78 million. That’s the record number of students, according to the U.S. Department of Education, that attended classes in 2013. As the student population continues to grow, hundreds of campuses joined together in pledging to reduce their mounting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To help them achieve this, Chevrolet teamed up with the Climate Neutral Business Network to create a VCS methodology to credit university, college and K-12 campuses that lower their GHG emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives.
This methodology has two modules that help quantify emission reductions from different campus initiatives. Whereas the first module applies to campus-wide emission reductions in GHG emissions, the second module applies only to LEED-Certified Buildings. Chevrolet has committed to buying and retiring credits from these projects as part of its overall business strategy. You can read more about the methodology, including all the assessment reports and other documentation, on the VCS website.
Additionally, VCS staff will be holding a webinar with panelists from Chevrolet, Climate Neutral Business Networkand one of the methodology assessors, DNV, on Thursday, 27 February 2014 at 1pm Eastern Standard Time to walk you through the details of the methodology and how to apply it. Please sign up by clicking this link.
It is particularly exciting to see one of the world’s largest corporations get so directly involved in the voluntary carbon market, and make such a public commitment to not only purchasing and retiring credits, but to support the development of an innovative methodology that will enable numerous projects to be developed, and to bring carbon reductions directly into the nation’s classrooms. We at the VCS look forward to future endeavors with Chevrolet, as well as any similar efforts designed to promote action on climate change.
As always, please address any comments or questions you might have to secretariat@v-c-s.org