University of Michigan Committed to Achieve “Carbon Neutrality”

The University of Michigan has last week revealed that it is planning to reduce the carbon emissions from its campuses, compensating for other releases by preventing them somewhere else or eliminating the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere.

The measures which the university is planning to take in a bid to achieve carbon neutrality include the use of:

• Geothermal heating & cooling
• Energy-efficiency projects funding
• Electric buses

After highlighting the planned steps during a Board of Regents meeting, the university’s president Mark Schlissel said that carbon neutrality is one of the main U-M’s missions.

“To fulfill our mission as a public research university, we must address the climate crisis by leading the way on our campuses and beyond,” Schlissel added.

By reducing their own emissions and making investments in projects which prevent the releases in other places or remove the carbon from the air, storing it underground, institutions manage to achieve carbon neutrality.

Furthermore, the university’s plan includes goals in eliminating emissions from direct, on-campus sources by 2040 and managing to achieve carbon neutrality for emissions emerging from the purchased electricity in 2025.

The plan also urges for net-zero targets for emission categories, including commuting, food procurement as well as university-sponsored travel by 2025.

One of the first university’s actions will be the installation of geothermal heating and cooling systems in some construction projects and making the Ann Arbor and Dearborn campus buses electric.

The emergency efficiency project is planned to begin with a $25 million funding for more than five years, while energy savings are expected to be reinvested into the fund in order to advance the conservation projects.

University officials said they will talk with communities near campuses regarding issues related to justice and equity while transitioning to carbon neutrality.

Among others, the plan includes all the nation’s largest public research institutions’ operations, such as campus buildings across Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn; an athletics complex; and the Michigan Medicine health system.

Issues related to carbon emissions are the point of discussion in different countries of the world. Back in December 2020, a report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) urged universities and colleges across the United Kingdom to have zero carbon emissions by 2035 and consider the methodologies in education over the climate change age.

Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that the Bond University’s law school in Australia is offering the first undergraduate climate change law degree for which the University’s Dean, Nick James, said it was decided to be established considering high school students’ concerns about the impact of climate change on their futures.