• Talloires Declaration
• President's Climate Commitment
• STARS
• Energy Offsets
• Green Dining
• Recycling
• Printing

Talloires Agreement

On April 22, 2004 President Loren Anderson signed the Talloires Declaration, making PLU the first Pacific Northwest University to sign the declaration.

Composed in 1990 at an international conference in Talloires, France, this is the first official statement made by university administrators of a commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education. The Talloires Declaration (TD) is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has been signed by over 350 university presidents and chancellors in over 40 countries.

Presidents Climate Commitment

In spring 2007, President Loren Anderson joined the President's Climate Commitment Leadership Circle. The President's Climate Commitment has four major deadlines.

1.  The first is a deadline to create a structure to complete the work required by the climate commitment. This work is being overseen by the existing Campus Sustainability committee.

2.  The second deadline is to commit to completing two tangible actions. This deadline occurs two months after the commitment has been signed by the University President or in fall 2007 for the first group who signed.

3.  The next deadline is a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. This deadline occurs for PLU in September 2008.

4.  The final deadline is completion of a campus climate plan and is due in December 2009.

PLU has enlisted the help of McKinstry to complete a Climate Action Plan, but implementation will be a pan-university effort.

STARS

PLU is a long time member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).  Recently, AASHE released the pilot version for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), of which PLU was a part.  For 2010, AASHE is releasing STARS 1.0.  STARS has been designed as a tool for collaboration both on campus and benchmarking with other campuses.

Energy Offsets

Green Energy is defined as energy generated from clean, renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro-electric and biomass. Green Energy is the sub-set of renewable energy that has the lowest environmental impact. In spring 2007, PLU students requested that $20 per student per year be set aside for purchase of green energy and energy conservation projects on campus.

Green Dining

For the complete list, please visit Dining's website.  Or contact Wendy Robins at robinsws@plu.edu

Recycling

Recycling is easy at PLU! 

Printing

Check out all PLU is doing here.