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Rocky Mountain Institute releases guide to reducing greenhouse gas emissions on college campuses 

Guide helps colleges solve specific barriers to their efforts to mitigate their carbon emissions and manage energy costs.

Snowmass, CO. December 1, 2009  – Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today announced the release of a new book titled Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers.  The book is a practical guide for anyone working in a college or university setting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their campus. It explores the challenges, both real and perceived, to significant reductions, and provides successful examples, and resources necessary to address the challenges. The book is available as a free download at: http://www.rmi.org/rmi/.

According to RMI senior consultant Michael Kinsley who led the collaborative project, “people who commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions want action on their campus, and soon. This book goes beyond a focus on best practices or individual projects to help readers solve problems based upon a different way of thinking about buildings, utilities, institutional programs, and all the other components of a campus energy system.”

Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers was developed in collaboration with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). AASHE’s deep experience with campus leadership complements RMI’s solutions orientation, whole-system analysis, and experience with communities, major corporations, and campuses.

The book is the culmination of numerous RMI activities including staff visits to twelve campuses to understand specific campus climate initiatives and challenges. Chosen for the diversity of their conditions, the participating institutions were:

• Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
• Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina
• Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland
• Lakeshore Technical College, Cleveland, Wisconsin
• Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
• Richland College, Dallas, Texas
• Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
• Unity College, Unity, Maine
• University of Minnesota at Morris, Morris, Minnesota
• University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
• University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont
• Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Through an anonymous foundation, RMI also provided each of the participating campuses with a grant to execute carbon reduction programs tailored to that campus. For more information, please visit http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Campuses.

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Rocky Mountain Institute® (RMI®) is an independent, entrepreneurial, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose vision is a world thriving, verdant, and secure, for all, for ever. RMI is non-adversarial and trans-ideological, emphasizing integrative design, advanced technologies, and mindful markets. Our strategic focus, executed through specific initiatives designed to take our work rapidly to scale, is to map and drive the transition from coal and oil to efficiency and renewables.

AASHE (http://www.aashe.org) is an association of colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada working to create a sustainable future. The organization promotes sustainability in all sectors of higher education through education, communication, research and professional development. It also provides a home for campus sustainability coordinators and directors. AASHE is a member-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit.