- As governing boards seek to ensure the long-term vitality of institutions and the success of students, they can help colleges and universities navigate the complexities and challenges posed by climate change. To be effective, boards can take approaches similar to those of city leaders, developing interdepartmental, intergovernmental, and community-engaged, community-supported climate action plans that address all aspects of an institution.
- The development and implementation of a plan for equitable climate action can help direct action and ensure accountability across systems and institutions. Through climate action planning, institutions can prioritize the climate solutions strategies, communicate their action and knowledge, and identify metrics to gauge success. Comprehensive institutional or system action plans should be tailored to and leverage unique institutional or system-wide strengths and missions.
- Recognizing higher education’s core strength in engaging students in learning across a variety of contexts, interests, communities, and languages, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to help students understand our changing climate. Through undergraduate education, workforce training, and graduate education, higher education can ensure that all students have a foundational level of climate literacy and an opportunity for deeper learning about the intersection of climate across disciplines.
Students in an outdoor class at the University of Maryland, College Park enjoy the beauty of tree-lined McKeldin Mall.
Credit: JOHN T. CONSOLI/UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
From academic affairs and student enrollment to strategic planning and fiscal integrity, all aspects of the higher education enterprise overseen by governing boards are impacted by climate change. Whether it is preparing campuses for extreme weather or preparing students for new clean economy jobs, higher education must adjust to remain effective, relevant, successful, and safe in a changing climate. Boards and trustees governing higher education are uniquely positioned to ensure that these adjustments are made and support their institutions in leveraging federal funding opportunities, including those from the Inflation Reduction Act. Governing boards play a crucial role in unlocking higher education’s strengths to advance bold systemic solutions to help build a more sustainable world.
A Campus Activated by Wildfire
In July 1994, a lightning strike crackled over Storm King Mountain during a hot, dry, and windy day near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and exploded into a devastating wildfire, taking the lives of 14 firefighters trapped in its path. It transformed the Spring Valley campus of Colorado Mountain College (CMC) into a Red Cross Disaster Relief evacuation site, a helipad landing zone, and a command center. CMC housed displaced area residents at the campus’s residence hall for two weeks.
Fast forward to August 2020—Colorado’s worst wildfire season on record—when the Grizzly Creek fire ignited in dry brush in the median of Interstate 70 from a spark believed to be from a passing vehicle in Glenwood Canyon near Glenwood Springs.1 Amid plumes of smoke, the blaze jumped the Colorado River and headed toward CMC’s Spring Valley campus, causing college operations to go on official alert once again. New students were forced to take an eight-hour-plus detour to reach campus, while faculty and staff evacuated animals from the campus’s veterinary technician farm. The campus was spared, but when the Grizzly Creek fire was finally contained five months later, it had torched more than 32,000 acres.
Amid the devastation, CMC’s Fire Academy conducted live-fire scenarios, educating firefighter trainees to combat the fires that threaten the Rocky Mountain region every year.2 The following spring, CMC held free workshops for the public on how to create defensible space around private property and how to restore scorched earth. CMC Glenwood Springs sponsored an online presentation for a local and nationwide audience by Kale Casey, a public information officer, who worked on the Grizzly Creek fire. He explained that the connection between climate change and wildfire season, with temperatures increasing earlier and staying high longer, sets the stage for what he described as the “perfect burn.”3
Well after the fire was out, major challenges persisted. The heavy vegetation and soil damage within and around Glenwood Canyon subjected it to major flooding and to destructive landslides carrying house-sized boulders that closed I-70 for months over the summer of 2021. To this day, the Colorado Department of Transportation regularly and proactively closes the 16-mile stretch when excessively wet weather is feared to saturate the area and put this major interstate highway and lives in danger once again.
