Greenhouse Gas Report

American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment

On Earth Day, April 22 2008, President Thomas Hellie signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, thereby commiting Linfield College to develop plans leading to a carbon-neutral campus.  He did so following the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Environment and Sustainability (ACES), which had had appointed in September 2007.

The ACUPCC required Linfield to submit a baseline greenhouse gas emissions report, which can be viewed on the ACUPCC web site.

That report was submitted in September, 2009, and it reports on emissions data collected during the 2006-2007 academic year.  (See  Energy for information about the sustainability projects Linfield had completed prior to 2006, and continues to undertake.)  This baseline study was completed by a group of students taking the Environmental Studies senior capstone class, Environmental Problem Solving, during spring semester 2008 and it became the starting point for Linfield’s Climate Action Plan, also a requirement of ACUPCC.  The Environmental Problem Solving seminar students of spring semester 2009 developed a blueprint for the action plan which Linfield will adopt.