Team Henderson recently returned from the 2024 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit. The event gathers leaders in higher education committed to addressing inequity and the climate crisis. Henderson’s Bryan Jimenez, Higher Education Practice Director, returned with the following key takeaways and insights:

The Mission

Higher education institutions are increasingly aware of the impact climate change is having on their campuses, so much that they are engaged in discussions among peers about their roles in combating the climate crisis through the implementation of strategic operations and campus planning.

During this year’s summit, university stakeholders convened to share their standings in their climate action planning efforts and discuss what resources are available for them to successfully implement their plans. Institutions also recognize their actions are scalable, starting with successful implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act at the federal level, down to understanding and applying their actions in support of jurisdictional goals and mandates at the state level, and even going as far as institutions engaging with local municipalities for collaboration and partnership opportunities.

Institutions understand that the impacts climate action planning has on their local and surrounding communities include workforce development and funding; nevertheless, they themselves were challenged during the summit to stay proactive, recognize the importance of impactful messaging, and to never lose sight of caring for their student body and surrounding ecosystem. As a society, we tend to be risk-averse but crisis-respondent — this community’s mission strives to flip that script and engage the higher education sector towards more proactive climate action planning.

What is Climate Action Planning?

As engineers, we tend to focus on planning as it relates to the engineering aspects of sustainability like decarbonization and load reduction. It’s not lost to us that these are one of many aspects of climate action planning, which generally consists of targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, resilience planning, renewable energy targets, community engagement, and goals surrounding economic and social governance (ESG). Campuses across the nation engaged in climate action planning include those starting from square one figuring out where to start as well as campuses that have integrated longstanding climate action planning into their strategic plans and are looking towards the next phases of their planning.

There is a distinction between climate action planning and decarbonization planning, the latter of which is defined as a roadmap of technical steps campuses can take to successfully implement decarbonization solutions across their campus operations. Decarbonization planning references other campus planning efforts whereas climate action planning defines the holistic sustainability-based criteria needed to support general campus planning efforts. For example, aspects of decarbonization planning can turn the campus into a living learning laboratory for the surrounding community, which is commonly seen as an overarching goal of climate action planning. Climate action planning can also include development of academic programs and curricula surrounding sustainability, if not already in place within institutions.

Taking Advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and how institutions can successfully implement the legislation to support their funding efforts was a hot topic at the summit. The IRA includes opportunities for campuses to take advantage of tax credits and deductions, grants and financing opportunities. The IRA also authorized the EPA to implement the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which consists of a $27 billion investment to mobilize financing and private capital through three different competitive funding mechanisms that are expected to deliver lower energy costs and a revitalization of communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change.

It should be noted that the IRA contains nuances and rules that affect institutions in their climate action planning. One rule states that 75% of the energy used by ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) must be via ground source, though this rule is expected to change. Furthermore, commercial heat pump applications are not included in the legislation as an avenue for tax credit financing—since higher education is part of the commercial AEC industry, this is being advocated at the federal level for inclusion. To help campuses in their efforts, the BlueGreen Alliance issued a 50+ page user guide surrounding the IRA, which can be found here.

Progressing Forward

Felicia Davis, Co-Founder & Coordinator of the HBCU Green Fund mentioned this quote during a session about endowment investment planning: “We are the chaplains of the common good.” Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Lecturer of American Indian Studies at CSU San Marco, stated, “We have to unlearn in order to relearn,” in a plenary panel about tribal partnerships. While mentioned in separate sessions, these two quotes identified the central creed of climate action planning—we all play a role in challenging societal norms.

Starting with the recognition that we all live on tribal land that should be nurtured, the summit emphasized that justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) should be integrated into every aspect of climate action planning; this was exemplified when the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) announced the release of a climate report presenting the foundation for climate action strategic planning within Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). This was celebrated as one of many achievements within the higher education community that addresses the necessary steps needed to combat the effects of climate change within the communities that have historically been left behind.

The 2024 summit concluded with a town-hall style session surrounding the next generation of climate commitments, also known as Climate Commitments 3.0. Second Nature had previously issued two prior commitments:

1. Committing to carbon neutrality.
2. Adding resilience to climate planning.

Topics discussed during this town hall included intentional framing of climate justice, methods and metrics to hold each other and Second Nature as an organization accountable for goals, planning of milestones beyond Scope 1-3 emissions reductions, and the implementation of collective goals as an overarching higher education market sector.

Henderson Knows Decarbonization

When it comes to decarbonization planning, Team Henderson understands the role it plays in overall climate action planning and what is needed to take an institutional goal like eliminating carbon emissions and define the necessary steps and considerations to reach those goals. We also recognize that a plan is nothing without action and our higher education experts are committed to helping owners tell their campus story through the technical aspects of decarbonization planning and all the way through implementation. Our planning is a holistic coupling of engineering challenges and people-centered solutions that higher education institutions can utilize in their capital planning efforts.

Henderson Knows Higher Education

With more than 500 projects on 110 campuses nationwide, you could say we know higher education. From student unions and classrooms to residential halls and hands-on learning labs, our team is experienced in bringing environments to life that push the boundaries and support the world-changers of tomorrow in doing the same. Click here to learn more.