Examples of Climate Action Plan Structures

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Overview of Planning Themes

Signatory institutions agree to develop a climate action plan for achieving carbon neutrality and/or decarbonization targets and/or defined thresholds of resilience will be met. This climate action plan is to be developed within three years of the implementation start date, and should include a target date as well as interim milestones for achieving targets as soon as possible.

The Plan, (also reflecting joint community-campus components), will include:

A target date for achieving carbon neutrality as soon as possible, that recognizes the urgency to achieve more rigorous decarbonization by mid-century and/or a target date for 90% decarbonization of Scopes 1 & 2 emissions by 2045, or decarbonization of 80% across all scopes by 2050.
A target date by which defined thresholds of resilience will be met
Interim target dates for meeting milestones that will lead to carbon neutrality, decarbonization, and increasing resilience
Mechanisms and indicators for tracking progress (including those that cut across campus-community boundaries)
Actions to make carbon neutrality and resilience a part of the curriculum and other educational experiences for all student
Actions to expand research in climate action and resilience

The plan should explain how the institution intends to achieve climate action aims by target dates. It should also describe planned actions to make climate neutrality, resilience, and sustainability a part of the curriculum and/or other educational experience for all students as well as actions to expand research, community outreach and/or other efforts toward the achievement of emissions reductions for the institution and/or the community and society. Finally, the plan should describe mechanisms for tracking progress on goals and actions.

The plans are to be aspirational statements of intent rather than binding commitments. It is expected that signatories will adjust their plans over time in response to new information and changing circumstances. The Commitments recommend that the plan be renewed every five years alongside major campus planning efforts.

General Themes to Address

The plan should be in the form of a brief summary report that is comprehensible by and accessible to the general public. Signatories are encouraged to address the following themes in their plan:

Strategic Framework – describes why the institution is taking this initiative and other background information. See Assessment & Prioritizing Action for more information about setting goals and establishing the plan’s connection to the institutional mission.
Campus Emissions – describes the institution’s current emissions trajectory and sets a target date for climate neutrality. This section could include visual representations of the institution’s emissions trajectory under business as usual and under the mitigation plan, as well as a graph illustrating the contribution to the institution’s total emissions from each emission source. See Measuring Progress for more guidance on creating a GHG inventory.
Mitigation Strategies – shows how the institution intends to achieve climate neutrality. This section should include sub-sections describing how the institution will neutralize emissions from each source. Carbon Management & Greenhouse Gas Mitigation contains many definitions and examples of potential mitigation strategies.
Resilience Strategy – describes plans to make the campus and community more resilient, including the indicators developed by the planning team to track progress over time. See Resilience for more guidance.
Educational, Research, Community Outreach Efforts – describes plans to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and/or other educational experience for all students as well as actions to expand research, community outreach and/or other efforts toward the achievement of climate neutrality; this section should include subsections on education, research (if appropriate), and community outreach. See Academics for more guidance.
Financing – explains how the institution will finance the mitigation strategies and other efforts described in the rest of the plan. See Financing for a detailed guide to financial planning for sustainability.
Implementation & Tracking Progress – describes how the institution will assign responsibility for implementing the plan and how it will track its progress in achieving the goals set out in the rest of the plan. See Measuring Progress for more guidance on indicators.

Example Plans from the Leadership Network

Beginning in 2006, one of Second Nature’s objectives in developing a leadership commitment around climate action was to draw on the innovation and creativity of the entire higher education sector in developing robust response to climate change. At that time, as now, we understand that no two climate action plans should ever be the same, the conditions, resources, strengths, vulnerabilities, culture, and many other factors are too variable from one institution to the next to make a “standard template” valuable. However, within the network as a whole institutions can learn from one another to magnify the successes, and avoid the pitfalls of fellow signatories. It was this understanding that lead to the public nature of implementing Second Nature’s commitments; sharing outcomes across the network magnifies the impact of any one signatory across the entire network.

At this time, there has been decades worth of experiences in implementing climate action across the network. Those ideas, plans, records, and reports, are available to the public and signatories seeking to benefit from that leaning in creating their own climate action plans.

Select archetype samples can be found on the Resources tab of the Solutions Center.

For access to hundreds of climate action plans, please email Steve Muzzy, Senior Climate Programs Manager, Second Nature.