Higher Education and Climate Change: The Urgency to Act
Across the nation, institutions of higher education, and the students and communities they serve, are grappling with extreme weather and climate impacts. From heat and wildfires to flooding and drought, our changing climate threatens livelihoods, well-being, vital infrastructure, and core college and university operations. Although all regions feel the effects, historically disadvantaged and economically vulnerable communities bear an unequal burden of negative climate impacts, exacerbating existing inequities.4
In addition to broad societal effects, climate impacts increasingly permeate all aspects of campus life, threatening both enrollment and completion rates, particularly for learners from historically disadvantaged and economically vulnerable communities. New research shows that students whose families live in ZIP codes affected by severe weather events are more likely to withdraw from courses, less prone to enroll in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses, and at higher risk to default on student loans.5 Another recent study shows that students who experience extreme weather when entering college are less likely to enroll, affecting their long-term earning and economic well-being.6
We are living the realities of a changing climate now. We must come together to advance solutions to minimize further harm, while simultaneously adapt to climate instability. This includes higher education.
The good news: with unprecedented federal investment in climate resilience and a renewed passion by students to learn about climate solutions, higher education can help accelerate this transition. We can purposefully use this moment as an opportunity to advance equity and equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. We can foster innovation, enhance communities, and model solutions. Higher education has an urgent need to support collaborative action that will address the environmental, social, and economic challenges that we collectively face.
As governing boards seek to ensure the long-term vitality of institutions and the success of students, they can help colleges and universities navigate the complexities and challenges posed by climate change. To be effective, boards can take approaches similar to those of city leaders, developing interdepartmental, intergovernmental, and community-engaged, community-supported climate action plans that address all aspects of an institution. Beyond ensuring the safety and success of students, faculty, and staff, boards have an opportunity to redefine what it means for colleges and universities to be anchor institutions.7 Together, we can reimagine the role of institutions to be more than economic drivers—to be engineers of equitable prosperity that includes economic opportunity, quality of life, and environmental stewardship.
Northern Arizona University honors students evaluate various leaf structures as part of its plant morphology class.
Credit: COURTESY OF NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
Higher Ed Climate Action Task Force
In 2023, we—the chief executives of Colorado Mountain College (CMC), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University System of Maryland (USM)—signed on to join the Higher Ed Climate Action Task Force coordinated by the This Is Planet Ed initiative of the Aspen Institute. We came together with other students, faculty, college presidents and chancellors, state leaders of higher education systems, and policymakers to chart a course for higher education to reach its full potential in building our societal capacity to address climate change.
For nearly two years, we hosted public listening sessions to learn more about the need and opportunity for the higher education sector to advance solutions. We heard from a student in Texas who, when deciding where to enroll, considered how high heat would affect her learning and whether she could afford housing with air conditioning. We heard from a college president in Washington who redesigned her institution’s curriculum, research, and operations around the restored wetlands on campus. The Secretary of Higher Education in New Jersey described how they launched a job training and research center on offshore wind power. We met with many leaders across the higher education sector, identified colleges and universities that are taking action now, and evaluated a range of innovative policy ideas to support climate action on campus. We learned how higher education is currently leading on climate issues, and about the urgency and opportunity for the sector to expand its reach and impact.
We developed an action plan grounded in what we learned to map a comprehensive vision for what we believe our nation’s colleges and universities must do to fulfill their social responsibility and accelerate society-wide climate action.
Strategies to Advance Climate Solutions for Higher Education
While there is an urgent need for governing boards to act, there is also immense opportunity for leadership and innovation. Higher education can help lead the nation in a just transition to clean energy. Institutions can model clean-energy practices on campus that benefit students and surrounding communities, while engaging students from all backgrounds in the process to ensure career readiness in a climate-changed world. With the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act, there is also an unprecedented amount of federal funding available to achieve these goals.
In the action plan, we identified key strategies higher education can leverage to fulfill its responsibility: developing comprehensive climate action plans; educating and supporting students; engaging and supporting communities; and modeling, developing, and researching solutions. Recognizing the imperative to leverage this period of transition, we view these strategies through a cross-cutting lens that prioritizes equity and climate justice. We are proud to lead institutions working to model these strategies at every level. In the sections below, we describe these strategies and how we work to apply them across our institutions.
