getting to zero.

Rider is using the services of Clean Air-Cool Planet to engage in an extensive greenhouse gas inventory, hopefully dating back to the year 2000, with the ultimate goal of reaching carbon neutrality.

With the help of the Climate Action Toolkit, Rider will be measuring its carbon footprint and determining its impact on the environment. Detailed spreadsheets and a calculator help organize the mind-boggling amount of information needed to complete an inventory of such magnitude.

Analysis of the data allows for the creation and implementation of a GHG Emissions Reduction Target and Timetable. Here is an excerpt from the site:

Setting a target and timeline for emissions reductions accomplishes several important functions:

• It formalizes an institutional commitment to ongoing, comprehensive climate action.

• It provides a tangible goal and mechanism for community-wide engagement, building momentum for climate action.

• It introduces a level of accountability to the process, ensuring emissions reductions efforts are undertaken efficiently and that institutions meeting goals can rightly boast of an important accomplishment.

Fortunately, the answers to “How much?” and “How fast?” do not have to be guesswork. Leadership taken both internationally and closer to home, here in the Northeast, has resulted in varying available frameworks for adoption (or adaptation) in creating a campus greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and timeline.