University Challenge Draft Document
From Common Energy UVic
The Draft Document for the University Challenge Project is in working progress. Members from the Business and Economy Working Group are creating this draft throughout the summer.
[edit] Introduction
[edit] What is the University Challenge?
Organizations at UVic can take the Challenge to reduce their environmental impacts and increase their positive contributions to the challenges of climate change. The University Challenge is a project to facilitate that work.
UVic is filled with people that want to do something meaningful about climate change in their lives and in their work. The University Challenge creates a vehicle to connect these people into teams within their organizations and a network across campus that is working toward the common goal of moving UVic beyond climate-neutral. The University Challenge empowers teams with tools and knowledge to create change in their organizations and facilitates their ability to share learning and share success. The University Challenge is designed to link individual champions to large-scale change.
The Challenge has one goal with two parts and an annual cycle for action. The goal is to move the organization beyond climate-neutral: so that it does more to solve the problems of climate change than it does to cause them. The two parts are climate-neutrality and beyond climate-neutrality and each year the organization will follow a cycle to reduce their contributions to the problem while increasing their contributions to the solutions.
[edit] Who are Common Energy?
Common Energy is a network of students, staff, faculty, and regional partners working to create solutions to the problems of climate change. Launched by students working in and with the University of Victoria Sustainability Project, Common Energy now has hubs at UVic and UBC. We are developing a provincial network to integrate BC's universities and colleges. These institutions can be catalysts for the social transformations required to turn the threat of climate change into an opportunity to protect the diversity of life, and create prosperous societies.
Common Energy UVic works to effect regional change using the tools and resources available at the university. The University Challenge is our primary project for engaging people and empowering them to create change.
[edit] What does it mean to become climate-neutral?
"How can we do less to cause the problems of climate change?"
Becoming climate-neutral means having net-zero impact on the climate. This is done through reduction of GHG emissions and other climate impacts, and offsetting impacts where it is not possible to reduce.
[edit] What does it mean to go beyond climate-neutral?
"How can we do more to solve the problems of climate change?"
Going beyond climate-neutral means having a net-positive impact on the climate. This is done through leveraging resources and assessing opportunities within the organization that would contribute to climate change solutions.
[edit] Process
Each year the organization undertakes the following cycle of milestones to move closer to climate-neutrality and farther beyond climate-neutral. When an organization first decides to take the University Challenge they choose the year that they want to go climate-neutral. The organization does not purchase any offsets until the end of that year, when they purchase offsets that will cover the GHG emissions they were not able to reduce in the previous year. This places the emphasis for action squarely on emissions reductions and will allow sufficient time for offset markets to mature so that we can invest in them with more confidence. Once the organization has gone climate-neutral the following years are spent reducing impacts farther so fewer offsets need be purchased and going farther and farther beyond climate-neutral.
[edit] Milestone 1: Establishing and Equipping a Climate Action Team
This Milestone includes building a team of champions, defining organizational boundaries, initial promotions and marketing, creating an inventory budget, and collaborative planning. The Team should consist of at least one representative from each element of the organization. For example, a Climate Action Team for a faculty would optimally consist of a student, staff member, faculty member, and an administration member. The teams are then linked together across organizations through Common Energy's wiki website and facilitation to encourage information sharing, friendly competition, and gives groups rewards for achievement.
[edit] Milestone 2: Creating Baseline Inventory
In this Milestone the Team will assess the impacts of the organization to complete an inventory that will be used to set targets/goals in Milestone 3 and serve as a baseline for monitoring and reporting progress in Milestone 6. The team will be equipped with a system for reporting, that will ensure continuity of data gathered between organizations. This system for reporting will be included in an appendix of Tools and Calculators.
[edit] Milestone 3: Setting emissions reductions Targets and Goals
In Milestone 3 the Climate Action Team will set emissions reduction targets and goals for actions based on the inventory gathered in Milestone 2.
The targets and goals set in this Milestone should be separated into two sections - Action-Based Goals, and Emissions Reductions Targets. The Action-Based Goals focus on beyond climate-neutral initiatives and climate-neutral actions that are difficult for the organization to measure. For example, a Faculty could have goals to implement a zero waste program, use 25% less paper for in-house printing, reduce staff and faculty single-occupancy vehicle commutes by 25% and introduce a new class which incorporates climate change education into the field of study, and an over-all emissions reduction target of 20% in 2 years.
The goals and targets made by each organization should be posted on the University Challenge wiki, including how they are planning to reach those goals.
[edit] Milestone 4: Creating an Action Plan
In Milestone 4 the Team will create an Action Plan organized with a time line using the goals and targets in Milestone 3 as benchmarks.The action plan may also be posted on the wiki for feedback and to disseminate ideas. The Action Plan will be composed of 2 main sections, beyond climate-neutral initiatives, and climate-neutral actions. Common Energy will supply a Actions appendix for both of these sections.
[edit] Milestone 5: Implementing the Action Plan
In Milestone 5 the Team will work to engage the organization to implement the Action Plan. In this milestone, creating awareness around the actions and engaging people with the challenge of meeting the goals is crucial. Social marketing strategies and external promotions will be a large part of this Milestone. As the Teams implement their plans they will be able to use the University Challenge wiki to ask questions, problem-solve, and share success stories with the network of Teams across the university.
[edit] Milestone 6: Report new Inventory and Evaluate
In Milestone 6 the Team will repeat Milestone 2 in collecting new GHG emissions data. The data comparison between the 2 inventories will be used to evaluate the progress made towards the climate-neutral goal. The team will also collect a simple inventory of their beyond climate-neutral initiatives to be used as a baseline for the next cycle. The team will evaluate the results of the cycle based on the goals and targets set in Milestone 3. The actions that contributed to the emission reductions in each section will be assessed for effectiveness. The purpose of this milestone is to review, edit, and build on this plan for the next cycle.
This is also the time of the year to celebrate success within organizations and across the university.
[edit] Appendices
The appendices are toolkits to help participants reach climate-neutrality and go beyond climate-neutral.
[edit] University Challenge Appendix I: Action Plan
[edit] University Challenge Appendix II: Calculators and Spreadsheets
[edit] University Challenge Appendix III: Business Directory
[edit] University Challenge Appendix IV: Related Resources and Links
[edit] University Challenge Appendix V: Web Presence
- Where should the University Challenge Document be held on the wiki?(Could it have its own icon and space on navigation bar?)
- How and when should it be launched within Uvic Communications?
[edit] University Challenge Appendix VI: Social Marketing
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