Developing a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan
The development and implementation of a plan for equitable climate action can help direct action and ensure accountability across systems and institutions. Through climate action planning, institutions can prioritize the climate solutions strategies we describe below, communicate their action and knowledge, and identify metrics to gauge success. Comprehensive institutional or system action plans should be tailored to and leverage unique institutional or system-wide strengths and missions. To develop comprehensive climate action plans, governing boards should seek broad engagement and participation. For instance, consulting with local tribal nations can help colleges and universities understand and recognize the ecological practices of the original stewards of the lands on which campuses are located.
Educating and Supporting Students
The changing climate is also reshaping our economy, shifting market trends, and driving consumer demand for renewable energy. The Inflation Reduction Act alone is projected to create nine million new jobs over the next decade.8 The clean-economy transition will require countless more trained workers in fields such as electrical work, renewable energy installation, green building construction, advanced manufacturing, and STEM. It will also require leaders in sectors such as business, health care, and education to understand how climate relates to their industry. Higher education must play a critical role in training the next generation of climate leaders to tackle complex issues, regardless of academic or career path.
Recognizing higher education’s core strength in engaging students in learning across a variety of contexts, interests, communities, and languages, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to help students understand our changing climate. Through undergraduate education, workforce training, and graduate education, higher education can ensure that all students have a foundational level of climate literacy and an opportunity for deeper learning about the intersection of climate across disciplines.
To prepare students for success, climate change education needs to be cross-cutting and transdisciplinary. This requires a two-pronged approach: faculty and curriculum committees creating and advancing climate education across all disciplines, and presidents and governing boards buoying and consistently supporting their work. Recent surveys suggest that fewer than half of college students engage with coursework related to environmental sustainability.9 Yet, all students are entering a world increasingly shaped by our changing climate. It is imperative that governing boards and faculty align to make this timely educational integration a reality. We can ensure that all students are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage with and positively contribute to our changing world.
University System of Maryland (USM). The USM, comprising 12 public universities and three regional higher education centers across Maryland, enrolls nearly 170,000 students and confers eight in every 10 bachelor’s degrees in the state. More than 2,000 USM students are enrolled in nearly 60 undergraduate and graduate majors related to climate and environmental science and to sustainability.
The USM is unique, however, in that it is one of the few public higher education systems in the nation with a graduate institution dedicated to applied environmental science. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) is charged by the state with preserving and protecting Maryland’s ecosystems through research, public service, and education. While UMCES is far from the only USM institution that graduates environmental scientists, its legislative mandate means that the training of its graduate students is grounded in local ecological problems and that their research is inextricable from UMCES’s outreach mission. Alumni go on to become the scientists and policy leaders responsible for protecting Maryland’s physical environment, feeding UMCES’s legislative mandate in perpetuity.
Colorado Mountain College (CMC). In 2011, CMC added a new bachelor of arts in sustainability studies focused on social equity and sustainability, answering a growing interest from students requesting curriculum in systems thinking, leadership, social responsibility, and fostering sustainable behavior. The college later developed a climate action-focused bachelor of science in ecosystem science and stewardship in 2021, integrating scientific and traditional ecological knowledge with technical training in natural climate solutions and restoration practice in preparation for careers in wildlife biology, forestry, geographic information systems, hydrology, and other areas.
Strategic partnerships contribute to high impact learning as well as future career readiness for CMC students. The college’s Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship selects students from a variety of academic disciplines to participate in a paid work-based education program with the U.S. Forest Service and White River National Forest. Student interns work directly with natural resources staff, wilderness or wildlife crews, archeological and cultural resources, public affairs offices, and other entities. In a partnership with Scripps Institution’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, CMC students are paired with mentors to conduct research related to water, snow, weather, and climate and develop their hands-on skills in field science, modeling, and coding.
