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The University has made an institutional commitment to climate action. According to the May 2008 Strategic Plan, "The University of Maryland will be widely recognized as a national model for a Green University. In ten years time the University will have made substantial progress towards addressing energy issues. It will have slashed energy use, expanded green spaces, dramatically reduced its carbon footprint, and built and retrofitted buildings to strict environmental standards. The University will complement these concrete actions with its teaching, research, and development efforts in energy science and policy, smart growth, environmental mapping, sustainable agriculture, and other fields.”

The plan includes administrative policies such as a draft Environmentally Preferable Procurement Policy and a recommendation to seek state support for “carbon neutral” new buildings through increased energy efficiency, renewable energy applications, and renewable energy procurement. There are also policies related to computer settings, telecommuting, a campus fuel reduction goal, and vehicle procurement.

The plan recommends aggressive retrofits of existing buildings through Energy Performance Contracts, behavior change strategies to promote energy conservation, renewable energy procurement, a feasibility study for a biofuels-powered combined heat and power plant, and information technology strategies related to virtual servers, thin client work stations, and power management.

The plan includes expanding low-carbon commuting options; the procurement of hybrid shuttle buses; and a petroleum reduction goal for the campus fleet. Solid waste diversion is also stressed in the plan, including increasing the waste diversion rate by 60 percent by 2010 and 75 percent by 2013 (over 2005 levels).

The President formed a University Sustainability Council that is responsible for advising the President and campus community about sustainability issues, as well as monitoring progress of the plan. The Council is chaired by the Vice President for Administrative Affairs and consists of senior administrators and select faculty, staff, and students.

Strategies focus on integrating sustainability in the curriculum so that all students have a basic understanding of how to contribute to a sustainable society and have opportunities to do so. The plan recommends that sustainability be introduced to all new students through the freshmen seminar classes by utilizing the Sustainability Advisors peer education program being developed by the Office of Sustainability.

The plan recognizes that information sharing is an important step and calls for enhanced information resources, including a website with a master list of all sustainability-related courses offered at the University. It also recommends that the campus develop a “craigslist”/wiki of potential term papers, class projects, and thesis topics to help advance campus carbon neutrality. Appropriate campus departments would provide advice to students as needed about data sources, key contacts, and related issues.

Faculty members in many disciplines receive training on how to integrate sustainability in their existing courses through a workshop called The Chesapeake Project. The first annual workshop was held in May 2009 with 26 faculty members from 20 diverse disciplines participating in the two-day training. Participation requires the integration of sustainability into at least one course syllabus.

For students who want to pursue graduate studies and careers in sustainability, the plan recommends development of new minor, major, and graduate degree programs in sustainability. It further calls for increased support of student involvement in University research centers. These programs would augment newly created degree programs in sustainable energy engineering, applied environmental health, sustainable real estate development, and others.

The University currently has several research centers focused on climate change, energy, and sustainability. These include the Joint Global Change Research Institute, the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies, the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, the Center for Integrative Environmental Research, the Climate Information Responding to Users Needs Initiative, the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, the University of Maryland Energy Research Center, the Center for Smart Growth, and many others.

The plan recommends a number of strategies to foster research in support of climate neutrality. The University will also maintain and publish a list of climate actions (such as the feasibility of geothermal technology on campus and the role of green roofs) that may help reduce campus emissions in areas where there is currently insufficient research or data to guide decisions. The Climate Action Plan recommends that the University actively pursue sustainability and climate-related research and education programs (including scholarships and fellowships for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty) in its portfolio of solicitations for donor support and alumni giving. The Provost and Vice President for Research are advised to look at the impacts of internally-funded research proposals on GHG emission reductions and campus sustainability when evaluating these proposals. Faculty are encouraged to submit projects that reduce GHG emissions and help overcome other sustainability-related challenges to the General Research Board (GRB) and other internally- and externally-funded grant programs. The plan also recommends the establishment of campus awards for outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research that will lead to reduced carbon emissions and/or enhanced campus sustainability. Researchers investigating topics such as alternative energy, carbon neutral buildings, behavior change strategies for energy conservation, and other sustainability topics would be eligible.

The Climate Action Plan calls for integrated communication and outreach efforts to reach the diverse campus constituencies that have influence over both physical infrastructure and community member decision-making. For example, the plan identifies a number of new partnerships that are needed to better promote existing low-carbon transportation options. These partnerships and communication channels will be established and maintained to support new transportation options that are called for under the plan. Similar integrated efforts will be implemented to ensure success with energy conservation efforts and solid waste reduction and diversion goals.

The plan calls for a general information campaign to inform faculty, students, and staff about the University’s commitment to climate action and its concerted efforts to reduce energy consumption in buildings and from transportation, reduce solid waste, and integrate sustainability into the curriculum, research, and community service. The rationale for the campaign is that these actions will save the University and State money, preserve jobs, reduce the campus contribution to global warming, enhance its research and education missions, and establish the University as a sustainability leader.

The University has a number of established channels for communicating with the campus and broader community about climate action and sustainability. These include:
• Campus Sustainability Website – www.sustainability.umd.edu
• Campus Sustainability Listserv which reaches 900+ campus community members
• Campus Sustainability Speaker Series each semester addressing climate, energy, and sustainability topics
• The Engaged University - http://www.engagedu.umd.edu/
• Campus Sustainability Reports – biannual Campus Sustainability Report and Campus Metrics Report which track campus progress on climate action and greenhouse gas emission reductions
• Individual Department websites – numerous campus departments provide information about strategies to reduce the campus carbon footprint. These include Procurement, Transportation, Dining Services, Student Affairs, and Facilities Management, among others.