UMass Dartmouth Sustainability Assessment and Climate Action Plan

Sustainability Assessment Report Presents the Future of UMass Dartmouth

The Office of Campus and Community Sustainability at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announces the public unveiling of the university’s Sustainability Assessment report.  This official document is vital to the continuing evolution of the institute’s commitment to environmental, economic, and social sustainability efforts. 

Titled Responsibility and Renewal, the Sustainability Assessment consists of baseline calculations, suggested improvements, and a comprehensive blueprint for long-term sustainable planning and management in all major areas of campus operations.  Examples would be how much energy and water is used in every building, how much waste is accumulated, how much greenhouse gas emissions are produced, the various distances students commute to UMass Dartmouth, the nutritional value of food served, and the kinds of products used in campus maintenance. 

The 140-page report is the culmination of 2 years of hard work and extensive data gathering from more than 200 people, including faculty, staff, and students from various colleges and departments. It is the foundation for the university’s Climate Action Plan (pdf) , which will achieve carbon neutrality over the next 40 years, and is the stepping stone for most sustainability efforts and studies done over the last few years.  Goals for the Assessment include increasing communal awareness, influencing curricula and research efforts, and developing UMass Dartmouth as a regional leader in sustainability initiatives.

The report will be free for download through the Sustainability Office’s website, and will be used as an academic tool in various departments, such as Nursing, Biology, English, and Political science.  Full color hardcopies are available for purchase in the campus bookstore for $26.

To help promote the Assessment, an official calendar for 2012 has been created. The calendar contains professionally taken photographs of the university’s most beautiful spots, its appearance in all of the seasons, and various plant and animal species found on the land.  The calendar also contains facts about sustainability, data collected for the Assessment, an explanation of how the report was created, and a detailed plan of emission reduction strategies in the campus Climate Action Plan.  The 2012 Sustainability Assessment Calendar is sold in the campus bookstore for $11.

For more information, contact The Office of Campus and Community Sustainability at 508-910-6484.