CMC supports students by creating meaningful opportunities for questioning the status quo and seeking solutions. Seniors in the sustainability studies and ecosystem science and stewardship programs create in-depth capstone research projects that contribute to improving local and/or global climate health. In 2024, a senior in the sustainability studies program collaborated with the town council in Vail, Colorado to research reducing construction and demolition waste based on traditional and international circular economies. A senior in the ecosystem science program conducted research with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to map radio-collared moose behavior and potential human-wildlife conflict zones at a ski area.
Northern Arizona University (NAU). In 2023, the Center for Service and Volunteerism at NAU launched the Arizona Climate Resilience Corps (AZCRC) in partnership with AmeriCorps and private philanthropists.10 AZCRC was established as one of the first American Climate Corps programs, serving as a model for the nation. The goal of the program is to help build resilience and address climate issues in Arizona’s communities through environmental education, outreach, and volunteer coordination projects. Members work with host sites such as public land management agencies, city and county governments, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions to help advance these goals across the state. The climate corps serves as an effective pathway to climate careers, allowing young people to build their skills in the field and providing them with financial incentive to continue their education.
Since 2009, NAU offers a master of science in climate science and solutions degree, designed to improve students’ communication skills and ability to obtain jobs in the growing climate industry. Students come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, but all can experience hands-on, interdisciplinary, and high-impact learning. Student learning outcomes are centered on core climate science solutions, physical science, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and professional development.11 An important component of the program is the 200-hour internship that students complete in an area of their interest to gain first-hand experience in a climate career.
Students in the Sustainable Communities program serve as mentors for the Community-University Partnership and Inquiry (CUPI) program. CUPI recruits pods that consist of undergraduate students from many disciplines, graduate mentors, a faculty member, and a community partner. The purpose of the program is to improve the leadership and applied inquiry skills of undergrad students, while solving a real-world need of community partners. Interdisciplinary groups of undergraduate students have an opportunity to address local climate impacts through projects like advancing low-income home weatherization, promoting residential clean-technology opportunities, and addressing food deserts.12
Engaging and Supporting Communities
Local communities, in addition to experiencing the effects of climate change, are working to advance local solutions. These community efforts and the need for collaboration and partnership will only expand as climate change—and its impact on society—intensifies. To fulfill its social mission, higher education can leverage its community connections, convening power, and research to support communities in advancing meaningful solutions. Our colleges and universities can provide resources and technical assistance to community leaders and serve as a place to bring diverse groups of people together to drive equitable climate action.
Northern Arizona University (NAU). City climate action plans create goal-directed local action, and higher education can play an important role in supporting the development, framing, and substance of these community plans.13 For instance, NAU has collaborated closely with the city of Flagstaff to support system-wide climate goals. Faculty and students coordinated with city stakeholders to develop and implement the city’s Carbon Neutrality Plan. Researchers across the institution provided expert testimony about climate impacts and solutions at council meetings and hearings. Furthermore, students of the climate science and solutions master of science program offered substantive feedback on and revisions to the city’s climate emergency declaration, resulting in a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Faculty also play crucial advisory roles on climate-tangential commissions, such as the city’s sustainability and water commissions.
NAU also actively recognizes its role in helping the city achieve its climate goals through emissions reductions and includes city leaders on the university’s sustainability advisory board. Erik Nielsen, chief sustainability officer at NAU, hosts regular meetings with city partners, including Flagstaff’s Office of Sustainability and Water Services, to ensure that efforts are aligned on issues such as clean-transportation initiatives and clean-energy purchases. With the faculty and staff making up a significant portion of the city’s population, NAU is working to get more information about sustainable practices to its employees, including opportunities to access local and federal residential clean-energy incentives.
