Planning

From ClimateNetworkWiki

Institutional Planning processes are the bread and butter of how schools react to change, and create strategies for moving forward. There are planning processes for recruiting students, for campus development, and for creating new programs. It is only natural that to address the problem of climate change we are going to need to plan.

The interesting thing about climate change is that it is a challenge that extends far beyond the Ivory Tower of academics. It is a problem facing our communities, our province, and our country. And more then any other institution, education institutes have the capacities and resources to do more to solve the climate crisis than they do to cause it.

Education institutions have a unique combination of tools and capacities to support our communities’ climate change strategies. Our learning tools include education, research, and knowledge. Our economic capacities include campus operations, economic impact (investments and purchasing), and land-use. Most importantly, educational institutions unite thousands of creative thinkers and researchers from across the province with the passion, resources and energy to create change. To go beyond climate-neutral these opportunities must be woven together to create integrated plans that catalyze change in our communities while reducing our campus-based emissions. The challenge of going beyond climate-neutral is already bringing out the best of our education institutions: bringing people together to solve these complex problems while training generations of B.C.’s citizens to be part of the solution.

Back to goBEYOND

The goBEYOND Approach

The goBEYOND Planning Pillar will work with institutions to develop collaborative planning processes and shared governance structures.

Climate change is a complex challenge that does not fit into a single discipline and requires custom solutions in different places. Collaborative planning combines the knowledge and perspectives of many people and stakeholders to create effective solutions and builds the support needed to make these plans a reality. Collaborative planning brings together students, staff, faculty, and administrations with community partners to create a shared vision for moving forward.

goBEYOND also advocates for shared governance structures. Just as students, staff, faculty, administration and community partners work together to create their climate strategies they will need to work together to implement them. Administrators have the power to achieve carbon-neutrality by implementing campus emissions reduction projects and offsetting. Yet it is only with the involvement of students, staff, faculty and regional partners at every step of the process that institutions will be able to move beyond climate-neutral. Shared governance structures will bring the partners together to define, implement and renew the plans from year to year.

What can the Planning Pillar offer my campus?

*One on One Support: goBEYOND staff have access to over ten years of planning best practices from both the UBC Sustainability Office and the Sustainable Campuses Project. Since 1998, UBC has been leading the campus sustainability movement in North America. Likewise, the Sustainable Campus project has worked with and supported over 70 institutions across the country in the areas of: Greenhouse Gas inventories, institutional governance, Campus Sustainability Assessment and policy development. Also Common Energy has been at the forefront of collaborative beyond climate neutral planning both at UVIC and UBC. By working with the Campus Climate Network you can access the years of experience of these organizations.

*Guest Lectures: Want to learn more about collaborative planning? Our staff and volunteers can come to your campus to give workshops and presentations on collaborative planning,

*CCN Online Community: The Ministry of Advanced Education and the Campus Climate Network have partnered to develop an Online Community that can act as a platform for sharing resources and for facilitating planning processes. It is free to join and it will connect you and your campus to initiatives happening across BC! Log in now!

* Guides and Resources: The Campus Climate Network has developed guides and resources for learning about best practices in climate planning, innovative solutions from across the and tips for starting a planning process on your campus. Check out some Solutions to climate change that the Planning Pillar can help you and your school accomplish!

Next Steps for Action

• Find out what your school is already up to
• Work with your institution to conduct a GHG inventory: A comprehensive inventory of emissions is a basis for sound climate planning.
• Get your school to sign the University and College Presidents’ Climate Change Statement of Action or another commitment to taking climate action.

Check out the history of the development of this pillar Beyond Climate-Neutral Planning