Indiana University introduced Climate Action Plan implementation committees in a step toward reducing carbon emissions across its campuses, in a press release Jan. 22.
Each committee consists of students, faculty and staff who will determine how to implement the plan for its campus, IU Chief Sustainability Officer Jessica Davis said. The committees are managed by IU’s Office of Sustainability.
IU’s Climate Action Plan was created by a planning committee in May 2022 and was approved by the university in September 2023. The plan outlines ways for IU to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
The plan has six themes: utility grid, infrastructure, renewables, behavior, financing and implementation.
It aims to reduce IU’s scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Scope 1 emissions come from IU facilities or vehicles, while scope 2 emissions come from indirect sources like purchased electricity, heating and cooling, according to the plan.
Davis was a member of the planning committee and previously served as IUPUI’s director of sustainability and IU’s interim director of sustainability until becoming the chief sustainability officer in September 2023. She leads all Climate Action Plan efforts across all nine campuses.
“Our committees will be responsible for taking these recommendations that were outlined in the Climate Action Plan and actually figuring out how to implement them,” she said.
Each committee will decide a strategy and make recommendations to university leadership, according to Davis.
“For any one problem there could be multiple solutions,” she said. “We’re going to have to explore those solutions as completely as we can and identify which of those solutions is the best for that particular campus.”
One member on IU-Bloomington's committee is Jon Eldon. He has lectured at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs since 2018, and he teaches several classes at IU, including Introduction to Environmental Science and Forest Ecology and Management.
“Sustainability efforts at IU-Bloomington were hit hard by COVID, and we have fallen behind other comparable universities in many aspects,” he said. “I’m hoping this Climate Action Plan will kickstart broader efforts, and there are certainly some good ideas in there, although plans alone won’t lead to any change.”
There is still much work to be done, according to Eldon, who said committees can only go so far in achieving the plan’s goal.
“This implementation committee is an important next step, but it remains to be seen what sort of resources will be available to pursue the Climate Action Plan and related sustainability goals,” he said.
Eldon also said he wants to see more opportunities for student involvement in the plan.
“I’m particularly interested to see how we can get students involved in these efforts, which could make IU-Bloomington a leader in sustainability action and education,” he said. “After all, these are the issues that will shape the rest of their lives, and learning by doing is the best approach to education that I’ve found — not to mention the direct contribution that students could make to these efforts.”
Eldon is joined by seven other members on the Bloomington campus committee: Aimee Heeter, Amanda Wilson, Keith Thompson, Susie Johnson, Yong Yeol Ahn, Zolboo Dashmyagmar and Henry Wolfla.
Committees for each campus can be found on IU’s website.
Wolfla serves as the co-director of sustainability for IU Student Government. He is a junior studying law and public policy.
“Most of our work is talking to administrators, meeting with them and seeing where the student perspective and their perspective differs,” he said. “It’s about bridging that gap.”
Wolfla said a lot of work went into getting a committee together and is honored to be a part of it. He is the only undergraduate student on IU-Bloomington's committee.
“Climate planning isn’t exactly what I have studied here, but it’s definitely something I’m passionate about,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of great opportunities that are going to come out of it.”
Students for a New Green World, an environmental activism group at IU, has protested for a climate action plan and committee for years. SNGW president Soha Vora said she hopes the committees will establish internal deadlines and increase student representation.
“The students have made it super clear they’re interested in this,” she said. “I hope they pay more attention and try to reflect more of what students want.”
Rewild IU is another environmental activism group on-campus, though the group takes a different approach and focuses on IU’s natural areas.
Ethan Iverson, president of Rewild IU, is a senior studying environmental management. He said factors like invasive species, neglect and deer overbrowsing have hurt IU’s natural areas.
“Rewild IU works in conjunction with IU Landscape Services to manage and restore the natural areas of campus by removing invasive species, planting and promoting the growth of native species and increasing heterogeneity within the structure of campus forests,” he said.
Davis said IU’s Climate Action Plan committees encourage students to get involved by providing internships, research opportunities and capstone projects for individual students or classes to take on.
“The Climate Action Plan presents a great opportunity for students to learn by doing,” she said. “If the university is going through this process, then we should be inviting students along with us on the ride, so they are able to learn as the university works on this.”
IU-Bloomington's committee held its first meeting Jan. 26. The date for the next meeting has not been determined.