University System of Maryland (USM). The USM engages both citizens and policymakers in climate and environmental solutions—a critical effort in a state with one of the most aggressive climate laws in the country. Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act mandates a 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2031 and net-zero emissions by 2045.14 The Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) mapped various pathways to achieving these goals and, with the state, solicited public feedback on the options outlined. The state’s final plan, released in December 2023, was based on UMD’s comprehensive report, which used economic modeling from another USM institution, Towson University.15
UMD also involves its community in environmental research, advocacy, and citizen-engaged service. Through its interdisciplinary Grand Challenges grants, UMD has invested $30 million in finding solutions to exigent problems, including climate change. One project born from a Grand Challenges grant is the Climate Resilience Network, in which UMD scientists work alongside students and public stakeholders to assess regional mitigation and adaptation needs and find solutions rooted in university-based research and in the real demands of affected communities.
A student majoring in agricultural sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore researches ethnic crop production in high tunnels using hydroponic techniques.
Credit: TODD DUDEK/UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EASTERN SHORE
Modeling, Developing, and Researching Mitigation and Adaptation Solutions
The higher education sector contributes significantly to our nation’s carbon emissions, serving 19 million students and powering 210,000 buildings with 6.2 billion square feet of floor space.22 Many of the nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities function like small cities, serving tens of thousands of students, faculty, administrators, support staff, and visitors through energy use, transportation, buildings, athletic facilities, food systems, waste management, purchasing, and land use. They also spend a significant amount of money to power campuses—$36.8 billion annually on facilities operations, maintenance, and utilities.23
To address climate change globally, all of society, including higher education, must take steps to conserve natural resources, reduce carbon emissions, and adapt to a changing climate. As leaders and hubs for innovation, institutions of higher education can model, research, and develop climate mitigation and adaptation solutions. Frameworks from organizations including Second Nature’s Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment and Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS) can help guide campus-wide efforts to reduce carbon emissions.24
As society seeks to answer new questions about solutions, whether it is how to identify methane leaks or how to build better battery systems, higher education can be a critical partner to further explore challenging questions or test potential solutions.
University System of Maryland (USM). In 2007, every USM leader signed onto the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment. To fulfill that commitment, the universities performed extensive inventories of campus systems to identify sources of carbon pollution and target reductions to yield the biggest impact. Since signing the commitment, the USM has cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 865,000 metric tons—an aggregate net reduction of 52 percent. All system universities are converting their fleets to zero-emission vehicles, and every building built on every USM campus in the last 15 years has an energy performance rating of LEED Silver or higher. USM institutions are also working toward buying 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.25
The University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland, College Park have already reached the last goal. In addition, UMD has expanded the share of students and employees using alternative transportation for daily commuting and has educated more than 18,000 first-year students about sustainability challenges and opportunities.26
Aligning sustainability priorities and strategies among dozens of system universities, centers, and labs across the state is complex work. To build coordination capacity across the system, the USM’s governing board of regents stipulated that the president of UMCES also serve as the USM’s vice chancellor for sustainability. In this role, the president convenes university leaders on issues of environmental stewardship, facilitates the sharing of best practices, and tracks progress toward the system’s clean-energy and sustainability goals.
Colorado Mountain College (CMC). In fall 2021, CMC’s sustainability studies program launched a newly required course for its majors on sustainability assessment and reporting. In this course, senior students collaborate with paid student researchers, program faculty, and college leaders and staff to measure wide-ranging aspects of institutional sustainability and make suggestions for improvements. Students utilize the AASHE STARS framework, and they present their findings and recommendations to diverse stakeholders at a virtual gathering. Their findings on greenhouse gas emissions also support CMC’s efforts as a signatory of the Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Directly engaging students in institutional climate and sustainability efforts helps them develop critical skills as organizational change agents.
