MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES

This guide by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) provides best practices for universities to develop and implement effective campus climate action plans. It organizes its recommendations into three pillars: people (team assembly and stakeholder engagement), policy (investment decision-making and contracting), and plan (baseline development, renewable energy strategies, and portfolio-wide implementation).

• Effective climate action plans require a multidisciplinary team with specific skill sets in building energy analysis, economic evaluation, financing, and campus policy. RMI suggests mapping these needs early and leveraging external partnerships with research institutions, utilities, and nonprofits to overcome internal funding or expertise gaps.
• To ensure plan success, universities must actively cultivate internal support by identifying stakeholders via a power and interest matrix and aligning the climate plan with their specific goals, such as improving university reputation or supplementing student education.
• There is often a skill gap in facility operations and maintenance (O&M) as campuses move toward high-performance buildings with complex automation. RMI recommends investing in specialized training or adopting remote continuous commissioning technology, which can yield energy savings between 2% and 25% with paybacks from two months to two years.
• Standardizing investment decision-making through Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is recommended over simple-payback methods. LCCA provides a more accurate financial picture by accounting for the time value of money and total project lifetime costs, which can make projects appear feasible that would otherwise be rejected.
• Contracting structures, such as Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), can improve outcomes by creating shared risk/reward frameworks. RMI suggests using performance-reward pools to incentivize contractors to exceed energy-efficiency goals after occupancy.
• Baselines for climate action plans should be projections of future emissions (business-as-usual) rather than just current snapshots. These projections must account for planned growth in student population and building area, as growth can be the primary driver of future energy consumption.
• When weighing renewable energy options, campuses should compare the cost per kWh of renewable energy credits (RECs), on-site generation, and off-site power purchase agreements (PPAs) against the cost of energy efficiency measures to identify the most cost-effective path to carbon reduction.
• A portfolio-wide approach to energy conservation measures (ECMs) is often more economically advantageous than building-by-building retrofits because it allows for faster deployment and greater accumulated savings. RMI proposes a process of 'kick starting' with low-cost, high-return measures before moving to deep retrofits.
• Climate action plans should be treated as living documents through an iterative process. By spending less time on the initial plan and establishing feedback loops from early projects, universities can avoid 'data-analysis paralysis' and refine targets based on actual performance.
• Universities can 'tunnel through the cost barrier' by reducing building loads to decrease the required capacity of central plant equipment. This can eliminate the need for expensive infrastructure expansions during campus growth or allow for smaller, cheaper equipment replacements.
• Efficiency upgrades should be timed to coincide with planned maintenance or equipment failure to leverage 'incremental costs.' By only counting the additional cost of a high-efficiency unit over a standard replacement, the calculated return on investment improves significantly.

APA

McClurg, C., Schiller, C., & Keuhn, P. (n.d.). MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/03/CampusGuide_Digital-V6.pdf

Chicago

McClurg, Chris, Craig Schiller, and Philip Keuhn. MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES. RMI, n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/03/CampusGuide_Digital-V6.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McClurg |first1=Chris |last2=Schiller |first2=Craig |last3=Keuhn |first3=Philip |title=MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES |publisher=RMI |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/03/CampusGuide_Digital-V6.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mcclurgndmapping, author = {McClurg, Chris and Schiller, Craig and Keuhn, Philip}, title = {{MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/03/CampusGuide_Digital-V6.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }