Climate Action Plan Efforts Honored

January 22, 2019 - 10:27 AM

Mt. SAC has been honored with the California Community Colleges Board of Governors Excellence in Energy & Sustainability Award for Faculty and Student Initiatives.

The category recognizes faculty and staff who have excelled in developing sustainability initiatives for their colleges. Mt. SAC won the award for the process of campus engagement in the development of the Climate Action Plan (CAP), which sets standards and recommendations for moving the campus towards carbon neutrality and sustainability at every level of the institution toward the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

“It is a particular honor for Mt. SAC’s Climate Action Plan to be recognized as a faculty and student initiative as this collaborative process was truly faculty led, with student input from start to finish,” said Library faculty member Chisato Uyeki, who also is a member of the Climate Commitment Implementation Committee (CCIC).

Uyeki, CCIC Chair James Stone, a political science professor, and CCIC Member Chris Briggs, a biology professor, championed the process from the start and wrote a substantial portion of the plan.

To develop the plan, members of the campus and local community were engaged through two conferences, an Eco Charette, multiple Flex Day sessions, expert- and peer-review in-person sessions and document review, consultant contributions, meeting with Walnut City staff, and direct work with the Associated Students Environmental Senator and members of the Environmental Action Group for a Livable Earth (EAGLE) club.

Under the instruction of chemistry professor Kamran Golestaneh, also a CCIC member, students were involved in data collection for the first greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which helped establish a baseline for carbon emissions, and had continued involvement in the drafting and review of the plan and document.

To learn more about Mt. SAC’s Climate Action Plan, visit https://www.mtsac.edu/sustainability/