Implicit in CMC’s Mountain Futures Strategic Plan 2023–2030 is a commitment to care for resources responsibly, to act as effective stewards of nature, and to strive to make the college’s systems and infrastructure environmentally regenerative.27 The college tracks its greenhouse gas data through Second Nature, while monitoring and intentionally working toward the college’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
Northern Arizona University (NAU). Subscribing to both Second Nature’s Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment and the AASHE STARS framework, NAU is taking strides to meet the goals set out in its Climate Action Plan. NAU aims to be carbon-neutral by 2030 by maximizing resource conservation and efficiency, decarbonizing heating and cooling systems, electrifying the transit fleet, and purchasing clean and renewable energy through power purchase agreements.28 These agreements are long-term contracts for power between a college and a renewable energy provider. The 15- to 25-year contracts allow the energy company to build a renewable energy facility such as a solar power plant, while the university receives consistent clean power without having to invest upfront capital or handle maintenance costs.
In addition, NAU views its campus as a living laboratory with myriad sustainability and climate challenges to solve. In addition to pursuing external resources, NAU relies on the wealth of expertise embodied in its faculty, staff, and students. University leaders engage faculty and students in developing and implementing solutions, a process that helps build career-ready skills. In the future, the institution plans to develop policies that will produce innovative practices in climate-aware procurement, purchasing new energy-consuming devices, and native landscaping.
Opportunity to Access Federal Resources
Recent federal investments provide unprecedented opportunity to accelerate action in higher education. With $369 billion in climate and energy provisions, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the largest climate investment in U.S. history and has the potential to reduce carbon emissions, promote environmental justice objectives, and create high-paying clean-energy jobs. Tax credits, financing opportunities, and grants in the IRA can support colleges and universities in installing renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, ground-source heat pumps, and electric vehicles.
When combined with the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, higher education can access significant resources to conduct research, provide technical assistance, and install clean-energy technologies. These opportunities create enormous demand for the services higher education has to offer, whether training people for jobs in the clean economy, advising government leaders, developing city climate action plans, or accelerating innovative industries.
Implications for Governing Boards in Leading Climate Action
While progress is being made, governing boards have a leading role to play further systemic action so that all students, faculty, and staff feel empowered to advance solutions. Specifically, governing boards can do the following to help advance climate action.
- Prioritize Climate Action. Governing boards can prioritize climate action by first gaining a deep understanding of the local climate impacts in the region they serve, as well as how they are predicted to affect students and campuses. Boards should consider how all aspects of activities will be affected—from admissions to investment decisions to academic programs. After developing this understanding, governing boards can establish institution-wide priorities for climate action and develop coordinated policies and practices to ensure the long-term sustainability of the institution. Each board can ensure that the strategic plan, vision, and other priorities of its institution are grounded in the context of a changing climate. Trustees can leverage board assessments to consider how existing priorities might be modified to amplify climate change and ensure the overall success of institutions and students. Governing boards may also consider establishing a committee focused on climate change or modify the work of existing governance committees such as facilities, investments, and academic affairs to reflect this imperative.
- Partner with Faculty, Staff, Students, and Communities. Governing boards can create opportunities and space for collaboration with faculty, staff, students, and communities on institutional climate action planning and implementation. Boards can ensure they include faculty, staff, students, and key community stakeholders in data-informed, collaborative, and inclusive conversations about climate innovation and strategy. They can also ensure that campuses are equipped with the technology needed to implement and experiment with new solutions. Through collaborative partnerships, boards can foster a culture of innovation that is responsive to changing climate impacts.
- Support Faculty, Staff, Students, and Communities. By listening to and engaging with faculty, staff, students, and communities, governing boards can advance policies and practices that create supportive conditions across the institution. Boards can collaborate with faculty to ensure that the educational content and quality of their institution remains relevant in the context of a changing climate. They must support faculty and staff in preparing all graduates with the skills they need to lead their fields and engage in communities seeking to build a sustainable and resilient future.
Boards can also engage with students to better understand how climate change might affect student success and well-being, including factors such as enrollment, retention, graduation, and career placement. Through robust risk management practices, boards can ensure that campuses are safe spaces that protect both the mental and physical well-being of students.
