration of climate futures, students look at topics as diverse as decolonising consumption, climate justice and climate activism through an interdisciplinary lens. You can find out more about LSE100's "How can we transform our climate futures?" theme here: https://lnkd.in/e9vQXWTC.

We're a world Top 100 university in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024 for six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and placed in the Top 200 overall. From zero huger, climate action, clean water and sanitation - to life on land, life below water and decent work and economic growth - our leading research is having a positive impact on creating a more sustainable future for people and the planet. This is the place making the sustainable obtainable. Read more https://lnkd.in/eJhHxr7c #THEGlobalImpact #UNSustainableDevelopmentGoals

For our global academic community thinking through carbon reduction in house in your own institutions, our colleagues offer this insight.

Hale and hearty congratulations to the graduating seniors this month at Brown University, where we are proud to teach since 2016, and where our sustainable finance classes repeat this upcoming summer and fall. A special shoutout to graduating senior Mia Mascone, who went on to become the greatest women's lacrosse player in Brown's history, and whose earlier paper for our class we were proud to feature in our Transitions for Sustainability series. Taking from the Global Carbon Reward ideation of Dr Delton Chen (featured prominently in one of the great books of the modern day, Ministry for the Future, surely you have read it by now), Mia goes on to consider what a Global Biodiversity Reward or a Global Water Reward might look like, noting correctly, that "Making the proper transitions to save our planet requires capital allocation that, despite promises, are not being met," and in fact, her paper begins: "Climate action is filled with empty promises." When we do decide to act, on a global basis, it will be this type of thinking that will be needed to be not only envisioned but implemented, and this is also the type of thinking we encourage in our classes when encouraging students to solve unsolved environmental and societal challenges. Also, speaking of modern trends, impressive AI answer here on LinkedIn, connected with this post, which nicely reflects all this, see ‘Learn more about Mia Mascone’. It will be interesting to watch AI evolve to hopefully become a useful tool for solving sustainability challenges going forward, perhaps even suggesting ways of incorporating value into financial systems such as this paper suggests. “Mia Mascone is an accomplished student-athlete at Brown University, soon to be an Incoming Capital Markets Analyst at KKR. They have a notable history as a Summer Analyst at both KKR and Bloomberg Beta, and were a Girls Who Invest Summer Intensive Program Scholar. Their academic pursuits at Brown University are complemented by their significant contribution to sustainable finance, notably through a paper that explores innovative environmental rewards systems.” Truly an All American, kudos.

📢 51 European CEOs and top executives call for an EU Action Plan on industrial carbon management! In an open letter to the European Commission President von der Leyen, 51 CEOs and top executives from leading industries, civil society and research call for bold actions to rapidly deploy Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) technologies, essential for maintaining European industry competitiveness and achieving climate neutrality before 2050. The letter, coordinated by Zero Emissions Platform and CCS Europe, outlines 5 key action items to accelerate industrial carbon management deployment. Our Secretary General, Eadbhard Pernot, said: "The science could not be clearer: industrial carbon management is essential to reach climate neutrality. European industries must reach net zero and remain competitive while doing so. The coming years represent a window for Europe to seize the carbon capture opportunity. Missing this means delaying climate mitigation and undermining our global competitiveness." A united call to protect Europe’s climate and industrial future.