Leveraging Offsets for Challenging Emissions
Sometimes, it may not be entirely feasible to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, such as in the case of air travel. However, UB has developed localized carbon offset programs aimed at reducing an equivalent amount of carbon emissions, enabling UB to attain carbon neutrality by 2030 by implementing adequate carbon offsets.
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Sub-strategies
- Phase I (2021)
- Establish a working group that will assess and learn from higher-education sector leaders in the space and establish a baseline for potential offset activities at UB
- Phase II (2022)
- Assess potential of market offset activities, campus experiential learning offsets and the establishment of a localized (Western New York) offset program
- Phase III (2023)
- Convene regional stakeholders to advance concept of building a localized offset program in Western New York
- Develop key university criteria to purchase market offsets that align with the values and mission of the university
- Phase IV (2024)
- Initiate UB’s first purchase of aligned offsets to cover directly financed air travel
- Continue efforts to advance regional offset development
- Phase V (2025)
- Evaluate viability of offset purchase and determine if program should be scaled, continued or concluded
Policies
Tactics and strategies continue to be developed under the Offset Network framework from Second Nature.
The Investing Locally to Provide Flexibility committee developed a criteria for the development and procurement of carbon offsets in the future. This criteria has four key determinants:
The University at Buffalo has a vision and mission for the community which includes the three traditional pillars of the public higher education mission — research, education, and service — as interdependent endeavors that continually enrich and inform each other. To encourage these pillars being instilled in projects, they must include the following:
- Building academic excellence.
- Creates research opportunities.
- Furthers current research.
- Creates educational opportunities & value.
- Committed to community education & involvement.
- Creates/prioritizes environmental education opportunities.
- Creates engagement across campuses.
Each project must create an engaging environment that puts environmental education, climate justice and research potential at the forefront. Each project must consider the following:
- Creates social justice & equity locally/globally within 60 miles of campus.
- Further partnering with our local community.
- Benefits educational, environmental and social justice initiatives.
- Multidisciplinary coordination.
In order to be properly measured in sequestration, offsets must adhere to the PAVER model and be verified or accredited by a third-party source/peer review. This is to ensure that the offsets are real and would not have occurred as business as usual and to avoid schemes. Therefore, the offsets must adhere to the following standards:
- Permanent: The reduction must last in perpetuity.
- Additional: credits represent reductions beyond what would have. happened without the offset program or UB’s carbon neutrality initiative goal.
- Verified: The reduction must have been monitored and confirmed to have occurred.
- Enforceable: The reduction must only be counted once.
- Real: Credits do not exceed the project’s, or the protocol’s, actual effect on emissions using conservative estimation methods.
- Based on the latest science: All projects and emissions reduction calculations undergo peer review or be verified by a third party.
- Provide a portfolio of options.
To be cost effective for the University, offsets should range from $1-25 per credit. They should also offer additional investments into the community.
- Relative to market price of area.
- Remain local to encourage the circular economy (within 25-mile radius of campus).
Provide feedback
Please fill out the survey below to submit your thoughts on carbon offsets.
Do you have ideas for carbon offset programs?
In order to solicit a locally based set of ideas to improve the campus and surrounding community, as well as further UB’s climate neutrality goals, the ILPF committee developed an RFI for individuals to pitch their carbon offset ideas to the university. This RFI will ensure that projects have environmental, community and educational benefits. Projects of all scales will be considered that have varying carbon reduction potentials. These ideas will be accepted on a rolling basis and be catalogued to be utilized at a later date when funding becomes available.
Updates
Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
The University at Buffalo’s carbon offset committee is tasked with exploring, assessing and developing protocol on the use of carbon offsets to lower our greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsets will be used as a temporary bridging strategy for emissions where sustainable technology is not available (like air travel) or where no matter how sustainable our practices get, there will always be emissions (like in our food system).
Even though these offsets are provisional, our procurement and development of them should continue to take into account equity, price, our local region, and our academic mission.
The committee has identified three pathways to pursue carbon offsets:
· A certified market purchase aligning with key criteria and UB values
· Investing in a localized offset program with community partners
· A campus/university experiential offset initiative
Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
UB Partners with UCapture
One tool to advance this work is a free web-based platform called UCapture. The UB Carbon Offset Committee investigated this technology over the past months and decided to partner with this program because it empowers the entire UB community- faculty, staff, students, and alumni, to learn about carbon offsets and their role in climate action.
Sustainable Practices Seminar: Carbon Pricing and Carbon Offsets [1:19:01]
The Spring 2021 class of Sustainable Practices Seminar had two teams of students work with the Carbon Pricing and Carbon Offset committees of UB's Climate Action Plan. This is their final presentations to those committees.
Fall 2022
One tool to advance this work is a free web-based platform called UCapture. The UB Carbon Offset Committee investigated this technology over the past months and decided to partner with this program because it empowers the entire UB community- faculty, staff, students and alumni, to learn about carbon offsets and their role in climate action.
Spring 2023
In Spring 2023, the committee identified three pathways to pursue carbon offsets:
- A certified market purchase aligning with UB values.
- Investing in a localized offset program with community partners.
- A campus/university experiential offset initiative.
Committee
- Captain: William McDonnell, associate vice provost for Academic Planning .
- Susan Clark, Assistant Professor, Environment and Sustainability .
- Hannah Giarrizzo , Lead Coordinator Community & Civic Engagement, Student Life.
- Mara Huber, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Research - Experiential Learning Network.
- Ryan McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer, UB Sustainability.
- Derek Nichols, Associate Director for Sustainability, UB Sustainability.
- Isabel VanPatten, Alum, Carbon Offset Fellow.
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