Finally, across their strategic climate priorities, boards can ensure that they are maintaining strong relationships with community stakeholders and uplifting the voices of the communities most affected by climate change. Elevating the integrity of the evidence-based climate research, governing boards play an essential role in modeling nonpartisan, fact-based dialogue and leadership.
- Provide Resources for Climate Action. Governing boards can secure resources, including from state, federal, and philanthropic sources, to support institutional climate action. Boards must first have a strong understanding of the resources that will be needed to support institutions in the context of climate change. They must also work to gain an understanding of how an institution’s business and finance models will be affected by a changing climate, and work to implement solutions that will meet consumer and regional needs. Institutionally related foundations can also ensure that their strategies align with climate priorities of the institutions.
- Hold College Presidents and Chancellors Accountable. Leadership is crucial to ensuring an institution’s long-term sustainability in the face of climate change. Therefore, one of the greatest opportunities that a board has is prioritizing the selection of a president who understands the complexities of climate change and is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative solutions. Boards can include expectations in presidential contracts related to climate change and review progress on climate action plans as part of scheduled performance reviews.
At this moment of societal transition, governing boards can and must work to support colleges and universities in taking comprehensive and systemic action to build the capacity of people to lead a climate-safe, just, and vibrant future. To harness this moment, governing boards must collaborate with students, faculty, staff, and administrators, in addition to local, state, and federal policymakers, and community-based partners. Higher education, with governing boards at the helm, can do its part to mitigate its carbon pollution, adapt to the consequences of climate change, and leverage the unique strengths of its diverse students, faculty, institutions, and systems to help protect those suffering the greatest harm, solve our biggest environmental challenges, and build a more sustainable society.
Carrie Besnette Hauser, PhD, is president emerita of Colorado Mountain College and incoming chief executive officer of Trust for Public Land.
José Luis Cruz Rivera, PhD, is the president of Northern Arizona University.
Jay Perman, MD, is the chancellor of the University System of Maryland.
Editor’s Note: The authors would like to acknowledge and thank Michelle Faggert at the Aspen Institute for her assistance with this article.
1. Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control, “Historical Wildfire Information,” n.d., https://dfpc.colorado.gov/sections/wildfire-information-center/historical-wildfire-information#:~:text=Home,East%20Troublesome.
2. “CMC Fire Academy Students Training with Live Fire at Dotsero Training Facility,” September 17, 2020, https://coloradomtn.edu/cmc-news/cmc-fire-academy-students-training-with-live-fire-at-dotsero-training-facility/.
3. “Dotsero Facility Provides Live Fire Training for Students: Students from Colorado Mountain College Will Have Sporadic Live Fire Training Through Dec. 11,” Vail Daily, September 17, 2020, https://www.vaildaily.com/news/dotsero-facility-provides-live-fire-training-for-students/.
4. University of Pittsburgh, “Marginalized Neighborhoods Recover Slowly from Disasters. This Pitt Professor Wants to Help,” November 30, 2023.
5. Jess Cornaggia, Kimberly Cornaggia, and Han Xia, “Natural Disasters, Financial Shocks, and Human Capital,” May 23, 2024, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4110140.
6. Emily A. Gallagher, Stephen B. Billings, and Lowell R. Ricketts, “Human Capital Investment after the Storm,” The Review of Financial Studies, 36, no. 7 (July 2023): 2651–2684, https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhad003.
7. Nancy Cantor, Peter Englot, Peter, and Marilyn Higgins, “Making the Work of Anchor Institutions Stick: Building Coalitions and Collective Expertise,” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 17, no. 3 (2013): 17, https://communityengagement.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Making-the-Work-of-Anchor-Institutions-Stick-Building-Coalitions-and-Collective-Expertise.pdf.
