The impact Cornell has on the environment and its efforts to reduce that impact are outlined in the university's first Green Report, unveiled at a May 7 panel discussion on sustainability.

"The Green Report is a tool by which we will be able to measure our progress toward climate neutrality," said President David Skorton, who earlier this year signed a multi-university pledge to achieve that goal. The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment binds institutions to eliminating their campus greenhouse gas emissions, chief among them carbon dioxide, through comprehensive, long-term strategies. Climate neutrality means leaving a net-zero impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Green Report, available at http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu, summarizes where Cornell stands on sustainability efforts, including climate neutrality, and is expected to be updated regularly.

"The Green Report represents Cornell's first attempt at compiling a comprehensive assessment of the campus's environmental footprint," said Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding. "In the future, this will allow us to measure our progress in a very transparent way toward improving our impact and being good stewards of environmental resources."

The environmental, or ecological, footprint is a measure of how much land and water a population requires to produce its resources and absorb its wastes. Shrinking the environmental footprint is a goal that aligns with sustainability efforts.

The report was compiled by Cornell Sustainability Coordinator Dean Koyanagi from data provided by several Cornell offices, and with the support of student, faculty and staff groups such as KyotoNow!, the Kyoto Task Team, the Campus Life Green Team, the Green Building Oversight Committee and the Green Purchasing Task Force.

Panel discussion coverage
Chronicle Online will post coverage of the interactive panel discussion on the implications of the Presidents Climate Commitment for Cornell on May 9.

The decision to compile regular reports on Cornell's sustainability efforts grew out of an agreement signed in July 2005 between the university and the Redbud Woods Working Group. However, several of the initiatives contained in the report were in place at the time of the 2005 agreement.

For example, since 2002, Cornell's Energy Conservation Initiative has intended to reduce campus energy use to 20 percent below year 2000 levels by 2012, at a total cost of up to $20 million, the report states. In its first five years, the project has cost $1 million a year in projects and new maintenance practices, with a reported savings of $2 million annually in energy expenditures.

Among the topics covered in the report are: land use, energy, buildings, materials, transportation and waste. Greater detail and comparisons will be added in later reports to gauge the campus's continued progress toward climate neutrality.

Ongoing sustainability initiatives described in the Green Report include the university's Lake Source Cooling project, certified energy-efficient housing for students on West Campus, a commitment to significantly reduce coal emissions through the planned Combined Heat and Power Project at Cornell's Central Heating Plant, and the Provost's Task Force on Sustainability in the Age of Development.

The university also is in the process of developing a Comprehensive Master Plan in which principles of sustainability for the campus's future are integrated.

The Green Report is the university's best effort at defining and quantifying Cornell's ecological footprint, though that task is a daunting one considering Cornell's scope.

"But collecting data and crunching numbers could quickly overshadow the end goal -- developing a clear vision about the myriad ways in which the university affects its local environment, and shifting the balance toward increasingly benign and positive outcomes," the report states.