8. Robert Pollin, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Shouvik Chakraborty, Gregor Semieniuk, and Chirag Lala, “Employment Impacts of New U.S. Clean Energy, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure Laws,” (Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2023), https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/9-million-good-jobs-from-climate-action-the-inflation-reduction-act/.
9. Melissa Ezarik, “Sustainability Actions Students Take and Want Their Colleges to Take” Inside Higher Ed, (January 2, 2023), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2023/01/02/sustainability-actions-students-take-and-want-their-colleges.
10. Northern Arizona University, “Arizona Climate Resilience Corps—AmeriCorps,” n.d., https://in.nau.edu/center-for-service-and-volunteerism/volunteer/.
11. Northern Arizona University, “Climate Science and Solutions, Master of Science,” n.d., https://nau.edu/ses/climate-science-and-solutions-master-of-science-catalog/.
12. Northern Arizona University, “Community-University Public Inquiry,” n.d., https://nau.edu/sustainable-communities/cupi/.
13. Lauren Simmons, Michelle Faggert, Laura Schifter, and Medha Iyer. “Education Uncapped: The Potential of the Education Sector in City Climate Action Planning” (The Aspen Institute: Washington, D.C., 2023), https://www.thisisplaneted.org/img/PlanetED-EducationUncapped-Screen-1.pdf.
14. The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, “Maryland Legislature Enacts Most Ambitious 2031 Emissions Reductions Target, With Special Focus on Buildings” (2022), https://ncel.net/articles/maryland-passes-the-climate-solutions-now-act/.
15. The University of Maryland School of Public Policy, “CGS releases new analysis detailing how Maryland can reach its climate goals” (2023), https://spp.umd.edu/news/cgs-releases-new-analysis-detailing-how-maryland-can-reach-its-climate-goals.
16. Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative, “Examples of Our Work,” n.d., https://esrgc.org/.
17. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies, “2022 Chesapeake Bay and Watershed Report Card” (2023), https://ian.umces.edu/publications/2022-chesapeake-bay-and-watershed-report-card/.
18. Horn Point Laboratory Ouster Hatchery, “The Broddus and Margaret Ann Jones Oyster Culture Facility Overview (Horn Point Oyster Hatchery)” (2024), https://hatchery.hpl.umces.edu/.
19. Jay A. Perman and Michele Masucci, “Commentary: We Can’t Fight Our Environmental Crisis Without More Environmental Scientists” (Maryland Matters, 2024), https://marylandmatters.org/2024/02/04/commentary-we-cant-fight-our-environmental-crisis-without-more-environmental-scientists/.
20. Holy Cross Energy, “Our Power Supply: Where Your Power Comes From” (2023), https://www.holycross.com/our-system/our-power-supply.
21. Elliott Wenzler, “Governor, Legislators Celebrate Bill Addressing Drought, but Colorado’s Biggest Water Fights Loom,” Steamboat Pilot & Today (May 31, 2024), https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/governor-legislators-celebrate-bill-addressing-drought-but-colorados-biggest-water-fights-loom/.
22. APPA, “Higher Education Institutional Physical Infrastructure Backlog/Need—APPA,” n.d., https://www.appa.org/higher-education-institutional-physicalinfrastructure-backlog-need/.
24. Second Nature, The Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments, n.d., https://secondnature.org/signatory-handbook/the-commitments/.
25. Jay Perman, “The USM and Our Sustainable Future,” (2024), https://www.usmd.edu/usm/chancellor/Chancellors_Message_February_2024.pdf.
26. “Sustainable UMD-Progress Hub,” University of Maryland, n.d., https://sustainingprogress.umd.edu/measuring-progress.
27. Colorado Mountain College, “Mountain Futures: CMC 2023–2030, CMC Strategic Plan Framework,” n.d., https://coloradomtn.edu/about-us/vision-mission-values-principles/#integrity.
28. Northern Arizona University, “Climate Action Plan,” n.d., https://in.nau.edu/green-nau/nau-climate-action-plan/.
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